Been thinking about what I want to do for this year, as my massive book project is reaching the finish line.
(Nothing like a finishing project to make you think and give you an existential crisis.)
Apart from the “who are you?” and the “what are you going to do with your life?” questions, I’ve also been unable to figure my way through the uncertainty of future plans — Jarrod and I don’t intend to stay in Singapore, which added a new question of “what do I do when we might leave a year from now?”
Then this afternoon, on a slow day when Jarrod and I had time and space to talk, and I had a really long shower to think, a better question came up.
“What skill do I want to learn this year?”
Our conversation reminded me of a podcast video snippet, by Diary of a CEO, with a… she’s on Shark Tank. Barbara something… anyway–
She said that she learned something with every job she had. She learned skills, found out what she’s good at, and that’s a big part of why she’s successful today.
So instead of looking at my life just in the space of one year, a sorta before versus after marriage, I need to look at life a lot further.
What would I want to learn, as a skill?
Quietly, in the shower, the answers were this:
“Discipline. Routine. Structure. (jarrod’s gonna laugh. hi love)
Looking good on the outside. Carrying myself well. Having my outside match my inside, so: Style. Body language. Speech and presentation.
Social media, creating content, writing, videos.”
And the separate plans I had started coming together.
26 Letters should exist because I still want to create content. Bite-Sized Real Estate because that’s the headfake — I’m talking about property, but really I’m training myself to have the structure and routine to create posts, work on my style and presentation, while improving my ability to write and create videos.
How that will help me in the future is Divinity’s plan, not mine.
But this helps me feed myself in the shorter term. Because 26 Letters is still my base for ghostwriting as a service, and I’m still a property agent, which Bite-Sized Real Estate supports. I get to have a place to consolidate my real estate knowledge, I get a kick out of learning and writing and presenting, and it’s a way to advertise that works with who I am and what I do best.
(The plan’s being formed as I write, which is the reason why I write on this blog in the first place.)
Oh, one more thing I need to remind myself about.
Choose opportunity, instead of fear.
Every time I make a decision out of fear, I end up regretting it. Last night I had another lesson/reminder.
I had the chance to sign up for a class, and I talked myself out of it.
“It’s lesson three out of four,” my mind said, “and you’re not going to be able to keep up. It’s a level three class, and you just finished level two, so you will definitely be lost if you jump in now. Plus, you’re a follower, and there are already too many followers as compared to leaders.”
So I decided to sit outside, and watch.
Turns out, the class was a standalone lesson, and I would have been able to learn and understand it. I wouldn’t have been out of place, because there were actually too many leaders.
I missed the experience. (It’s a dance class, so you can’t just watch and listen and expect to fully understand.)
I could have joined the class, and been more than alright.
I’m grateful that I did sign up for the Novice Jack-n-Jill experience that happened after. (It’s an event in West Coast Swing, where you dance to a random song with a random partner, chosen on the spot. Spontaneous organised chaos. Fun.)
So instead of fear, look at the opportunities, and…
Choose what excites you.
This might be an Enneagram type 7 thing. This might be a universal law. (I heard someone talk about it, Law of Attraction-style.) But it’s something that will keep me going.
If I don’t choose fear, then let me choose excitement. To do things that light me up. To do things that might be slightly scary, but they bring me out of my comfort zone, and I learn to do things better.
I still don’t like that phrase “how you do one thing, is how you do everything”, but I’m starting to see it’s how we handle disappointment, stress, things not going and going our way, and how we handle success and wins and things to celebrate.
So I might not be excited about selling real estate. But I am excited to learn about it. I still like making websites and doing videos. And I still love writing.
That’s enough of a golden thread to light up my way for now.
💖🌧️
Image of tall grass turned golden in
the sunlight by Gosia K. from Pixabay.
