Motivational Monday: Reflections on Lessons from 2014

Hey lovelies

Hope you’ve had a fantastic start to the year.

I had a bit of a lazy start, and decided to take it easy over the last few weeks and just relax with friends and family. But I’m now rearing to go and to can’t wait for everything this year is going to bring.

I just have a really good feeling that it’s going to be an amazing year J

Saying that, as I continue to plan for 2015, I find myself reflecting on the lessons I learned in 2014 and thinking about the quote: “You can't know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been” which is also a variant of the quote “Those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it”.

To be honest 2014 was a bit of a mixed bag for me with a few big wins and a number of disappointments, but on a whole it was a year that taught me a few things about how I want to move forward for this year.

1) 

To start doing things to make my own dreams come true as opposed to working on someone else’s dream. This was a tough lesson to learn as I'm someone who likes to give and help but time and time again I found out that I was being used by people to fulfil their own dreams whilst I was left standing on the sidelines. This year is about me moving forward on all the amazing things I would like to do with focus and discipline. It’s was a painful lesson to learn but one that has helped to shape my mindset for this year.

Motivational Monday: You need to have a clear definition of who you are

Talking to a couple of friends recently, I came to the realisation that many times especially as women, we allow ourselves to be defined either by our circumstances or as others define us. For example as a friend, sister, girlfriend, wife, mother etc. or by our jobs and whether or not we have achieved certain things in life.

I had coffee with a friend the other day, and this friend is an amazing woman who I admire both for her heart, tenacity and just for who she is. She is in her late 30’s and isn’t married or dating anyone, and was having a hard time because she would like to be in a relationship and also because her parents had expressed their extreme disappointment about her not being married

They felt that the fact she wasn’t married was her fault and was bringing a form of (these were their words) “disgrace and shame to their whole family” I sat with this amazing friend of mine and tried to encourage her as she asked me if there was something wrong with her. No there was nothing wrong with her, yes she wasn’t in a relationship but that doesn’t define her, make her less of a person, bring shame on her family or stop her enjoying her life in her current season.

Monday Thoughts for the Week: You are more beautiful than you think you are or allow yourself to feel or see

 Hey everyone, I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

I came across this amazing video over the weekend and it (a) had me in tears and (b) helped me realise a deep truth, which I will come onto in a little bit.

I found the video to be so completely human and fragile, where women were asked to describe their features and a complete stranger was also asked to describe the same woman’s features. An artist then drew sketches based on both descriptions. There was such a vast difference between the actual persons description of themselves, which was ultimately quite harsh and critical versus the objective viewpoint of a strangers.