So I began thinking of my post from 2018, No New Friends. If you know me in real life, even the title is ironic. When I wrote the post, I was tired of fake friends, shallow friendships, and putting energy into new friends or people of interest, that would flake or ghost, or just be disingenuous. . . . Read More
Tag Archives: Challenges
My Life without Facebook
Why did I give up Facebook? It started out as a 20 day fast. My church was participating in a fast, where you give up something and use that time to focus more on your spiritual growth. Jan 11th, 2018 I had to decide what I wanted to give up. Pretty easily, I recognized that I spend wayyyy too much time scrolling through Facebook feeds. It was the beginning of the year, and I was over it all. I was over the political rants, the constant anxiousness of the next racial event that was happening, and all the digital expectations. So, without too much preparation I turned off off my notifications and left a message that “Facebook and I are on a break.”
That was over 8 months ago. . . . Read More
Fear of Missing Out
FOMO, or the Fear of Missing Out, is a real thing. It is the social anxiety of feeling that you are missing out on something because you are absent. In the age of smartphones and as much technology as we have, I think this is becoming more of a social problem than we let on. There are lots of interesting psychological articles written on the topic, which itself is not new, but social media, definitely enhances this fear. If you are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, SnapChat, YikYak, Messenger, and even Pinterest, you may want to keep reading. . . Read More
No New Friends
Happy New Year and welcome to 2018! Prepare for a paradigm shift, as you probably haven’t heard this before when we talk about resolutions. I’m going to talk about the concept of #NoNewFriends.
As we start a new year, there will be many new year’s resolutions. You know the typical ones: work out more, get places early, try new things, blah, blah, blah. We are always in search of something more to acquire, do, or be. But what if what you had was enough? Instead of looking for new friends, what if you dedicated your time to the existing friends who love and cherish you? . . . Read More
The Semicolon Movement
I don’t remember where I was or what I was doing, but I glanced over at someone’s wrist a couple years ago and I saw a tattoo of a semicolon. As a writer, I have always loved the semicolon. It allowed for more dramatic pauses or showing incomplete thoughts in characters as they wrestled with what to do. But to permanently mark your body with a punctuation mark? That’s serious! I never saw that person again, and even if I had the chance, I wouldn’t have asked them about their form of expression on their body. So I did what any curious person does after they see something interesting: I googled it. And it was here that I learned about Project Semicolon . . . Read More
Adaptability
We can’t talk about stretching outside your comfort zone without mentioning adaptability. Just as a person might bundle up when moving from California to Alaska, outside influences require you to make some internal changes. An easy example is generational gaps in the work force. Even though texting has become a perfectly acceptable way to communicate in this day and age, it is not always appropriate. If I text my coworker that is on board with communicating that way, that is great. If I text a coworker that is not a fan of texting, I’m silently demanding that they use my mode of communication. . . . Read More
Think Differently
Sure, jumping out of one’s fishbowl sounds easy enough for an extravert, you may be thinking, but what about an introvert? What if something as simple as going to a new class is completely out of your comfort zone? Be true to who you are. Your fishbowl is going to look a lot different than my fishbowl or your best friend’s fishbowl. It’s not about the level of craziness; it’s about the stretch. If you aren’t stretching, than things will very well stay the same. And sometimes there’s nothing wrong with that, but if you want more, than you need to do something different. Forcing yourself to be slightly uncomfortable is a complete paradigm shift . . . Read More
Try Something New – Ziplining
I am afraid of heights. Well, tangible heights. If I think I actually have a chance of falling, then it bothers me. Airplanes? The odds are pretty slim so I have no problem flying! Weird? Sure, but aren’t all fears irrational?
So, the opportunity to go ziplining presented itself and I thought, what a great way to have fun with friends and try something new. . . Read More
Phenomenal Life-Changing Post
The problem with change is that we want dramatic [unrealistic] results. We want to go to the gym on Monday and be 3 sizes down by Friday, or at least in 2 weeks before the beach trip. It is painful to work hard and not see a noticeable change in a matter of weeks or months. Then we become demotivated and give up, never realizing our full potential. Secondly, we don’t really want to change. We say we want to change, but we haven’t actually changed anything. . . Read More