“The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding.”
Last month I started a blog.
Then I got burn out.
After taking the leap of faith to put myself out there, to share my thoughts and opinions on the world, with the world, my brain then went into total overdrive.
I was stressing myself out so much trying to articulate my recent travels and think about how I wanted to share those experiences in a way that was honest and authentic, as well as interesting and entertaining.
I couldn’t stop myself contemplating how I can/will grow my travel blog, photography and storytelling into a full-blown career, overnight.
Ultimately, totally overwhelming myself trying to plan for ‘what next’ and why haven’t I already done it all, like, yesterday.
And yet, my whole theme (and personality trait at this point) is that I don’t have a plan.
That is literally how I ended up here – living on the other side of the world, on my own, leaving behind my legal career, my home, my family and starting a whole new chapter of life… I didn’t plan for any of it. And so far, everything seems to have worked out.
Ok, yes, it did involve some ups and downs, like getting a divorce and loosing the majority of my sanity for the most part of last year, but, yano… every cloud and all…
So why have I been so scared to start?!
Well, I’m human.
And secondly, I’m delusional enough to believe that I can do anything I want. Which I can. Once I stop procrastinating!
You see, being delusional has its downfalls. Not because what us Delulu’s want to do, be or have is completely unrealistic. But because sometimes we dream so big that we don’t know where to begin.
*Delulu’s = an established community of delusional people.
This is just another reminder that putting too much pressure on planning for the next step inevitably just pauses the enjoyment of the present moment.
Everyone says, “you just have to start”.
But starting from zero is scary. Especially when you want to do well at something. After all, why would you start something that you weren’t wanting to succeed in.
I recently watched an episode of Chris Williamson’s popular Modern Wisdom Podcast, where he quoted: “The magic you’re looking for is in the work you’re avoiding.” Heavily inspired by Joseph Campbell’s famous sentiment: “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.”
By caring so much about whether what I have to say captures my experience in a clever, creative and cool way, that would be interesting enough for a total stranger to give up 5-10 minutes of their day to read whatever nonsense I have to say, I’ve ended up saying nothing at all, and gaining no satisfaction.
The truth is, the fun in writing and taking photos, for me personally, is simply just this – me sharing my thoughts and perspective. And so, perhaps calling this a ‘travel blog’ is/was too restrictive. Because sometimes the destination I arrive at is just a thought, rather than a perfectly presented place.
So, this September, I’ve decided to strip back some of that pressure. This is (for now at least) just a blog. And I am just a girl. I may travel. I may not. But I am going to keep taking a step forward each week, however small.
Becuase at the end of the day, no one else is going to create my dream life for me. And i’m not forcing anyone to read my blogs. In fact, i’d be amazed if anyone’s made it this far. If you have, hi, and I hope you’ve taken away some thing valuable or, at the very least, some comfort knowing that it’s totally normal to not know what the hell your doing next.
I said I was going to go ‘all in’ in August with this blog.
And well, I started. Which actully, i’m still chuffed with myself for doing.
Yes, I had a minute where I stopped.
But, September is where we pick back up that speed.
LuLu Land 