Tag Archives: enlightenment

Step Back: An Ode to the Small Things.

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Image via Miss Moss

Image via Miss Moss

Now I don’t usually listen to morning radio. Firstly because I refuse to deal with the reality of the current traffic status, and secondly, as much as I love Taylor Swift, she’s definitely going “out of style” at the rate of three songs per half hour.

But one specific, chilly morning the good old talk show hosts on the FM spectrum taught me something that changed my world with one question: they asked the entire, invisible cohort of listeners what was their ‘NOW’.

Like what was happening right now – urging people to share their current journey, goal, project, opening, closing, launch or completion of something…anything.

It was an enlightened morning commute because it really got me thinking how totally stuck in our mini worlds we can be, and how neglectful we are, of the cheeky achievements we make on a daily basis.

This ‘small thing’ goodness is a theme I’ve been toying with on Incogo.com (Check out my journeys !) and ties in pretty perfectly with the whole foundational perspective of the positive, mindset fraternity: be present.

Sure, recognise you’re playing a big game with big boys, but don’t forget to actually stop and give yourself a gold star for the small goals reached.

Realistically, these things you pie off as unimportant could be major achievements in the eyes of someone else, and you’re doing yourself a disservice by regarding it as anything less. ‘Treat yo-self’.

Believe me I’m guilty of disregard constantly. It’s only when I’m chatting to a long lost friend about recent movements that I actually reflect on the last week in my diary and head, and realize that hey, finishing that essay was the best feeling ever, perfecting quinoa was a huge deal and I didn’t go on Facebook for a whole two hours straight yesterday! These are just basic examples, but going a little deeper, there is so much opportunity for us to turn up the pride.

Think of planning events, working in a team, writing your first blog post, helping someone spell ‘professional’ (seriously, is it one or two ‘f’s?), winning a competition, eating clean for the whole week, getting up earlier, having one less coffee a day, not swearing as much, remembering to feed the dog, telling Mum you appreciate the Roast she made last night or making someone laugh.

It’s all so damn good! Can you remember that please?

These are the little things, but they are all we’ve got. Let’s love them a little.

That may or may not have been a pun, but you get the picture.

Stop being so damn egotistical and thinking you need to do something major, get 367 likes on your Instagram post, win a medal, or be recognized a guest on Jimmy Fallon to feel accomplished.

Sure those would be nice (and don’t for a second, stop setting the most outrageous goals!), but don’t forget that before the Jimmy action, is the recognition and gratification of mini achievements. If you’re not grateful for that, there’s no way you’ll be motivated to work even harder.

It always has, and always will be, just you. And if no one else cares, make sure at least you do.

Here’s to the small things.

Love, S.

Just roll with it.

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There’s something about leading a hectic lifestyle that makes a person effective, and I once heard that “if you want something done, give it to a busy person’. As we speak, my schedule is full to the brim with 3 jobs, … Continue reading →

Thank-you x 1,000

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http://www.sycamorestreetpress.com

“Thank-you a thousand times.”
Image by Sycamore Street Press.

Man I wish I was French, I think I would just talk to myself so I could hear these beautifully sexy and divine words.

But there’s something even more important about this delicious set of syllables, and I would like to propose it to you as a dare, a “double-dog-dare” if you like!

Here its, *drumroll please* I hereby, dare you to say thank-you a thousand times.

Reckon you could do it in a day, a week, a month, a year, even a lifetime?

More importantly, could you actually find a thousand things to say thank-you for? I started a little list myself and spotted at least 20 before I stepped out of my bedroom (bed, pillow, T.V, Barbie dream house, the list goes on).

It’s funny, when you’re faced with the said challenge, you actually do find SO many things to say thank-you for (can I get an amen for sliced bread??).

So go on sparky, say thanks for this, for that, for anything really!

And tell me, what did you find to be thankful for first?

A “strawberry” kind of story.

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Sunny Ridge Strawberry Farm, Main Ridge, Victoria

I recently ventured with my sisters on a “sister date” to a local Strawberry Farm. The whole experience turned out to be a lot more (wait for it) fruitful, than I would have ever thought.

You see, as I was making my way through the rows, upon rows of juicy, juicy, ruby red strawbs, I came across some not so juicy, not so red, somewhat demented fruity friends (did I just refer to strawberries as friends, I have officially lost it).

Then I got to thinking.

Imagine if one of the greenly-tinged strawberries had eyes (they have eyes now too? Oh gawd.), and looked over it’s more-ripened friend, and was just so sad that he was still pale. So sad in fact, that he started to hide from the sun under the leaves, trying to avoid being seen. The poor strawberry (in my head), has no idea that if he just stays out in the sun for that much longer, he will very soon be just as, if nor more scarlet red, than his neighbour!

Secondly, among the super red ones which I did come across – and wow were there so many – delicious too If I might add – many were not the typical, genetically-modified-to-perfection strawberry shape.

Oh no, there were some which looked like they had been hit by train, rolled twice, side-swiped by a semi, then poked by King Kong. They were certainly not “perfect” by any standards. But they were still, so, Yum! Like delicious in fact, sometimes even sweeter than the larger, pointed ones, as their flavor was concentrated into a retarded octagon figure.

I wonder if from these mutant strawberries’ perspective, they were bad, imperfect or unworthy. Poor things, little do they know they are more delicious than their “perfect” brothers.

It’s a sad thought, and a bit creepy to be thinking so deeply about strawberries, but hey, there is always a moral to the story, and in this case, a Dr. Seuss-ical lesson to be learnt.

(I apologise in advance for being so whimsical, I blame Miss. Mocrieff, YOU encouraged this!). 

So here it is, Fun Fact #256: You are delicious! Yes, delicious, just like a demented strawberry who isn’t quite ripe enough yet. If your not delicious now you will be, just wait and see. Just stay out in the sun, I promise you’ll be red and juicy soon!

Stay delicious. 

 P.S I am so sorry, but I couldn’t resist including this vid. Nikki’s PR are geniuses for me reminisce this song whenever I think of strawberries!

When dreams you didn’t even know you had, come true.

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Image

The world is continuing to inspire me with every passing day, and I’m noticing that even though I need at least 3 lifetimes to effectively execute my current bucket-list, and no mater how hard I try to practice some crazy, wild child ambitious dreaming, it seems that there will be some morsels of gold thrown my way, materializing fantasies I haven’t even ‘dreamt’, conjured, tasted, or felt yet.

It is precisely at this point, (when I see paddle-boards on someone’s car roof), that I not only realize that I now want to paddle-board along the entire bay, but also, that my bucket list will never be complete.

I will always need another leaf of paper as soon as all the dotted lines are filled, and a trip to the newsagent, once I have exasperated every option on my 4-pen.

Surely, as soon as I tick off hiking to Base Camp, the Everest trek will supersede my next day-off hike, and just when I think I have seen every crevice of Barcelona, I will acknowledge that Granada is only a short train ride south, with an inevitable backyard of even more spectacular things for me to touch, explore and appreciate.

From that location and perspective, I just know that another place, idea, experience, ride, walk, talk or book will come flying my way and a whole new world will open before me, for the thousandth time.

What I’m learning today, tomorrow, next week, and now, is that this world is fast, so fast that if you blink you might just miss it, the way that you might miss the Town Centre of Yackandandah, if you look down at your volume dial in an attempt to turn the radio up whilst driving. (Shout out to my fave, and only Yack-er, Harry Quealy).

We never really know where the de-tour is actually going to take us, or if we might just find the next big thing on Bean Hunter if we go left instead of right.

The implications and consequences of every thought, word, action, chance encounter, and brief meeting is something we will never truly grasp.

But that’s the beauty of it right? Making rules in order to break them, and setting plans so you can bail last minute for something better, greater, funner?

So keep dreaming, little dreamer, as Cinderella says, a dream is a wish your heart makes. Corny I know, but everyone loves a little Disney flashback (or maybe that’s just me…awks).