On 29th December 2006, I made some important goals for 2006. I've already modified and developed them, which is great because it's important to keep re-evaluating, so I'll be doing this once monthly.
My big goal for 2007: Escape with Courage
In 2006, I said it was Debt-free by December 2007 (excluding student loan). However, on reflection, this is a negative goal because it focuses on something I don't want, namely, debt. So, I've re-worded it to concentrate on something I do want, in the right spirit too: Financial abundance.
2007 is my year of independence
Financial abundance and all kinds of independence
Spatial independence, financial independence, personal independence. For this I need courage, so I'm doing things a courageous person would do. I'm going on my first mini-break without my parents next weekend. Scary & exciting.
I've succeeded in not buying clothing this January (not including my uniform, which I overlooked when setting goals) and am continuing to avoid spending on clothes and clutter in to February. Hurrah!
Student frugality
Being more frugal when it comes to eating out remains a challenge. However, my awareness of how much I'm spending is definitely growing and I feel more uncomfortable when spending a lot on food. I've even taken a packed lunch in this week!
KathleenBright.com
I'm working on exactly what kind of work I want to do, in addition to entrepreneurship: My thinking is that I want to raise capital via consultancy services etc before launching my business as planned upon completion on my postgraduate degree. To that end, at the end of February I implement, and in March I launch, KathleenBright.com. Exciting!
How to be vegan
I have a new challenge for February – becoming vegan. One of the things I want to be true this time next year is this: I'm a vegan healthnut. All I can do to achieve this it to act now, so I am. I'm currently vegetarian, by March I'll be vegan too. Wish me luck!
In addition, increased awareness about what I'm eating helps to keep me on the right path of a) spending reasonable amounts on food, especially when eating out and b) eating healthily. Brilliant when goals come together like that.
Beginners' steps, by a newbie vegan wannabe
- Stop eating and drinking obviously non-vegan products
Yes, lots of things have dairy and eggs in (like cakes) and it take a lot more effort to avoid those, so start with the easy things, like cheese.
- Use dairy-free & egg-free alternatives and substitutes (e.g. soya milk, tofu instead of egg).
Use the Internet to get help from a variety of helpful resources, e.g. VegFamily Magazine
- Go to restaurants that specify what's vegan – vegetarian restaurants tend to be very good at this, e.g. Food for Thought.
6 essays, 27th February
Studying & my MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion
It's still difficult, but I do want to succeed, so I'm just getting on with it. I've started actually writing my first essay too, so that's all good. My goal here is to continue as I've started: Forging ahead with dedication and conscientiousness.
Intentions for All Things Bright, 2007
- Images to distinguish particularly noteworthy or unique content
- Join three blogging networks, especially Mind Petals – the community of young entrepreneurs (seems to be offline at the moment)
- Publish excerpts from my philosophy of religion essays, with some exegesis as to why what I'm doing is important and relevant to life more generally
- Be (more) creative: Specifically, start writing poetry again and publish some of it here
- Detox! I've got lots of design changes, as well as tweaks for taglines etc. to implement by end of Feb 2007, starting 29 Jan
- Seamless integration in to my forthcoming self-employment blogfolio (a portfolio in blog format) by end of March 2007
- Continue to a) write every other day, b) reply to comments promptly (within 24 hours where possible) and c) add value to the blogging community and to the world generally via blog comments and forums
- Seek out and respond to more blog challenges
- Start guest blogging at appropriate blogs
- Review my plans every month to ensure I'm on track for my goals
On 29th December 2006, I made some important goals for 2006. I've already modified and developed them. (Update: For details, see 2007 goals reviewed, January, 4 Feb)
I'm doing really well: All Things Bright has a new focus as my Personal Entrepreneurship site. The main thing to do is implement the changes I've decided to make. As for my other blogs and my essays, I have a lot of writing to do. I love writing; just as well!
Challenges: Entrepreneurship, professional blogging & studying
- Time: Making it
- Fear: Facing it
So, how do I create more time and face my fears? I'm exploring that, check back on Tuesday/Thursday for my discoveries.
In response to Lorelle's Top 10 Blog Goals Blogging Challenge.
Posted on 28 January '07 by Kathleen Bright, under About. 5 Comments.
I'm writing about education, yet again and with good reason.
My essay deadlines are creeping closer and closer. This time procrastination will lead to failure (er, again). So, I'm tackling my tendency to procrastinate.
You too can "Say No! to Procrastino."
Studying & Entrepreneurship
My two main areas of focus at the moment: Studying and Entrepreneurship. Each has its challenges, for example, I'm working on breaking down the massive goal of 'doing Ethical Beads' in to daily tasks. Each has its rewards: Writing for All Things Bright is a reward in itself, knowing I'm helping people is brilliant and getting feedback makes me grin inanely. :)
The biggest challenges? Time and fear, which are intimately connected, especially as I tend to procrastinate out of fear, thus leaving myself less time. Doh!
Lately being cold has been enough to stop me from acting. This is actually a big problem for me, as my parents switch the heating off when they go to bed, but I tend to work better at night. Aagh! I'm tackling it by slowly adapting to working earlier (e.g. by going to bed earlier to ensure I get enough sleep), although it's cold in the mornings too – roll on Spring! Isn't that terrible though? To let being cold defeat me.
So, what I need to do is, well, just get on with it – there are no shortcuts. In the long run, getting on with it now will mean I save time anyway, so better get to it.
Essay-writing, what's to love?
Well, quite a lot really. I've chosen topics in which I'm genuinely interested. For example, virtue ethics is about working out the best way/s of living one's life, how to be a better person and becoming wise – fascinating! These are all topics I explore, out of choice, at All Things Bright. So, I'm going to synchronise the two activities (essay-writing and blogging) more and thus cut down on the amount of work and 'work'.
Resources
Update: I almost forgot to mention that in my next entry I'll be bringing you up-to-date on my goals, which will also serve to give me something to measure my success against. 27 Jan
Apparently, according to public opinion, today is the worst day of the year (reports vary as to the specific date, but the consensus is it's roughly now; plus, it's Monday today) – due to a mix of bad weather, the likelihood of having broken one's resolutions by now etc. But I'm actually pretty cheerful because I've been focusing on my goals.
If you've not been as successful as you'd like, don't let dates rule your life: You can have a fresh start whenever you like. If you have goals or resolutions, re-evaluate whether they're important to you. If they are, decide today that you're achieving them and stick to it! For some practical help, see some of my earlier entries: How to achieve your goals.
If you're on track or can see where you've improved, join me in recording your achievements. It'll re-awaken your drive to succeed and boost your confidence too. Incidentally, some people use Twitter to mention what random things they're doing at that very second, I use it to record my achievements.
I've made a lot of changes in my life recently. Some of them are good habits that were gradually developing a few months ago, but with the progress I've made I think my old self would be shocked.
Some of my recent achievements:
- I love fruit and veg! I'm actually going off chocolate and chocolate products (especially the cheaper, chalkier stuff). I eat apples as a snack. I enjoy broccoli and peppers especially, although potatoes and baked beans are still my favourite vegetables. Sometimes I opt for fruit salad instead of cakes, just because I want it. I'm vegetarian and I like it. I'm cutting down on milk and eggs too. I don't think snacks are evil though; I still enjoy cookies & ice-cream.
- I'm tidying my room. Over five bin bags of rubbish and about four massive bags of clothes to charity later, my room still looks, well, a mess. But I know that it's better than it was and I'm still working on it.
- I'm more dedicated. I always thought I was one of those people who wrote my goals down (very important, all the productivity gurus, personal development coaches and lifehackers will tell you so!). But I realised that I was occasionally writing bits and pieces on scraps of paper and never doing anything about it. Nowadays I'm doing lots of 30 day experiments, as well as reminding myself how to keep on track by reading books like Eat That Frog and people like Steve Pavlina.
- I'm getting eight hours of sleep each night. This one is taking a lot of work and I'll need to work harder to be more consistent with it, but I'm getting there.
- I'm using The Secret (also known as intention-manifestation and the Law of Attraction) with greater and greater success. For example, I intended £700 to come in to my life unexpectedly in January and beat that a week or two ago.
I'm doing more to enjoy my life too, especially keeping in touch with my friends, meeting new people and going to the cinema. Next on the list is making the time to read more (including books for study and books for pleasure) and, eventually, studying marketing in a more structured way.
All Things Bright is enabling me to get in touch with even more people. Hooray! I always love hearing from you, so do get in touch.
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How to re-think your perspective
Kathleen Bright: Not ‘I need', instead ‘I want' or, How to get things done, changing your perspective. Don't forget to focus on how much you want to do what you need to do. If you're prone to procrastination, get as much help as you can, including changing the way you think about your goals.
- David Seah: Productivity through Discomfort. Stepping outside your comfort zone is a great idea! Plus, the only way to test your limits is to keep going until you fail. This is also the only explanation or justification for the crazy amount of stuff on my to do list. :)
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Failure
Failure is okay!
- Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3). Really, failure is good. Failure is proof you tried.
- Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3). Conquering failure is difficult because of fear.
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Fear
Mind Petals: Fear Based Decisions are the Wrong Decisions.
- Yes, it's hard to face your fears, but it's worth it.
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Help
If in doubt, say thank you.
- Keep saying it.
- Watch (or read) The Secret for some inspiration, including why saying thank you helps.
- You can get 'The Secret' free if you hurry, because I think it's that great and I want you to see it.
- Tubetorial: Back Up Your Blog or Risk Losing It All. It happened to me, it could happen to you too…
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Making money with blogging is not a quick fix
In order to make money you need to have a product or service that people want to buy.
- Products can be easier because they're usually tangible.
- Content is an example of something that straddles the product/services divide.
- Yaro Starak: Can professional blogging be a sustainable business model? In order to be successful, (some) people need to love your content.
- Tom Peters: Love Thine "Enemy"! It's Good Business! Love is important in all areas of life, including business.
- Dazzlin' Donna: Becoming an authority. It's important for bloggers to participate in their niche communities. Plus, you should participate out of love for your niche.
- Pamela Slim: Create your media plan for 2007! Planning is important.
- But acting, a.k.a. execution, is even more important.
- Especially if you're prone to procrastination.
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Personal life lessons
Life gets more and more complicated each year. Well, mine has so far!
- Love is sometimes the problem, as well as the solution.
- You can get too much of a good thing, e.g. education and academia: Being a student isn't all it's cracked up to be.
- Entrepreneurship is for me!
- Escape is the best idea I've ever had – i.e. moving out of my parents' house – I just need to implement it.
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Goals
It's easier to refrain from spending than I first thought.
- How to Set Goals for the New Year. Just remember to have clearly defined goals so you can't wriggle out of them (which tends to be a problem with many New Year resolutions).
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Health
Kathleen Bright: Power of three: Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3). Health is important for everyone, including entrepreneurs.
- Mind Petals just emphasised the importance of health too.
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Happiness
Kathleen Bright: How to be happy, or Why you're sad and how to fix it. Happiness is an interesting topic.
- You are the only one who can make you happy.
- Other people and things can help or hinder, as you will it.
- Steve Pavlina: Making Decisions That Stick: "Once you reach a certain level of conscious development, you gradually de-couple your happiness from external events. You loosen your attachment to circumstances and learn to feel good regardless of what happens."
- On Philosophy: The Good Life. Some people think that the pursuit of happiness is a bad idea.
- Needless to say, I disagree.
- I find that music really helps me to change my mood and would love your suggestions for happy music.
- Making myself happy and making others happy are the two aims that define my life.
- Entrepreneurship is my tool to achieve these aims.
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Wealth & money
Steve Pavlina: Making Money Consciously. Being wealthy is not the same as being rich.
- It's hard to remember that when you're poor.
- Being frugal is an excellent way to remind oneself of the unimportance of stuff.
- Being a student helps you to be frugal because there are few other options. :)
- There are lots of useful site out there that can help you be frugal.
- Get Rich Slowly: Debt elimination is possible, even for students.
- Life Coaches Blog: Saving your money can become fun, even addictive!
- Mind Petals: If you want to be rich, make it one of your goals.
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"Energy flows where attention goes"*
John Richardson: Goals: Create The Gallery of Your Life. Don't forget to intend your goals. Visualisation is one powerful method for achieving. *From 'The Secret'.
- Steve Pavlina: Manifesting Intentions Without Resistance. Role-playing is another good way of doing that.
- Lorelle VanFossen: Blog Challenge: What Have You Learned This Year? Blogging challenges are great for writing ideas and for extra traffic. Thanks Lorelle!
Lessons from life or, Things I've learnt this year
Fear is a motivating factor in many of my actions, or rather, in many of my reasons & excuses not to act.
Action points
- Continue self-awareness of when I'm feeling fear and why.
- Change goals and actions in the face of rational fears to address valid reasons for not acting.
- Act in the face of irrational fears to diminish fear and accomplish my goals. [link: see Shyness post].
Dreams: Over-arching aims & big goals for next year
Debt-free by December 2007 (excluding student loan)
Because financial independence is something I dream about and it's the one thing that would make the most positive difference to my life.
Difficulties
- Clothes: I love shopping, especially with all those sales! I acknowledge that sale shopping is about the positive feelings in finding bargains and 'winning' against shops (especially over-priced ones). However, I don't want to spend all my money on clothing, there is much more to life! So, spend in the sales, fine, but no spending on clothes at all for the first 30 days of January.
- Eating out: Represents more to me than just food; it's socialising, spending time with friends, meeting new people, trying something new, having something familiar… I don't want to stop eating out, so I think the aim is to discover interesting and reasonably-priced places and return. For example, I liked the Mongolian Barbeque restaurant, so I should definitely go back there. In addition, there's a vegetarian restaurant I love, Food For Thought, which I've been reluctant to write about because it's already so popular that it's often over-crowded (victim of its own success) and my review would be positive, possibly making it more so!
Goals: Action points
- Save: Nurture passion for student frugality & saving
As a full-time student, I have good reason for being poor and for not splashing out. When will I next have excuse to be stingy?!
- Change attitude to money
On one level I know that money is not all-important, that wealth is something one creates, that money has merely exchange value etc. I need to gather these thoughts in to a single coherent, all-encompassing & empowering belief about money, something that inspires me to save and not spend.
- Change attitude to shopping
Buying clothes for myself means I have less money for eating out and therefore for spending money on myself and others (spending money on others because they thereby get the benefit of my company). So, eating out is more desirable all-round.
- Focus on more important things
Like my MA, my business (Ethical Beads), friends, good living (i.e. above all things meaningful living, but also happiness for others: giving/ethical/benevolent, happiness for me: pleasant/enjoyable/healthy – in doing all these at once, I achieve the ultimate end of life).
Studying & my MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion
Difficulties
- Procrastinating. Out of fear? Fear of failure? Laziness?
- It's hard!
- Essay-writing, blah
Goals: Action points
- Change attitude to writing essays, on some level I want to write essays… bring that out more.
- Just get on with it! Start earlier too.
- More self-awareness (reading & reflecting) to identify and face my fears.
Entrepreneurship & professional blogging
Difficulties
- Making time
- Facing my fears of failure & success
Goals: Action points
- Work on All Things Bright & Ethical Beads. For details, see my forthcoming entry on Sunday, New Year's Eve. Update: Review of design & content, 31 Jan
This is the third, and final, installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3), in which I discuss studying & education. See my last two entries for the first two installments, Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3) & Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3).
- Mistakes & Failure: I will fail. Good. (Entire premise of my blog, Make More Mistakes, which I'm relaunching in January 2007).
- Execute, don't deliberate. Make intuitive decisions. (Note: Intuitive does not mean impulsive).
- Money: Focus on wealth.
1. Fail
You learn by doing.
Accepting and embracing failure is a brilliant idea because if you don't fear failure you're getting out of your way. The first step to creating a brilliant product is creating a product. So, Kathleen, stop procrastinating!
I already know that I'm only procrastinating out of fear and that the best way for me to conquer my fears of doing stuff is to do it anyway. (See also, James Brausch's excellent article about how many different problems are actually the same problem: fear)
One way of tackling this fear is to learn from other people's failures. Another is make more mistakes myself (and this is the entire reason for the existence of Make More Mistakes, my blog which re-launches in January 2007).
2. Execute
Intimately linked to #1. Fail.
Whatever you want you either create it for yourself or you exchange something you have with someone who's created what you want.
3. Money
Intimately linked to #2. Execute.
I need to change beliefs about, and my attitude to, money. I never seem to have enough, even when I acquire it unexpectedly. I've tried hoarding it and that hasn't worked.
As Steve Pavlina said, "Money has no inherent value of its own, but we assign it value through social agreement. If I give you $100, you can withdraw $100 of value from society. The only reason this works is that we agree by consensus that $100 has a certain value." Making money consciously, Steve Pavlina.
In future entries, I'll be exploring different approaches to money and wealth.
Finale
This concludes my series on goal-setting. I hope you've enjoyed it and found it useful. Don't forget to let me know what you think about my thoughts on: 1. Health, 2. Studying & 3. Business.
In closing, here's a link on the importance of setting goals: How Goals Make You More Productive, Trizoko
Thanks for reading!
Posted on 17 December '06 by Kathleen Bright, under Personal. 1 Comment.
- Organisation
- Execution
- Evaluation
This is the second installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3), in which I discuss studying & education. See my last entry for the first installment, Goal-setting: Health (1 of 3).
1. Organisation: Overcoming fear
Not much to say on this one, except that I'm inclined to procrastinate out of fear.
I feel like a hypocrite suggesting to other people that they should conquer their fears, because I struggle so much with this advice myself. So I'll just point you in the direction of some who've said it better than I could.
I've been trying an experiment for the past month, which is to take on more than I'm comfortable with… The idea of doing things that are outside my comfort zone is also an anxiety-inducing exercise in facing my own demons. Coupled with my continuing search for “creative and career identityâ€, all these negative associations contribute, I think, to a failure to really live up to my potential. And what IS that potential? By overbooking myself, slowly, I am finding where my cracking points are… don't let undefined fear be your reason for saying “noâ€. Say yes instead.
Productivity through Discomfort, Dave Seah
Dude, you're procrastinating because you fear your imperfections… 1. Embrace your suckiness… use failures/imperfections as guideposts to construct the destination's route. When you embrace your suckiness, you drive yourself to do something — anything. 2. You don't need to do anything… When you replace the "I-have-to's" with the "I-choose-to's", you empower your mind to become fully assertive and open to kicking ass. Chillax.
2 Rules to Stop Procrastinating, Trizle
See also:
You can't let fear stand in your way to success. You can't become that timid person who wishes and prays for things to happen with your who isn't willing to take any action and make moves with your business.
Don't be Scared, It May Kill Ya
Fear is the great inhibitor. All of the excuses that you find for not doing work you love have solutions. You do not enact them because you are afraid: of showing up too big in the world; of failing; of appearing as an imposter; of living in poverty. There is nothing wrong with fear. Feel it, talk to it, examine it and walk with it. Then step out and let yourself show up, warts and all. It will liberate you.
The Work Manifesto, Pamela Slim
There is a price to pay for success and it is to be able to do things that ARE good but still may FEEL bad or may scare the crap out of you… Commit to throwing up your hand when you get the tug from inside and you're instantly a success.
Lessons From the Dragon's Den, Jon Symons
2. Execution: Do it now!
Philosophy conflicts, more details
Making unsubstantiated claims, or What I believe versus what I can explain rationally.
I can't remember who it was, but one brilliant philosopher felt he wasn't being true to himself in his capacity as a Philosophy lecturer because he felt compelled to say more than he knew. I worry about doing this myself. Of course, I know much less than he did, so I'm more likely to run across this problem.
I'm concerned about saying anything without providing evidence or good reasons for why I think what I do, which makes writing essays tough.
As I mentioned in my last post, studying is both helping and hindering my progress here: Helping because my reasoning skills improve as I exercise my brain, hindering because the more I think about things the more I sink in to confusion. Chris assures me that this is normal.
3. Evaluation
Actually, I can't decide whether all my self-analysis is a good thing or not. I might be over-analysing. *thinks for a bit* I think the main thing is to work through these in order. By the time I finish organising and executing I probably won't feel the need for evaluation. What do you reckon?
Looking forward
Come back on Sunday for the final installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Business (3 of 3). I'll be developing some of my thoughts about Ethical Beads too, as well as sharing my business plan and recruiting people who care about human beings & the environment.
Posted on 15 December '06 by Kathleen Bright, under Personal. 1 Comment.
In a recent post, I discussed the things I've realised I want from my life. I'll recap:
- I want my life to have meaning. I want the areas of my life to cohere in to a pattern with an overarching aim, vision or mission.
- I'm in pursuit of happiness. Currently, a big chunk of this is my being in pursuit of healthiness (mentally, physically & spirituality).
- Happiness is located in happiness for myself & happiness for others. Cue entrepreneurship (for me) and social enterprise (for others), united.
Now I just need to decide what I'm doing now to make that future happen.
Do you know what you want from your life? Or, Reflections on mine, Kathleen, 7 Dec 06
Cue this series in three parts. In Power of three: Goal-setting I explore three areas (health, studying & business) and go through some simple instructions for myself. By doing so, I make it easier to achieve my goals (meaning, happiness for myself & happiness for others) because I've broken them down in to easy-to-follow steps, which include things I like doing.
I hope these entries help you to achieve similar success with your goals too. Do write in (email or leave comments) and let me know how you get on.
Health
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Physical
- Water: The easiest, cheapest way to be healthy.
- Dancing: I love dancing. In On Religion, the secret to happiness is dance. It's an excellent way to combat "blogfat – an aversion to doing anything physical that takes us away from crafting a new post." Pam.
- Healthy-eating: Yo Sushi (review coming soon) and vegetarian cuisine, like Food For Thought seem like excellent ways to go, because yummy and healthy is the only way I ever maintain a healthy diet for any reasonable length of time. Experimenting in the kitchen is fun too.
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Emotional
- Love: It can be such a devastating heartache and yet still there are numerous poems in awe of love. Kant defined human beings as distinctly rational beings; why not as loving beings?
- Kindness: I find it amazing when that truism 'a stranger is a friend you haven't met yet' really does ring true. The kindness of strangers is so unexpected. I'm in the company of a couple of Texans (they're from Austin, which is 'the hole in the Bible-belt', can I call them Austinians?!) who are so welcoming and lovely that I can't get over it. I'd love to make people feel that way around me.
- Niceness: Being nice is one of those virtues that really is its own reward. It's closely linked to being charitable. It seems to me that being nice is about the warmness you feel in your heart when you're nice, not about boasting about it. (Reminds me of something in the Bible, New Testament, about how charity should be given in secret). With the exception of when public charity-giving raises awareness and encourages others to do it too.
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Mental: This is going to be the toughest nut to crack, definitely. Notice how the steps get increasingly vague as they progress from physical to emotional to mental, mainly because my mental anguishes at the moment revolve around:
- Philosophy conflicts: What I believe versus what I can explain rationally. Studying is both helping and hindering my progress here. (In my next entry on Studying, I'll discuss my philosophy conflicts in more depth).
- Being good: Sometimes it's so hard. Sometimes it feels like being good only results in more pain and unhappiness for everyone involved. Sometimes being bad feels good.
- Spirituality: Trying to explain how I feel about it seems like a mammoth, impossible task at the moment. It feels completely indefinable and uncategorisable.
Looking forward
Come back on Friday for the next installment of Power of three: Goal-setting: Studying (2 of 3). I'll be developing some of my thoughts on the 'Mental' side of things too.
Posted on 13 December '06 by Kathleen Bright, under Personal. 4 Comments.
New design for All Things Bright?
I'm considering changing the design for All Things Bright.
I love the current theme (especially the proliferation of pink!) and I've made some changes recently to make the design simpler and clearer.
Are the changes enough or would you like to see something new?
What do you like to read here?
What kind of content do you want from All Things Bright? What kind of topics do you expect? Should there be more about entrepreneurship? Less? What about ethics, philosophy, studying? Do you like my personal entries?
Please do let me know.
Teasers or full entries?
When you go to the homepage of All Things Bright, at the moment you see five full entries, then excerpts for the next five entries, then a linked list of the next ten entries.
This means that the homepage is really really long and may be intimidating.
Apparently, using excerpts linking to the full entries would improve my front page. But what do you think?
Posted on 11 December '06 by Kathleen Bright, under About. 3 Comments.
I've been thinking about my life recently.
Some of these thoughts emerged in my entry How to be happy, or Why you're sad and how to fix it, which explores, "why I'm sad, how to be happy and my thoughts about what I want to do in my life, where I want to go and how I want to get there".
This entry takes a step back from happiness per se, to consider the second part of that discussion more closely; considering my ideas about my life in conjunction with what it might mean to live a fulfilled life.
I've included lots of links to Steve Pavlina in case you're interested in particular ideas I've mentioned and want to pursue them. I find Steve's writing to be really clear and helpful; I hope you do too.
Firstly, I want my life to have meaning
I want the areas of my life to cohere in to a pattern with an overarching aim, vision or mission. I want my decisions to have a non-arbitrary basis. I don't want pursuing my desires to be a random mess of conflicting actions. See Living Congruently, Steve Pavlina.
Some ideas I've considered
Existentialism: Creating meaning for oneself
I was particularly enamoured with this when I was studying my undergraduate degree. Existentialism is something I will explore in future entries I'm sure. In the meantime, if you're interested, Wikipedia: Existentialism has some pointers and references for where to find out more.
Kant on free will
Immanuel Kant helped me a lot today, especially with Peter's exegesis. Read Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (book, currently £9.99 new, £5 used), because it's clear & convincing. Plus, it's something I'll explore in future entries, so if you read it now you'll be ready to discuss it when I write about it here. It's the only course book on my wishlist; aw, Peter would be so proud. :)
I now have a way of thinking about free will that neither sounds completely implausible to me (Compatibilism & Libertarianism), nor includes discomforting counter-intuitiveness (Determinism). Instead, it soothes me. (Yes, Kant, soothing!)
Secondly, I'm in pursuit of happiness
Currently, a big chunk of this is my being in pursuit of healthiness (mentally, physically & spirituality). I'm achieving this in a number of ways:
Re-evaluating my life, in particular my attitudes to studying, following less than phenomenal experiences writing the essays. (The Christmas break is coming at an excellent time, giving me some much needed time to sort myself out).
Dancing, I do love it. What really makes one happy is to dance! It's so true. Well, it's true for me, dancing certainly makes me feel great. I love watching dancing too. (In fact, if you ever see any good dancing on YouTube, please recommend it to me by tagging it with for:inspirewithhope at del.icio.us. Thanks! Oh, and do you know of any daytime dance classes in London? Let me know, cheers).
Being good. Or, rather, thinking about what it means to be good. Chris' classes have always had a profound effect on me. He's leading our Ethics seminars, therefore I'm thinking about morality.
'What is Goodness?' is connected with 'What is Reality?'
Steve's thought about subjective reality speak to me. So that, whilst I espouse a realist view (sorry, I can't think of a straightforward summary), I think, in a sense, I create (my) reality. Subjective reality is fascinating, something else I should write about!
In the meantime, definitely read Steve Pavlina on Subjective Reality, as that's what I'll be responding to: "Subjective reality is an integrated belief system where consciousness and awareness are primary. They are the container in which everything else exists. And I do mean EVERYTHING."
Yes, I realise those views (realism and subjective reality) are complete opposites, but it makes sense in my head!
Thirdly, happiness is located in happiness for myself & happiness for others
Cue entrepreneurship (for me) and social enterprise (for others), united. Brilliant. This is something I'm doing a lot of thinking about at the moment and it's going to occupy an increasingly large part of my life. Interested? See How Selfish Are You? Steve Pavlina.
Ooh, another soundbite from Steve; this one's really motivating:
Getting past a 7 [your comfort zone] is hard. It can take more effort to get past a 7 than it takes to reach a 7 in the first place. Some people would complain that it takes too long to get past a 7. But the truth is that the time is going to pass anyway. Even if it takes 5-10 years, you might as well get yourself to a higher level within that time, since the years are going to pass anyway…
You might get a bit scratched and bruised along the way. You might mess up your current relationship, your career, or your lifestyle. You won't be able to see very far in front of you because everything will be moving faster than you're used to. Sometimes you'll just have to take it one day at a time and guess at the best direction. You might even hit a wall now and then.
Bruises just come with the territory. But getting moving again is far better than remaining stuck. The wounds will heal, and I've always found an exciting new path to explore. It sure beats dying a slow death while waiting for the vultures to swoop down…
If you want to experience deep fulfillment, take lots and lots of action. Action can be physical, mental, social — even spiritual.
The only true security lies in action.
How to Get From a 7 to a 10, Steve Pavlina
So, what difference does all this thinking make? Looking to the future…
So, next steps?
I had a lot of brilliant ideas today about things I want to do in the future. Now I just need to decide what I'm doing now to make that future happen.
Over the Christmas holidays, I'll be studying and working on my main business idea. I'll be meeting up with my study buddies (uniting business & pleasure is an excellent way to be motivated) and, of course, doing some more thinking. Stay tuned to All Things Bright for more every-other-day updates and let me know what you think, because I love hearing from my readers.
Notes: Especially for new visitors
Chris, Peter & Rosa (photo, Flickr) are my tutors for the MA Ethics & Philosophy of Religion postgraduate degree I'm reading.
Steve Pavlina, Personal Development for Smart People, is one of my favourite self-publishing authors.
The day before yesterday I wrote: My year of intrapreneurship: Enabling a better class of entrepreneurship. Following on from that post, I've been exploring the skills & habits I need to cultivate now to make me a better entrepreneur, plus why & how.
I hope you find this study insightful and useful. Do let me know your thoughts. Any skills I've missed?
Skills to cultivate:
- Student frugality
- Self-motivation
- Inner strength
Student frugality
Why?
- I'll still be poor when I finish studying and start entrepreneurship full-time.
- I need to raise capital and the best way to save money is not to spend it in the first place.
- Money-management is an excellent life skill to have and will prevent me frittering away my millions when I make them.
How?
Hmm, good question. I tend to scrimp and then blow it all, usually in an emotionally-motivated shopping spree. So, cultivating better mental health would help enormously.
I'm subscribed to some excellent money blogs too, so I should definitely take their advice instead of just reading. See Get Rich Slowly & Art of Money for some tips.
Self-motivation
Why?
At the end of the day, you only have yourself and I only have myself. Sure, we both have lots of friends and colleagues who provide support and advice, but only you will put the wheels in motion.
Being a self-starter means you can conquer whatever obstacles stand in your way when things are tough. It means procrastination becomes a thing of the past. It means you turn in to Action Wo/Man.
How?
Sometimes I bully myself in to it. When that doesn't work, I try going over the reasons why whatever I need to do is a good idea and reminding myself that ultimately I'm choosing to do it.
Really, the only way to do it, is just to do it.
Inner strength
Why?
It's related to my earlier point about the necessity for better mental health. When you're a strong person, you become more resilient; it's much harder for other people and things to hold you back. See Don't Take It Personally! by Elayne Savage for more about resilience.
How?
I'm starting to see a link between mental health and physical health. I know that when I go walking or dancing I feel more alive and there are scientific studies floating around that support what people keep saying: Exercise is good for you and makes you feel better.
I could really do with some help on any and all of these. Please do let me know your suggestions: Just leave a comment or email me. Thanks!
On Monday, studying began in earnest. I saw my tutor, armed myself with a comprehensive booklist (well, a jolly good start anyway) and headed off to the library.
Books, to borrow or buy – coming soon
I'm going to start my own online library & book sale, incidentally. Partly because I've just acquired (more) free books and partly because I'm in charge of organising a book sale for my department. So, I thought I'd add another dimension in the form of some online marketing at All Things Bright. Hurrah!
If you have any books to lend or sell, please do let me know, as I'm always at least cursorily interested. Just leave a comment or send me an email. Thanks in advance!
Interest topics
This list is to give you an idea of my main interests, but please don't let it restrict you if you have books in other subject areas.
- Philsophy of Religion
- Feminism
- Ethics
- Marketing
- Blogging / WordPress
Posted on 28 October '06 by Kathleen Bright, under Education. No Comments.
This week just gone I've let down five people, as well as myself. I'm atoning and making amends next week. Have made it up to two people so far, with concrete plans for two more, so I'm getting there.
The reason? Poor time management. It's just hard to go from working at home on my own projects to full-time studying, at the same time as my social calendar has become awfully busy. Especially when I have new people with whom to interact.
Anyway, it's okay, I just need to step up to the challenge.
Next week
- Presentation: Iris Murdoch, GE Moore & some complicated stuff on the Naturalistic Fallacy, which is neither naturalistic nor a fallacy
- Women's Health & Feminism: Research of HPV, the vaccine & public reactions to it
- Finances: Three different banks & their managers to see
- Essays: Start planning!
- Add in some personal arrangements and that's a pretty busy week. Bring it on!
Posted on 8 October '06 by Kathleen Bright, under General. 2 Comments.
Networking, by which I mean, socialising with new people
I've been doing a lot of, uh, networking recently. (Does it count as networking if you have fun and meet interesting people in unstructured environments? Of course!) It's really quite excellent. Mostly facilitated by going to university and the power of the interweb. (Facebook is like a mashup of the two of these).
Benefits of being a student, cool stuff for free
Today, I also discovered an entrepreneurship programme, free for all King's students:
Be inspired! is a student enterprise training programme co-ordinated by KCL Enterprises.
Result!
Remembering I'm at uni to work hard, of course
In amongst all these fabulous opportunities, I need to fit in studying too, of course. Much to my chagrin, one of my lecturers asked me about some reading (in advance of the due date I hasten to add) and I hadn't done it yet. Woe, woe is me – am supposed to be impressing my tutors with my organised efficiency, not having them curse at me (literally) because I'm failing to live up to their (high!) expectations.
Sigh.
Unfortunately, all the time management skills in the world couldn't create more space for everything I've got on at the moment, what with some personal stuff too.
Achievements, stuff I've done what I'm proud of, innit?
Still, I am relatively proud of my achievements so far. For example, the study forum I implemented will come in handy (eventually) and, in the meantime, all the updating of All Things Bright has impressed one of my fellow uni mates at least. (It's nice to get some recognition). Plus, when I am an online celebrity, will be great to be able to say things like – 'I'm so committed to blogging & to the Internet generally that I updated my site every other day for the past five years, even when I was in full-time education and had 15 000 words to write for my insightful, ground-breaking dissertation.
Business, they call it that because it's all about being busy
The next thing to focus on (after that reading!) is my business, EthicalBeads.com; it's not going to grow itself, after all. Anyway, I have that covered, as I'll be attending those training sessions by KCL Enterprises.
I'm moving up in the world as we speak.