Listen To Hear, Not To Respond

I am always creating.

In my head mostly – often physically with my hands too. Frequently, I want to write a blog post (plus stories and poems) but tell myself that I don’t know what to write about. That’s a lie. If anything, I have too many things to write about but either fear, laziness or an amalgamation of both stops me.

I would worry about whether you (the reader) would understand where I am coming from or judge me. However, that shouldn’t be my concern (especially as most of what I write is for myself and has never been read by anyone). Irrespective of what I say or do, people will judge me anyway. It’s human nature. Everyone does it, albeit intentionally or not, so I may as well be my authentic self in the process.

For years I have upheld the belief that there is so much wisdom to be garnered from discussions with others – I mean reciprocal dialogues accompanied by active listening as opposed to the egocentric soliloquies people have become prone to.

I had one of these conversations with a friend of mine yesterday evening. Under fluorescent lighting with drinks in hand, speaking to [and more importantly listening to] AskLychee taught me more in 3 hours than I have learned in the past 3 months. She reminds me of the quote ‘faith is the evidence of things hoped for but not seen’. The conversation left me feeling impressed, optimistic and generally extra cheery.

With the ebullience of last night spilling over into today, I thought it fair to share 10 things I learnt/was reminded of as a result of our conversation:

1. Be your biggest fan – if you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to?

2. ‘Luck’ is what happens when preparation meets opportunity so get to work and keep your eyes and ears open

3. Determine what is important to you (more often than not, you already know, you just ignore it), and your life decisions should reflect this

4. Stop doing pointless things that are immaterial, a waste of time and will not bring you closer to your goals

5. Consistent action creates consistent results; give up, giving up.

6. “An honest enemy is always better than a friend who lies.” Frenamies are dead weight. You can love them from afar.

7. When in doubt, simply take the next small step and repeat

8. Don’t compare yourself to others, we are all fighting our own battles, some more secretly than others.

9. Writers write. If you’d like to be a writer, then write (refer back to point 5)

10. You are in charge of your own happiness. No one else. Just you.

Happy National Poetry Day!