Today I decided I needed to disconnect. Recently, I’ve been going a million miles a minute. Since I hurt my Achilles tendon and haven’t been running I’ve been constantly connected. Other than when I’ve been asleep I haven’t been away from the internet. Even on my walk home from work, even in line at the grocery store, I’ve been on facebook, on twitter, on tumblr, I’ve just felt this need to be connected. As if I would miss something cataclysmic if I just took a few minutes for me. Well, today I did just that. I got home from work, poured myself a glass of wine, and commit to hanging out with just me and my notebook (my paper notebook) for an hour. {In the interest of full disclosure, I only lasted 54 minutes.}
The first few minutes were very uncomfortable. “What am I doing?” I thought, “there is so much stuff going on that I am missing!”. But after a few minutes, I calmed down. Then, something magical happened. Within ten minutes, I had come up with my own motivational quote. I started a bucket list. I spent some time thinking about how to improve my business in ways that work for ME, rather than in ways that work for all the bloggers out there who are telling me how to improve my business. I wrote a list of what would make me happier. I wrote a list of what already makes me happy. I stopped. I looked out the windows and watched the clouds go by. Then, I tried to decipher the flavours in my wine. I came up with a brilliant idea for a website, maybe even a profitable one! At the end of my 54 minutes I felt totally refreshed. My mind had slowed down a little. I felt almost human again. I love it, and I’m going to do this weekly. I think you should to.
Thank you to my old friend Jenna, whose recent post inspired me to sit down and think about me for a minute. And then to blog about it.
And, since this is a photography blog after all, and no post is complete without a picture, here is an oldy from our around the world trip last year. I think it goes well with my new mantra: daring to dream is one thing; daring to do is another altogether.
What motivates, excites, or scares you?
Ron Suter - Good for you!
Jenna-Marie - Hi Allison, I am so flattered that I inspired your post and I think your work is so great and next time I’m in Toronto I would love to get together! Hope you have the most wonderful day :)