Tag: self help

Thursday Real Talk: Are Opportunities Really That Scary?

~ melreviewsherbooks ~ 2 Comments

I’ve always been one of those people who thought that opportunities were scary because opportunities change things. They can alter your path and most of the time, opportunities bring change that you may not have planned for. I was fearful of this for a very long time until I realised something quite significant.

Opportunities do not have to be BIG! They don’t have to be so large that your whole life upheaves for them.

Opportunities can be; choosing to take that spare 10 minutes to go grab a coffee for yourself instead of making one; rather than spending the evening alone, text a friend and see what they’re up too; or if you’re in a new environment with new people, it’s an opportunity to make a new friend.

Saying yes to these opportunities could help to build your self-care routines, connections with those you love and care for, and find new people to love and care for in your circle. By no means are these opportunities not life changing, they are but they just look a little different to what the typic ‘life changing opportunity may be’. And they are still quite significant!

What I’m coming to learn is that if you don’t say yes to these types of self-building opportunities, they cannot lead you onto finding the confidence and circle of encouragement to say yes to some bigger opportunities, such as; changing your job; showing someone your worth through action; or building something new from scratch.

All of these ‘big’ opportunities still require those initial, un-life heaving opportunities of; self care; consideration; connection; and self-worth.

So maybe we need to change our perspective of opportunities as we move into 2024 this weekend.

If we were to scale it back, the flow on effect of saying ‘yes’ to a daily opportunities, could in fact be more effective and enhance more stability and strength for when that big opportunity shows itself. And at that point, the big opportunity may not look so scary anymore x

Thursday Real Talk: It’s OK to Have a Wobble

~ melreviewsherbooks ~ Leave a comment

It’s ok to have a wobble 🍮

Sometimes, life doesn’t go to plan. People don’t always act in the kindest way you know that they can because they themselves are having a rough trot of things at the moment.

Sometimes, life gives you lemons.

I have these days, everyone does. They are days when you wish you could just jump back into your pjs by the time lunch rolls around and soak up some cozy time reading, back in bed, maybe with a cup of tea or slice of chocolate cake.

I mean, I don’t know what these days look like for you but what I do know is … sometimes if you don’t let your body, brain and heart have these wobble days, the wobble days can last longer than they need too.

So I guess I’m telling you that, if you need a mental health day once and a while, tell the people around you that that is what you need.

Try to explain to them what it is that’s going to help you and why you think you need a wobble day.

Then ask them to check in on you in a day or two.

If your wobble day has turned into longer than just a day or two, maybe you can try explaining a little bit more to that trusted person. They may be able to help you find a new perspective you couldn’t see from under your cozy bed sheets x

Thursday Real Talk: The Key is Delegation

~ melreviewsherbooks ~ Leave a comment

It can be hard in these busy, bustling lives of ours to not feel as if we have too much on our plates. For me personally, I choose to juggle (key word here is choose – we’re usually in control of how much we take on), full time work, recreational sport, book blogging and reviewing, interviewing authors, developing a book festival and making time for friends & family.

I’m not here to boast or brag – I don’t want your empathy as I’ve said, it’s a choice I make – but I’m explaining this to give context in how try to use delegation in my life.

At this stage of my life, I choose to delegate; developing the book festival and friend & family time.

I delegate festival time by having found the most wonderful people who share it’s passion. These people have formed our strong and involved committee, whom each have a plate the size of mine, if not larger. But the key is we choose to delegate areas in which each members skills are going to excel. For example, I love communicating with others. So my areas of excelling include email correspondence, finding local community members to support us, attending networking events and organising our meetings + some more on the creative side of things. Therefore, anything that tends to fall outside of this scope, we discuss who will best suit the task. This is because somebody else in the room will find a task related to their skillset a heck of a lot easier than I, and will have the capacity to have this said task knocked over in 2 hours, compared to my 6. That my friends, is delegation at work.

With my friend & family time, I also choose to delegate. I generally choose to dedicate my Sundays spending quality time with those I value and who bring value to my life in return. You will see online that I tend to do my baking of cakes, biscuits, roasts and entertaining meals on a Sunday. This is because I delegate my other ‘need-to-do’ tasks throughout the week, leaving my Sunday for visitors. I think this comes from growing up and always dedicating time as a family to a Sunday night dinner together. As Italians, it was always pasta on a Sunday – and funnily enough, I still do that now at times. I personally choose a Sunday because it is typically known as our day of rest, but mentally for me, it’s also a ‘fill-my-cup’ day before heading back into the Monday to Friday grind.

I instantly resonated with this post saying the simple 4 words of “Don’t carry it all”, because I’ve had times in my life where delegation wasn’t my strong suit. And don’t get me wrong, as someone who has strong perfectionist traits, this can be extremely hard to work on and I do slip up – it’s only natural and normal. But choosing to have a healthy system of delegation in your life is something I would encourage you to try. And lastly, find those people who are in your corner and WILL cheer you on and work around your choices – they are your people!