Gratitude Journal: What Have You Been Up To?

In a season of gratitude and acknowledgment, here are few emboldened strengths of mine I’d love to recognize this year.

#1. Consistency

Somehow I’ve managed to put up an average of two posts monthly this year. It was one of the decisions I made, a target I set after having decided to go self-hosted this time last year.

To post at least twice each month so as to deem the investment-worthy (the blog annual payments). So far, I’ve done good at that, and I’m grateful.

#2. Self-awareness

I’ve learnt a lot more about myself this year, than any other time I’ve been alive. I’ve had multiple drastic life changes that happened, and easily I accommodated without fretting.

One of the changes is me fully embracing entrepreneurship this year. I remember always speaking strongly against being an entrepreneur during conversations with people. Why? Its lack of a safety blanket (regarding income instability, unpredictability, and circumstantial uncertainty).

I was never not against it. Also having a diminutive identity which is a con for success in the field, I just believe my personality isn’t best suited for entrepreneurship.

But here we are, today I’m an e-preneur (the internet entrepreneur) and loving every aspect of the organization, detailing and creativity it allows me into. It isn’t just some bogus run off the mill or some little scale venture, it’s a full company I built.

I pumped in a lot of savings into the construction. I hired a couple of people to work with. I registered the company and got a business name. I opened a bank account specifically for the company. Business cards, customized packaging, and the likes. Now I’m having leads on collaboration and I’m thinking about expanding.

If I’m honest, I’ll give out that it’s not fully thriving since I’m yet to break even. And I know it’s partly because I’ve let laziness patch alongside me while I sort through the other changes I’ve entertained.

But when I’m a lot clear-headed and revitalized, I’m sure to throw in some unlikely crazy amount of energy as I did at the pioneering period. In fact, I’m starting to gradually, and I can feel the pizzazz.

I’m certain I’m a better person because of this business process. I have a lot more degree of tolerance, empathy, and restiveness than I previously had.

#3. Tenacity

This is the quality of being tenacious, to be cohesive, keeping a firm hold. You make plans, and you stick with it.

I’ve come to learn that most attributes don’t work hand in hand. You can be easy-going and still be mean. You can be hardworking and still be a pushover.

I’m lazy, and also a huge procrastinator. Still, I get things done when they need to be done, and never a minute later. My attention capacity may not be so precise, but it sure is thorough.

If I need to be at a function by 2pm, I may still be lounging on the bed, house dirty, plates unwashed, and tired of life by 10am. But you’d be surprised at the spring in my steps and agility by 12pm.

I work better with targets and approaching deadlines than in a relaxed atmosphere. I think that’s how I’ve been able to cope with blog posting regularly. (If you’re a regular on the blog, you must have noticed how I post mostly towards month-end. Do you understand what I mean?)

Gun-to-the-head-fire-brigade moves. Wachaiiiiii!

#4. Self-discovery

Another (drastic) change is my getting a new job sometime at the end of this year’s first quarter. I never did put an update on my former job, one I kept writing about, now did I?

Oh well, just like the recent happenings with Diamond and Access Bank, my former company merged with EY that caused non-key staff, like me, to get laid off. This was October/November 2017, and that was that.

The new job literally caused me to move into another state, now maybe permanently, who knows.

Just as with love, and most aspects of my life, my thought pattern is usually simple. If there’s an obstacle with what you love, or who you love, you can really just find something, or someone else to love.

So I’ve never thought I’d be the kind of person to cling to something when I’m uncomfortable with the circumstances. Like this job, and the movement.

Even months into the job, I still caught myself hoping I’d move back, and that it was not permanent. Still, I did nothing about it, rather I finalized the deals with purchasing furniture and household items.

#5. Green love

The house I’ve lived in all my life is devoid of any other living thing that’s not human. I have this vague memory of my family owning a puppy, but even I don’t think that was real.

Also, my parents were never materialistically decorative or color appreciative. We never had even artificial flowers around the house. And it was never a consideration of mine. My house was bare and still is.

But now, I’m like an obsessed plant parent and a self-acclaimed interior decorator. It’s so radical and unnatural how it came to be. My favorite past time seems to be YouTubing on more ways to build or improve home décor with the amazing color combination. Or I’ll be YouTubing on how to care for my plants that are now increasing by the month.

Even YouTubing to learn about a new plant I might wish to get or reading up on any.

I have about 7plants alive now, and I look at them every morning and smile, or fret over how one is starting to look sickly. And then scamper about googling how to revive it or what could be the cause.

#6. Crafting

I was going to draft some posts months ago about some DIYs or Hacks that may be mad useful. But I thought it may be obsolete or mundane and would be passed as trivial, so I stayed in my lane.

These days, I’m as artsy and creative with my hands than you could guess. It’s amusing and cute at the same time. And I absolutely enjoy myself while digging the sorts.

I have a cute black-with-pink-centered table mat that I knitted when I thought I wanted a table mat. Also, my dressing drawer table has a large, square, black & purple interlocked knitted mat overlaid, which I made some years back and reserved.

I have a make-up brush stand make-shifted from a half-cut pringle container that I threaded with black and pink threads. I have a tissue roller made from a cloth wire hangar. There’s a stationery holder built from an empty bottled water can.

There are over 20 neat self-built picture frames scattered nicely around my walls. And lots of others.

#7. Journaling

This just started this last quarter and has opened my eyes to a lot of my habits that are short-coming, especially attitude to money. Also, it has saved a lot of the mental torture I commonly face like when I try to recall a past detail (trivial or important).

Say, when I last washed the bedsheet or when I paid the light bill. The interval between purchases, and so many other frugal or specific trackings

I caught a sample of a journal entry I thought was modern, rational, and practical, if not helpful. And when I searched on YouTube, I was dumbstruck at the wide existence of such formats, and the years it has been in continuance.

Then I watched a DIY, and created a journal for myself, and personalized the page contents with what I wish to track. Daily spending, daily moods, daily reading habits… Little other personal stuff.

You’d construct a calendar or a sort of visual, and create a legend (eg. good equals green). So if you spend below budget, you’d mark that green, above budget could be a red. In a month you would visibly see at a glance if you spent well, or in deficit.

There are different approaches to different pages like mood radar, daily regimens, book plans…

For 3months now it’s been mighty effective so I’ve placed an order for the ideal standard journal I’d want and decorate. Good stuff. Let’s see how long before it gets boring.

#8. Relationship

There’s the boo availability part I haven’t successfully conquered. And the Christian in me refuses to be grateful for the knacks I’ve welcomed regardless.

So cheers to a new year, of actual relationships and more self-awareness. Cheers to more growth, kinder spirit, and more Christ-like attributes. Cheers to non-withering plants, more skillful adventures, and discovery of the world!

I actually have a lot of good post ideas for next year. A lot. To sit and draft them is the koko. But if you guys are still around, we will make it happen God willing!^^

What are the highlights of your year, please?