2016 Advice Favourites

This year, I defined a purpose for my blog. Basically – I want to advise/empower/encourage/motivate/inspire women, in particular young women (similar to my age, or younger, as of course those are the experiences I can relate to more). Why? Because I feel like that type of content is something I truly appreciate and favour now, and also could have done with more of growing up. Once you define your own mission, things start to fall into place more easily, and this year, I started going in with advice posts. I started with my ‘midweek motivation’ series, but after a while decided to do more general advice, rather than just focusing on self-development, as that’s what I find more easy to talk about. I post twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays), and more often than not, one of those posts I’ll be giving some kind of advice, or sharing some kind of experience I’ve had. Below I’ve listed advice posts that I most enjoyed writing this year, and also that were popular on the blog…

 

How to spot a toxic person in your life – Click here to read

I’d say this was one of my more popular advice posts this year, and here’s the story behind it… I entered my third year one good friend down, with the promise from another old friend that if I wasn’t careful I’d end up losing all my friends (psshhhh). No hard feelings – the incidents that brought us all apart were now over a year ago. But the whole situation completely changed me as a person – completely. I think it really kicked my head into gear – it made me a lot more picky about who I invite into my life, it made me a lot less willing to let people walk all over me, it made me very content with having loads of acquaintances and made me appreciate my truly close friends! As I said in my Facts About Me post, it doesn’t make me sweat now to throw in the towel on crap friends – you know friends that aren’t happy for your success, the flaky friends, the bitchy friends? Instead of holding onto bad friendships like I used to, I’m able to say girl, bye, and keep it stepping.

“Some people, when you bring up good things in your life, will respond only with tribulations in theirs….” – Tweet This!

 

How to turn your internship into a job – Click here to read

Turning your internship into a job – this is definitely one of my more practical posts for the year and also one which received some good feedback. Let’s face it – the job market it tough, and it’s actually getting tougher year by year. Being able to turn an internship into a full-time job now is one of the most useful things you can do to kick start your career (if the corporate lifestyle is what you’re after). This is exactly what I did in 2015 – I entered a tough 9-week internship at the beginning of summer, and left the internship with a job contract. Now, this is where I am when I’m not blogging. Click the post above to read some very practical tips – less of the spongy “be yourself” type of tips, and more the actionable “send team updates, shadow, get 100 coffees to get your name out there” type of tips.

“Whether you’re interning in a PR firm, a bank or any of the other 100 jobs out there, there is always a way to transform what you’re doing into a full time job…” – Tweet This!

 

Dealing with Disappointment – Click here to read

The down times in your life are the best times in your life, because those are the times where you’re pushed to grow. I’ll say this again and I’ll say it 100 times, I can testify to this statement absolutely and completely. Not a year goes by that isn’t met by multiple disappointments, for example, this year I graduated with a 2.1 (which isn’t bad… but I wanted a 1st!), and when I wrote the post above, I had just received a call in which the news given to me I literally thought could ruin my life (it didn’t by the way, in fact it’s given me a better life). But through getting kicked down so many times in my 21 years here, I’ve built up some thick skin and some knowledge for when it comes to dealing with disappointment. What would have kept me crying in bed and feeling sorry for myself for a week three years ago, would barely keep me down for one night these days.

“The door only closes on you if you allow it to.” – Tweet This!

 

Do people know that you blog? – Click here to read

To a lot of people this post may seem like a weird one, but seeing that I’ve pretty much been making some form of a website since I was 10 (yep, I’ve been online for a long time), and in that time have spoken to a world of people doing what I do/have done – I know that this will resonate with a lot of people! I don’t know how things are now, but when I was growing up, having a website was far from cool. When a few people found out that I owned a website (it was called “DollieKizz” – allow me, I was a child), and they found it funny – mate, I hid my ‘internet life’ from everyone bar my family for a long, long time. And when you’re so used to hiding something, eventually letting everyone know is actually quite a hard thing to do. So in this post, I let you know how I did it, and ask you if you’re hiding – and if so, why?

Back to School: Survival Guide – Click here to read

When I look back at secondary school, I do see how it can be quite tough. For example: in year 7, boys would make ‘buff girl’ lists, basically listing the prettiest to least prettiest girls (in their eyes), and sharing that around the class. Does this sound like a sensible thing to do? There were only two black girls in my year, and more often than not, boys were asking (sometimes right in front of our faces), which one everyone thought was the best looking. Let’s not even get started on the racist jokes that were supposed to be ‘just banter’ (Facebook sent me a memory the other day when someone on my friends list posted on my wall asking why I love chicken and watermelon – I mean – waaaht?! Have you lost your mind?). Even just the general cliquey-ness of it all was a lot to handle. I mean, lets face it, kids are so immature in school that it can actually be a bit of a nightmare. But, if you’re in a school – don’t fret – as I’ve written up a survival guide (click the link above), detailing how I survived the madness. If it helps you feel better, all the boys that were racist, rude, immature – they have amounted to *drumroll*… a whole lot of nothing! Sometimes I just check up on them on Facebook and I’m not going to lie, it makes me feel so good. Success is the best form of revenge, without a doubt.

“Success is the best form of revenge.” – Tweet This!

2016 Roundup…
1) 2016 Style Favourites
2) 2016 Travel Favourites