Life Lately: Living My Best Life

Life Lately: A Half Year Update – July 4, 2017
“I’ve also been feeling generally uninspired with life. I feel like I’m just running along a wheel and living my life in a cycle. I met up with some friends recently who mentioned that they thought I was currently having the time of my life and going to “so many cool events”, which makes it so evident that social media (particularly, Instagram), glamorizes the reality. But, don’t worry, I’ve got that debate coming up another day! Hopefully – by my next “Life Lately” – the tone would’ve picked up a lot!”

In my last Life Lately I wasn’t in the best place. I think the best way to describe it is that I was just fed up with all aspects of life – everything felt so repetitive, I didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, and I was completely deflated with nothing really pushing me or inspiring me to keep going. I was just plain tired. However, since July, I’ve finally started living by the “live your best life” philosophy.

 

In my last Life Lately I was starting my health and fitness journey…
Now, I’m 5 months deep!

On July 4: “I’m back on the grind and this time in it for the long haul/in it for a (healthy) lifestyle change and not just for a short term ‘summer body’, I’ve already started seeing results so if all goes well, will also share on the blog!”

So in my last life update I had just decided that I wanted to work on my health and fitness. Months of snacking and a lack of exercise had quickly blown me up to being my heaviest ever weight. Away from the aesthetics though, I was sluggish, tired and just lacking ‘life’. But this journey has been better than my others in that I’m actually in it for the long haul; someone said to me the other day that there was no point in them working out right now because there are no bikini holidays on the horizon, and it’s this type of mentality I wanted to curb. I didn’t want the fad diets and I didn’t like the fact that I was only ever motivated by a pending beach holiday – I wanted an entire lifestyle change and also to sculp my body in any way I felt empowered to do so. 5 months deep now and I’ve been working out around 6 days a week, every week. Sometimes these can be short bursts, sometimes I look around the gym and think “I’m still here?!”, sometimes I have great workouts, other days I really don’t have the energy, some days I can’t wait to workout, and sometimes I skip a workout because I’m ill – the key thing is that I’ve kept at it. Typically I do 5 home workouts during the week with dumbbells and/or resistance bands or just using my body weight, and then I do one HIIT cardio session in the gym on Sundays, but recently I’ve picked things up such that I also go to the gym on some evenings during the week to get in a very quick cardio blast to supplement my morning workout as as essentially I’m trying to cut. A few fast facts:

• This is the longest I’ve ever been able to keep up regular workouts! – Before this the longest stint I’ve had is 2 months, and that was just the 2 months leading up to my girl’s holiday. Now that I’m doing it for a total lifestyle change, it’s been easier to stick at
• I actually don’t dread working out anymore
• Endorphins are real – working out has totally switched up my mood and makes me feel gooood

 

In my last life lately I was stuck in a rut…
Now I’ve started on a new project

On July 4: “I’m wondering what will break me out of this rut. Is it time for a complete rebranding? Do I need to take my content in a different direction? Do I need to take on a brand new project? I’m not sure but what I do know is that I need something to make me feel inspired again and keep me putting in 100%.”

I’ve been interested in entrepreneurship for a few years now and whilst I’ve had a few ideas and a few projects here and there, they’ve typically fallen through because I just haven’t been totally into the idea. Start ups are not easy, they require an immense amount of work, belief and motivation, so if you don’t totally believe in what you’re doing, you’re probably wasting your time.

I remember once I was at a meeting where a venture capitalist answered the question “how do you come up with a business idea?” His answer was very simple – you see a gap in the market, and you move into it. Once upon a time we all didn’t think we needed Uber and Deliveroo – now these are staple parts of most of our lives. This summer, through personal experience, I spotted a gap in the market. I approached a business partner/friend, and she had spotted the same gap a few years back. So, we’re moving into it. I won’t really say too much about it now – or even for a while – but I’m so excited because in my heart I believe it’s a good idea given the right execution. Of course I continue to balance this with other endeavours including this blog and my job.

 

In my last life lately I was feeling unmotivated about my blog…
Well, I’m getting there with this one

On July 4: “I’ve really started losing my ‘online’ motivation. I’ve been less active of the social media, and have generally been very ‘meh’ as of late about Skylish.”

I’m sure a lot of bloggers can relate – it’s so hard sometimes to stay motivated. Occasionally when I’m generally down about my blog I even sometimes feel that I’m being ungrateful; it’s easy to normalise some of the opportunities and to normalise some of the free stuff and forget what you have and that is never the sort of attitude I want to have. I occasionally have to knock sense back into myself and remind myself that this blog is actually one of the biggest things in relation to actually stimulating me/my mind. Someone asked recently if, given that I am taking on so many other things, I will continue with my blog in the foreseeable future. But it’s an absolute no-brainer for me. I definitely am feeling a lot more motivated in this area than I was in July, and I actually recently broke down exactly how I got back to this point in a blog post.

 

I’ve been sharing my own stories more…

Not that I have a lot to share! But this year especially I’ve had the opportunity to appear on more panels, give more speeches, etc. Generally at work, especially around internship season, this has become more of a normality, but even more recently and outside of work I’ve been able to share more about what I do and what I’ve been learning along the way. Be it a topic on earning from blogging, some discussion around being a woman in a job mostly dominated by men, or just talking about how to juggle everything. I’ve actually summarised a few experiences this year in my about & features page.

Essentially, the phrase “living my best life” comes to mind. Life has definitely picked a lot from the pit in July and I’m feeling a lot more productive, a lot happier, and as though I’m making more progress towards my goals. Of course life goes up and down, so no doubt I’ll hit another pit again, but for now I’m just enjoying the ride.