The lesson I learned from the ‘Eat, Love, Pray’ movie + my goals for 2017

The lesson I learned from the ‘Eat, Love, Pray’ movie + my goals for 2017

“Connect your passion with your story so that you can connect with your audience.” – Quote by entrepreneur Maya Elious

I took a break from my blogging.

This forced me to think about my vision for the blog and what I would like to change. As a creator and leader of a platform (my blog), you constantly have to think of ways to improve your platform – you have to be innovative.

blogging goals 2017 explore
[All images are sourced via pexels.com]
I realised that I have been kind of fearful of a lot of things and I have not set many goals. This year will be a little different.

My word for the year 2017 will be EXPLORE. I have never chosen a word to describe how I want my year to be. In fact, for the past few years I have not had any new year’s resolutions.

I want to study something, but at the moment I don’t have the money to pay for the course. Money (or the lack thereof) could be a good excuse to sit and sulk, thinking that I won’t get what I want.

TO EXPLORE means that I will look into other ways of doing things.

SO FAR SO GOOD

blogging goals courses
During the past few days I have been part of free online courses to help with my writing. This year I want to explore more free courses that are in line with what I want to do.

The entrepreneur Maya Elious is one of the people who gave me some gems about telling my story and using my passion to help people. “Connect your story with your expertise,” is one of the favorite things I heard her say.

Also: “Connect your passion with your story.”

Another achievement: I have finished reading the first book for 2017. I have not finished a book in years!

After realising last year that I read so many blog posts daily that I could probably finish a book too, I have decided to challenge myself.

I know I won’t be able to read one book per week. I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself. Rather, I will try to finish at least five books this year.

Even if a book does not start the way I want – it might start boring, or slow in the beginning, I will continue reading it.

[That’s what basically happened in the book I read recently – later, during the middle of the book, I read so many interesting things that I didn’t want the book to end. The book had a great ending too.]

EXPLORING SOUTH AFRICA

roadtrip south africa explore
I went to the Northern Cape for the holidays. I got the opportunity to visit good friends that I have not seen in years. Thank you Miena Jacobs and Megan Du Plessis!

Megan reminded me of something: I should explore my love for food more. Remember the movie “Eat, Pray, Love”?

Well, in the movie Julia Roberts’ character goes to Italy and learns how to enjoy food.

Megan is the Italian teacher in my life. She loves good food and we have always gone to taste a new dish or different restaurant whenever we saw each other.

One of the most memorable meet ups we had was a cookie share event that Megan took me to. Each person who attended the event had to bake cookies – whether sweet or savoury. We all then shared and got a chance to connect with other food lovers.

Megan and I always had a long distance friendship.

Years ago when we met, she worked in Botswana and I lived in Cape Town. She returned to Cape Town and then I moved to Port Elizabeth. We would always meet in Cape Town.

At the moment I live in Johannesburg and she lives in Aggeneys, Northern Cape. My parents live in the Northern Cape, so we met this year on my way back from my parents.

This year I want to work on my cooking skills – I admit that last year I was just lazy. My focus last year was motherhood and the adjustment to it.

I think I am ready to explore new things like trying out new food and visit more restaurants.

EXPLORING MY PASSION

passion explore journalism goals
The reason I applied to study journalism was not because I enjoy news. I wanted to be an author – journalism is a stepping-stone to that.

I am fortunate that I am not only learning how to write stories daily, but I am hearing and reading wonderful and peculiar stories of people.

I’ve had a few fictional characters playing in their own scenes in my head. My aim is to put them on paper this year.

One of my goals is to find a network of bookworms and other authors to connect with. I want to learn as much as I can about book publishing, and also just talk about books or favourite authors.

It’s important to have goals, because this keeps you excited about your life. Having direction means having goals. I find that I get bored easily, so it helps to have goals.

Once you’re in a comfort zone, you should challenge yourself to find a new goal, or you should have steppingstones (smaller goals) to reach the bigger goal.

What do you think of my 2017 resolutions? Also, do you have a to do list for this year yet?

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