CategoryAllgemein

31 days of joy

O. M. G! I made it! Not yet! I mean. Now that I am writing these lines I haven’t posted them yet. But I know that I will. Then I’ll have made it. 31 days each day publishing a blog post. I tried this a few times but never reached this goal. And now I did.

Why now? Mostly because I had – as I posted before – for the first time an accountability partner doing the same challenge, the best you can imagine.

Then I set the stakes very low at first: just post something each day. A picture, a word, thousand words. It didn’t matter. But what I realised when it was late and I was tired or had little time, was I didn’t want to just post something without joy. So the only „rule“ was that I wanted to create with fun.

And I’m very proud of myself. About the commitment. There were times when I took my laptop with me on my way to an appointment and wrote a post on the train.

And it was fun! It felt great! It sparked new ideas. And it brought me into a routine of writing and publishing. It made me confident.

What next? I’m sure I won’t post every day in the future. But I will post from time to time.

And that’s ok. I also want to find out what I want to post about. It’s a process. My topics will find me. And they will find me only when I keep posting.

I think in a way blogging has made me more curious about where this will take me.

So let this last post of this challenge be just one post in a never-ending row of posts.

Rough thoughts about the universe

I like those surprising moments when you come across things you didn’t know you were looking for and they take you further along your way. One of those moments was when I was looking for something work related on the Eventbrite website and one of the first events featured was this Louise Bourgeois-inspired drawing class.

The Louise Bourgeois exhibition I saw in Berlin some months ago was one of my most inspiring experiences in recent years. And to find it was another one of those surprising moments when the universe sends you the information you need.

It happened when I was in Berlin looking for interesting exhibitions. I found this, but also found out that it would only start after I had already left Berlin. But deep in my gut or heart I knew I had to see this exhibition. So I did, and it made a deep impression on me.

And recently, another such moment. After talking to my sister recently about the important things in life, I was looking for exhibitions in the area where I live and came across Helen Frankenthaler’s exhibition. She was a painter in the circle of another painter whom I have admired for many years, but never had the opportunity to see some of her (huge) paintings. And now it is this exhibition, and again I feel I should see her paintings and learn something about her.

I think the important thing is to trust your gut and really make some effort to take what it leads you to. To be curious and awake and open for what your body tells you is the right thing for you to do. Then you receive all these messages from the universe.

What I’m doing now

A while ago I came across the idea of Derek Sivers to set up a NOW page on your website, which has become a real movement. The wonderful thing about this page is that you share what is important to you now, and what your current projects are, not just related to your work.

My last update was in June 2022. In the meantime, so many things have happened and changed in my life. So I did an update. You can find it here.

Make yourself redundant

I heard an interesting quote today:

„If you can make yourself redundant, then you can start to take control of your own destiny.“

Have to think about that.

Clouds and sky

I love clouds and the sky. I really enjoy looking at them. Especially when they impress me with their beauty, the hugeness and colors and light. January has been very generous with such views. These are my favorites so far.

Unfinished Things

Last year I made a 22for2022 list. It was inspired by my far away in Australia living friend Karen. What I love about her lists is that it’s not meant to be a bucket list (which I hate) or resolutions but more an inspiration for doing something new, something fun to experiment with.

So I made this list last year:

To make such a list and come up with a certain amount of things that meant to be joyful or good for my self-care was the best part of this project.

Most of the „tasks“ I didn’t accomplish. I even forgot about the list over the year. But that’s ok.

And of course it didn’t hold me back to make a new list. A 23for2023. It was quickly made as I put several of the old list on it. Not very inspiring.

So I thought that instead of just writing them down I could do something more fancy. But fancier also meant more work. For each item I make a little drawing and cut out a fancy number from a fancy calendar.

23for23 unfinished

As you can see my list is still a work in progress. But the good thing is that over time I’ve come up with better ideas than I jotted down before.

This even goes for the list itself. I started with the „title“ and number 23. Then I had the idea to draw myself doing the things. So number 23 looks different than the others.

I try to not pressure myself and be ok with an unfinished list. It’s not unlikely that it will remain unf