Do something daily to make you hate yourself less.

March 14, 2022Leave a comment

The title is my main point, do something daily to make you hate yourself less, it’s pretty straight forward, but I’ve got more to say about it.

I’ve been going through a weird time. I think maybe all of us have. Prices are rising. War is threatened. Everything on the news seems to be labeled unprecedented. It’s a mess and things are messy. Even if you have a bundle of joy that keeps your spirits up its hard not to feel a little down.

I don’t hate myself, but I certainly hate things about me, and those bad habits have all proven to be hard to rid myself of. I have tried dozens of tactics to get rid of them and I’ve shed a few, but the rest hold strong. I haven’t been able to get through to myself on all fronts, but lately I’ve been doing better by simply by telling myself to do something daily that makes me hate myself less. It feels like a childish tactic, but it’s working. Perhaps because it only asks for one thing at a time, perhaps because I’m generally a happy and positive person who really does want to get rid of the ill will I have towards myself.

Regardless of why, this little moto has taken root in my mind and I am glad. Whenever I’m about to misstep it echoes in my mind. It’s also pushed me towards good habits and self-care that I would have otherwise neglected.

Maybe it can help you as well.

Picking back up the good habits we dropped during COVID-19:

July 14, 2021Leave a comment

It’s been a hard year and a half for goals! It’s been a hard year and half for everything really, but, you get my point. We’ve been told to cut ourselves slack, which is true, we needed it. We needed a break during the madness so we could properly take care of ourselves during the trying times, but it’s time to break back into the real world and start getting stuff done again.

I use an app that allows me to create daily to do lists, I even paid the extra ten dollars for a lifetime of being able to set reoccurring ones have a few other features. The app is really not that important, but the fact that I’m faced with eight bullet points under the title “habits” is. They are in my face daily. This is just one of the things I’ve tried to do to force myself into good behavior. I’ve also gotten a little help with my diet/active lifestyle by the mere fact that I’m pregnant and know I’m not just doing this for myself anymore. I have to be on top of it. Other than that? A lot of prayer and reflection trying to figure out why I struggle getting certain things going. A few motivational books. And a whole lot of trying to remind myself that I have willpower.

Willpower is a funny thing, I’ve talked about the fact that you have to exercise it to make it stronger before, but it’s also strange how when we tone it down (even for survival mode) it’s very hard to start back up. You read motivational quotes about how you can’t wait for motivation you just have to act on things, and they are right, but it’s much easier said than done. Some things really are a struggle, it brings us back to the truth that we find everywhere from the Bible to psychology text books, we do things we know are bad for us (or don’t do things that are good for us) even though we know we shouldn’t (or should). It sometimes seems like our natural response. Sometimes, I’m pretty sure it is our natural response.

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Motivation and Action: What the key to success is.

May 28, 2017Leave a comment

“If we wait until we’re ready, we’ll be waiting for the rest of our lives.”
― Lemony Snicket

I’m here to talk about motivation. Motivation is a really magical thing. It’s something that gets our blood pumping and it gets us excited about getting done what we need to get done. Motivation, some would argue, is a key to success.

I’ve read blog posts on blog posts on how to get motivated. There are a lot of way to try and create motivation, reading certain things, listening to certain things, triggering any sort of inspiration we can find. We should try and be motivated, it’s a good thing.

Motivation, however, is not the key to success.

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About Blogging: All of It

June 27, 2015September 30, 20152 Comments

So over the past few weeks I’ve been trying really hard.

Trying at what you ask? This. Blogging. Networking. Branding. Really, the whole picture when it comes to a wordpress site and what you can link to it. And it’s good, it’s fun, it’s given me a nice little pass time.

But it’s been consuming. I’ve been worried about page views, staying up late thinking about post possibilities, and having a million and ten tabs open – all about the same subject. And to be honest, it’s not the most rewarding thing in the entire world. It’s great skill, and I want to keep working on it, but there is a balance somewhere in there that I’m not meeting right now. I’m going to announce something big online in the next few weeks. Something that I’m really proud of- and that’s that. But this, Anna Down South, is something I did for me, not page views, not career building… just Anna.

I’ve been reading blogs about what successful blogs look like, and I’ve been holding mine up in comparison. And if I want Anna Down South to be what I want it to be, I can’t be doing that. I need to make it what I meant it to be. I remember when I first started noticing that my beauty posts were more well viewed than my deep emotional posts. I thought that I needed to post more of that. Well.. I’m not a fashion blogger. I just want to share a cute outfit every now and then.

I’m sharing this for a reason, I’m sharing this because I think way to many people are trying to turn their blogs into something else because they feel like they are supposed to, because they feel like it will make them more successful, maybe bring them more money.

I think a lot of us fail to realize that the most successful blogs are built on passion, and if you’re not passionate about what you are posting about… you need to stop.

A type of change that can be more easily defined as “progress”.

February 6, 20151 Comment

This quote is really old. It’s been on social media sites since the first accounts, and to be honest, I don’t even know who wrote it. Regardless, it’s something that I’ve been thinking about lately, and a lot. People always seem to take it to be about traveling or making a home. That’s a subject that’s not even in question to me, because I’ve always been latched onto the idea of a solid home.

This quote though has been hitting me in a completely different way. As someone who is so steadfast I find myself craving for things away from that of what I already know. I’m not a fan of change, if you ask my mom about it she’ll rant for a few hours about how frustrating it was when I was a kid. But now I’m yearning for my wings, I want change. I’m not searching for the type that take me away from everything I’ve ever wanted, but rather a type of change that can be more easily defined as “progress”.

I refuse to be uprooted, but I want to fly, and its difficult to master both. My mind and my soul are constantly arguing over leaving people behind who aren’t good for me anymore, taking on new ideas that I haven’t grown up with, and what would be the best move to move forward. That best way is the biggest thing to figure out. I just need to find a way to keep my roots as deep, yet let my branches reach so high towards the sky that it doesn’t matter if I can’t fly away. That’s really my goal now.

Goal Setting:

January 19, 2015June 20, 2015Leave a comment

If there is one thing that reading others blogs have really turned me onto, it would have to be detailed goal setting. I’ve always set goals, but they tend to be a lot more broad. I tend to say things like “job after college” or “A or B in my 300 level English Class”. Well, recently I’ve been reading a lot of blogs about goal setting to the T, and I’ve realized, it’s really the best way to turn parts of your life around. Now, I’ve been trying to improve my life while I’m in school, which tends to mean more studying and less time on tumblr (it’s my procrastination tool, for some it’s netflix). It also means taking better care of myself physically.

Improvements are hard to make, I’ll be the first to admit that. We get used to our type of lifestyle and everything becomes a habit that we repeat over and over again. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, if you can get so easily sucked into bad habits, than how hard is it to get sucked into the good ones? Here’s my tips to making goals and sticking to them:

Make realistic goals for right now: You won’t be disappointed or discouraged if you keep the more current goals realistic, once time pasts you can make them bigger because you will be prepared for it, but to start out, the little changes make the biggest differences!
Keep the future and the present in mind: A lot of people only plan for the future when they are setting goals, they tend to ignore things like making room for downtime and spur of the moment adventures. It’s important for you to make goals that will benefit you both now and later.
Start on a daily level: People tend to make milestone goals instead of making them for day to day, but when you make milestone goals you make them easier to put off. Plan out the steps to make it to those bigger goals, and make the steps your goals.
Keep them diverse: Don’t just choose one thing to focus on at time. Don’t just write goals for your career life and leave your emotional health out of it. It’s important to have well rounded goals, not only will they keep your life well rounded, but it’ll keep you from being discouraged by setbacks, because something is always moving forward.