Sunday 24 February 2013

FEAR - Face, Embrace, Achieve, Relieve

Fear. This four letter word can create the greatest obstacles in our life. It's the roadblock which stops us in our tracks.

Fear affects people in many ways. For some, it drives them to achieve things that make them a better person. For others, it holds them back and becomes a mountain which they simply avoid climbing.
It’s important to remember fear is a natural emotion. It’s okay to feel fear. It pushes and challenges you to be more than you already are. What’s not okay, is to let fear hold you back from the experiences and feelings it brings you. 

When you fear something, you need to ask yourself why? What is it about the situation you are fearing? As humans, we are the most amazing creatures. We have such strength and resilience in our character, we aren’t even aware of. We really don’t know what we are capable of until we push ourselves past the barrier we have created, due to fear. To make it crystal clear, you need to face your fear!
Everything in life which we fear has an outcome. We can succeed or we can fail. (There’s alot more to categorising outcomes as success or failure, however for a simplistic approach, we’ll keep it to these two.) Neither success or failure is better. Sometimes it’s the failures which teach us the most about ourselves. On the other hand, we love the successes as they give us confidence to move forward. They fill us with self-belief and encourage us to continue moving forward. Either way, embracing fear allows us to learn something.

Every time we learn something, we achieve. Learning is a life-long journey for everyone. Learning and achieving go hand in hand. As humans, we like to achieve and we like the feelings achievement brings. We are always a better person for having had the experience.
This brings us to the feeling experienced after you have conquered the fear. Relieved! You breathe a sigh of relief and your heart rate returns to normal. The butterflies in the stomach subside and the body calms down. You feel a sense a pride in having pushed yourself through the situation. You feel like you can take on anything. It’s true satisfaction.

I’ll never understand why some of us can push ourselves to face our fears and why some of us simply turn in the other direction. It seems all too hard for them. I’ll admit, it sometimes takes me a while to get the courage to face my fear, however I do get there in the end. I think focusing on the end, is key for me. Thinking of the end and how I’ll feel makes me want to push myself and be a better person than I am today.

Sunday 10 February 2013

Coffee: A drink of calm in a crazy world!


There is no better way to start the day than with a coffee. I should clarify this further. There is no better way to start my day than with a skim, vanilla latte. The moment the take-away latte is placed in my hands, I know it’s a good day.

As I drink the smooth, sweet liquid, I close my eyes as it passes down my throat, warming my entire system. This time is my most favourite time of the day, except for going home time. Oh and maybe, going home time on a Friday afternoon. Or possibly going home time on a Friday afternoon before a long weekend. Okay, you get the drift.

The liquidity goodness represents a moment of bliss in an otherwise crazy life (no more crazy than anyone else’s, mind you). It offers me a small window of solitary thinking time. I shut the world out as I drink. Given it’s a one-a-day habit that I have, it’s not all that bad? I’m sure health advocates all have plenty of reasons as to why I shouldn’t drink it. Well, I know but I can’t help it. My morning coffee is so divine that I’m not giving it up for anyone. Nope, not for ANYONE.

Let me share a secret with you. I will even miss my train simply to have my coffee. Maybe a little bit obsessive you think? Well, sort of. Like I said, it’s part of my daily routine and I can’t live without it.

The girls at the coffee shop all know me. In fact, it has become such a ritual that if I haven’t been to coffee shop by 7.45am, the girls wonder where I am. Crazy, huh?

I took a day off not so long ago. I still went to the coffee shop however the morning routine was turned upside down. When I did go to the shop, the barista commented, “Oh, I wondered where you were?”. I take it a true sign that I am a valued customer, or at least I am in my mind.

If I don’t have my latte, then I feel incomplete and as though I have missed something. To put it simple, my latte completes my day.

Even on the weekend, one a day habit it still strong. Complete with the reading of the weekend papers, it gives me time to escape into my little world and simply be.

Coffee isn’t only a solitude act. Catching up for coffee with friends, a new lover, possible lovers, acquaintances and business associates has become part of our culture. You could even say we have become coffee fussy. A chat amongst colleagues in the office and everyone has an opinion on who has the best coffee and on the other hand, who has the worst.

The triple “C” has become embedded in our society. What’s triple “C” you ask? Crazy Coffee Culture.

Coffee connoisseurs stretch far and wide. No matter where you live, we all have our favourite coffee.

It’s a simple drink that we really enjoy.

For me, I love it and I wouldn't change anything about my daily skim, vanilla latte.