Tag: Teen

On Stereotyping and What Baby Step We Could Take To Defy It

Hey everyone! By the time you read this, I am currently groaning like a sick llama while being roasted by the fiery flames of Hell Week nose-deep in my textbooks and/or reviewing for exams.

And I will be until the week after next.

*whispers weakly* Please pray for my soul and brain cells.

Worry ye not! If I have the time, I shall take a quick peek in my Reader every now and then. 😉

So anyway! Because of college’s high demands, I’ve decided to schedule a couple of Katie’s Oldies but Goldies* posts. And I’ve recently dug out old posts of mine that are still relevant today. I edited and added a few things but the general idea of each post is still the same.

The one you’ll be reading below was something I wrote in 2015. (See what I mean by old???) And boooy, was I a hotheaded rant-loving beast back then. I’d like to think my character development centered in turning me into a Buddha-channeling rainbow unicorn tho hekhekhek

Enjoy!

*I know I know. I could make some maddeningly good titles

It’s been 4 months since we moved to this kinda peaceful neighborhood that we live now. I was about to come to an overall impression that, “Hmm, this place is okay.”

Until I heard the first of many fights that our neighbors will have.

Look, I’m not saying our family is perfect–far from it. My parents have the occasional fights too. And even those were horrifying.

But one morning, my sister and I were alone in the house and the neighbors started fighting. At one point, I heard furniture crashing and the husband shouting something about how the wife deserves to be treated that way and women should act in a certain way.

Let me tell you now, I didn’t consider myself a feminist back then, when I first wrote this post. I thought I was brilliant, thinking of myself as a “part misogynist, part misandrist, overall misanthrope.” Now, when I think about it, I didn’t make any sense. Typical Kate.

"What if I got it all wrong?" | Stereotyping, Gender Equality, Inspiration, Twenty-something

am, in the very essence of its meaning, a feminist. But more than that, I am a person who is calling for equality among all gender. Men, women, transpeople… everyone. So you know. That’s one thing about me that changed in two years.

One thing about me that hasn’t changed in two years, though, is that I really don’t like the idea of “guys should do this and girls should do that.” This constant need to neatly place every person in a box.

I mean, everyone can have a fair share of everything, whatever gender they may have.

Guys can clean the dishes, too. And girls can be taught how to repair their own car. And transgender people can serve the military if that’s what they damn want.

But I live in a world where you hear these phrases all the freakin time:

“The wives should stay at home while the husbands make a living for the family.”

“You should take good care of the women because they are fragile and weak.”

“Leave the heavy works to the men.”

And it’s not just the men who contribute to the inequality among the genders. The women do too. Which, by the way, I talked about in a recent post about gender bias.

What I’m basically trying to say here is:

We have to be more conscious of what we think of others.

Be more aware of a person’s individuality. Yes, we have established stereotypes for every person based on how they look, how they act or how they dress. And these stereotypes have been imprinted in our mind for as long as we could remember. Which is why it is so hard to defy them.

So defying toxic stereotyping will require a deliberate second-guessing to the thoughts we automatically think of people.

This reminds me of what Rebecca of Hopelessly Strong said in one of her super-enjoyable emails. She told me how, when pronouncing someone’s name, she waits and listens to how it’s pronounced before she says it.

It’s a baby step but I think we need to be more like that when we meet new people. (We need to channel our inner Rebecca! 😀 )

We have to put a pause before that automatic stereotyping part of our brain starts functioning. We have to take a step back and think, “Wait a sec. What if I got it wrong?” And we could start opening to the idea that the person in front of you may not be as bad as your stereotype of them would imply.

Because more often than not, people are more than their stereotype.

YOUR TURN: What stereotype has people thought of you? How are you more than that stereotype? What baby step did you take to defy stereotyping? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Have an awesome day, awesome peeps! <3

 

Compassion, Train Tracks, and the Comment Section (+ I Have A Question) | Fourth Friday Fangirling

Less intro, more fangirling. Okay? Okay!

Let’s do this!

In this month’s FFFs, you have compassion, the comment section train, and train tracks. Oh! And I have a question for you at the end :D | Fourth Friday Fangirling

All Over the Blogosphere

Inspiration and Motivation – Valerie of This Vegan Life’s latest post, “Life is Actually Easy,” gave me an interesting perspective on the difference between inspiration and motivation. She also reintroduced me to meditation, which I’m thinking of doing again soon.

{About blog: This Vegan Life is a vegan lifestyle blog by Valerie Cody. Here, she shares not only scrumptious recipes for vegan peeps but also ways to have a more spiritually grounded life. I also love the vintage collage feel of her feature images.}

An Alternative RealityThrough sharing a fun fact about train tracks, Ellie of Ellie’s Blog wrote a thought-provoking post on tradition and how we generally lack the ability to step away from “what works” in “The Distance Between”. It’s brilliant and a must-read!

{About blog: Ellie’s Blog is a personal blog by Ellie, a 23-year-old from New Zealand. She writes about opinions, self-help, travel and poetry. Another great post you should check out of hers is “The Generation of Instant Gratification.” I know right??? You could already tell it’ll be a brilliant post 😀}

“Faith Crisis”In this absolutely amazing post by Kate of Aroused, “Faith Crisis,” Kate opened the door in my head as I thought about religion and politics and how we have lost faith to institutions.

{About blog: Aroused is a creative blog by Kate (aka calmkate. So that’s def not me) Not being biased because we’re namemates here, but her blog is a total gem. She shares photographs of beautiful everyday things and writes thought-provoking posts and poems like this one}

ReflectionA beautiful short story from My Life Online’s Becca, “A Personal Story” will definitely resonate to anyone who is struggling with accepting a part or parts of their selves. As someone with a low self-esteem and has an issue with self-confidence, this shook and moved me.

{About blog: My Life Online is a blog by Becca. She has now moved to a new blog, Becca and Beyond.}

All Over the Rest of the World

Nur HudaYou probably knew about this already because things like these get featured on news real quick. But anyway, in case you didn’t know: remember when authors got together to hold an auction for the victims of the devastating Grenfell Tower Fire? One of the authors who joined is the amazing Philip Pullman who pledged a named character for the second part of his upcoming book series, La Belle Sauvage. It’s an amazing lot to bid, right? Then one James Clements posted this:

James Clements bid on Authors for Grenfell

The response? An amazing comment train of people adding to Mr Clements’s initial bid. It was overwhelmingly good and I got teary-eyed just scrolling through the comments section.

Responding with Kindness In this Twitter thread by Sierra Abrams (@sierraiswriting) she shared a story on how she responded with kindness to a person who deserve it the least. It’s an inspiring story and worth the scrolling, trust me 😉

A Not So Perfect LifeI recently subscribed to Emma Gannon’s podcast, Ctrl Alt Delete. One of the first episodes I’ve read is Episode #58: Sophie Kinsella – A Not So Perfect Life. And being a HUGE Sophie Kinsella fan, I couldn’t just NOT listen to it. And I did not regret it one bit.

This episode talked about how social media has changed our lives and the emergence of our glamorous online lives. That, and Sophie Kinsella’s writing process. Which is interesting to listen. Plus *whispers* her accent and Emma’s accent are wonderfuuuuuul*

*yep, I’m still obsessing over accents. Not ashamed of it one bit.

What I Am All Over

Personal Achievement: I am so proud of this drawing that I finished editing for-web this month. I’m slowly trying to put more effort and attention into backgrounds plus I’m getting better at painting leaves 😀 Still have to work on painting flowers but celebrate the little victories! <3

Music: ラ・ム・ネ (ra-mu-ne) by Snail’s House (Such a happy music! Listen to it below)

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/248335820″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

Poetry: “someplace silent” by Kiya of Flawed Silence (obviously not being a total fangirling unicorn here mehehe. PS Kiyaaaa I miss you, you wonderful unicorn youuu <3)

Photo:

I found this through Brain Pickings; made by Wendy MacNaughton and Courtney E. Martin. If you want a print, you can buy one through here. All proceeds will be donated to Hedgebrook, a rural writing residency for women.

So I Have A Question:

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now. But I’m not really sure how many of y’all use Pinterest. So I’m going out on a limb here…

Would you like to join a Pinterest group board where you can discover new blogs and promote your latest blog posts?

I notice so many wonderful Pinterest-worthy blog images that go with all your amazing posts. And I kept thinking how totally amazing it would be if you could extend your reach to Pinterest. Also, hehe, I want to discover new blogs. I did all the blog-finding tricks up my sleeve—Twitter blog trains, searching for tags on Reader, other blog’s comment section… But I’ve discovered that my best way of discovering new blog is through Pinterest. Obviously, because I’m such a Pinning Wizard™.

Anyway, it’s just an idea that had been simmering in my mind for a while now. Let me know what you think! Or I’ll just crawl back to my cave of awkwardness.

Happy weekend, awesome peeps! <3

Gender Bias: Reflecting on a Conversation I Overheard in Class

Earlier this week, I overheard something during class. See, our professor wasn’t around so I spent the period making notes of another subject (Do you see the sad life I’m currently living??? *cries ungraciously in the distance*)And while writing, I… kinda eavesdropped on the conversation of the people in front of me. I can’t really help it because our desks were near. Heh. #Excuses

Basically, the guy was talking about how he was mugged and he lost his phone. And the girl he was talking to was baffled.”How is it possible that you were mugged?” she asked, not in verbatim by the way, but that was the idea. “Why wouldn’t I be?” the guy asked, equally puzzled.

And then, the girl, God help her, said something along the lines of, “Well, girls are supposed to be the ones getting robbed.”

I know, right?

I was on the verge of crying out, “Wait what?!” at that point. So was the guy. She went on explaining that it’s because girls are often seen as weak and that makes them more susceptible to getting mugged than guys. That guys are less likely to get robbed because they’re seen as strong.

I share my reflection on a conversation I overheard, regarding gender bias | Millennial, Life

Ya gotta admit, she has a teeny-tiny point. We do have set cultural expectations on men and women, with the former being strong and the latter being subservient.

Still. I would like to think that thieves and petty criminals scour their potential victims carefully. I mean, they would have a certain level of street cleverness, right? Even fantasy novels with thieves and assassins imply that, don’t they???

More importantly, it felt wrong to generalize.

Because that conversation I overheard? That is a perfect example of gender bias experienced by everyone. The progress we have with stereotypes for women are, at best, crawling and at worst, stagnant. And yes, one of the reasons is because of how men see us. But then women themselves have this same generalization on their own gender.

See, I think this is why we aren’t getting past through all this gender bias. Or any bias for that matter. And we won’t anytime soon.

UNLESS.

We start thinking out of the confining box of categories and stereotypes we like to put ourselves in. Not only be aware, but actually start acknowledging people’s individuality. That we have to constantly remind ourselves that no one is merely a part of a group.

And I’m no exception to this.

I’m no less guilty than that girl in my class. I’ve held both ends of gender bias. I know how discouraging being placed in a box can be. And I also know how these categories and stereotypes can make life so much easier. Because they simplify things. Make them less complicated. And we humans don’t like complications.

The funny thing is: we are complex beings.

And the only way to understand these things better and make them simpler is to accept its complexity.

TALK TO ME: Have you ever experienced being on both ends of gender bias? Or any bias, for that matter? What box/es have you been placed in before? How do you start to see people beyond their stereotypes? Do share your thoughts and opinions below!

Happy Wednesday, awesome peeps! <3

P.S. Ohyeah, and before I forget the most important question: what fantasy novels with assassins and thieves have you read and would highly recommend??? I’ve read The Final Empire, by the way, and it’s definitely a must-read!

8 Artists that Inspire Me to Be Better in Drawing (+ Whose Artworks I Fangirl Over Sooo Hard)

Role models. Y’all would agree that we all have at least three of those in our lives right? I mean, you know what I’m talking about.

Role models are:

+ People you look up to
+ People you hope you’ll become someday
+ People you hold high respect for
+ People whose works and achievements you fangirl over
+ And you fangirl over them so hard, these people basically turn you into this gal,

Image result for saikawa gif

Don’t tell me you don’t have that in your life. Like seriously. It’s totally okay! We can all be a little geeky here, I won’t judge 😉 I mean, how can I?? I practically declared myself a Universal Fangirl™. In fact, I welcome geekery of all forms here with wide open arms!

Having role models will help you to keep on striving for your goals. They give you the motivation to pump your fists and tell yourself, “You can do this! You can reach that level! Just keep on working hard!” Especially at times when you’re about to drown in self-doubt.

In my case, I have my own list of artists that I look up to and inspire me to keep drawing and practice and improve my art. While art isn’t really a top priority for me right now, it will always be an important aspect of my life.

I always try to make time to do a little doodle when I’m free. I especially like it when they share old drawings and you can see how much improvement they’ve had between the two artworks.

So here they are, 8 of my favorite artists and how they inspired me to keep on drawing! 🙂

Jacquelin de Leon

Mermaids. Witches. Beautiful people in all shapes and colors. Tattoos. Badass females. <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

I just posted a few new prints and stickers in my shop!! Im really excited to finally have my Kintsugi and Greenhouse pieces from my solo show available as prints! I’m also including a limited edition large hand embellished run of Kintsugi✨ (don’t worry I will be putting the originals up for sale soon) I also added some new glossy vinyl stickers including a mermaid, witch hand, Symmetra, and some new witches! Head over to jacquelindeleon.storenvy.com or click on the link in my bio to check it out! Thank you guys for sticking around and for all of your sweet comments! I’ll have some new art to post real soon☺️💕 . #illustration #jacquelindeleon #artistsoninstagram #artcollective #instaart #artoftheday #witch #stickers #symmetra #overwatch #kintsugi #watercolor #plants #plantstagram

A post shared by Jacquelin de Leon (@jacquelindeleon) on Jun 27, 2017 at 5:33pm PDT

There are times when I doubt myself when I use black ink as linings on my portraits. Often because there are so many artists out there who have non-black linearts or no lineart at all. But Jacquelin is such an inspiration to me and motivates me to just draw whatever the heck I want.

Alisa Vysochina

Pretty people. Cats. Dogs. Other cutie animals. Amazing attention to details. Super cute witches. And most importantly: CACTI AND SUCCULENTS!!!

🍂🍃🌿Greenhouse🌿🍃🍂 Check out my new video about creating and planning big illustrations, link in the profile as always 🍁 #watercolor #artistsoninstagram #illustration #greenhouse #patheticpowers #doggoboyfriend

A post shared by Alisa Vysochina (@alisavysochina) on May 8, 2017 at 9:57am PDT

See, ever since I could remember, I’m no good at drawing plants. My flowers are below mediocre and my trees are still like the kind you draw in first grade. It’s that awful. So seeing the greenery in her works motivates me to practice drawing more flowers and trees <3 <3 <3

*I have a thing with accents, okay??? Also, it’s soothing to hear her talk about artist woes and motivating fellow artists. They fill mah heart everytime.

Maruti Bitamin (aka Koyamori)

Beautiful and bold color combinations. Illustrations that make you feel like you’ve entered into a surreal dream world. SUPER CUTIE CREATURES <3 <3

Bioluminescence ✨

A post shared by @maruti_bitamin on Jun 30, 2017 at 7:30am PDT

Her drawings are always PACKED with details. And she always motivates me in taking more time into my illustrations and putting more details into them. I mean, who could make fishbones look so awesome??? <3 <3 <3

Charlie Bowater

Aghhh! The prints are here! This is my life for the next few days: signing and packaging this fat stack. I also never thought I would say the phrase ‘fat stack’ and yet, here we are. 👌🏻 #acowar #charliebowater #sjmaas

A post shared by charlie bowater (@charliebowater) on Jun 6, 2017 at 5:02am PDT

If you’re familiar with Sarah J. Maas, then I’m willing to bet you know who Charlie Bowater is. She is a bookworm and she creates these AH-MAZING fan arts of characters from novels. I came across her because… well, my Twitter feed is basically 75% bookish community.* And she created the Most Gorgeous fan art for the ACOTAR series and I’m seriously in love with them!!!

*Most likely because of joining in on too many bookish giveaway on Twitter. Hahaha! …haha…ha…I haven’t won anything.

Rebecca Ninig (aka ni_nig)

Beautiful girls and boys. Voluminous hair. That shading tho <3

And here’s another graphite commission. This character belongs to lymerikk (on deviantart)

A post shared by Rebecca Ninig (@ni_nig) on Jul 9, 2017 at 5:37am PDT

Ah,Rebecca Ninig and her super-awesome-I-can’t-handle-this-beauty-ashfjhdkl Instagram account. Have I ever told you how much I obsess over pencil sketches?? Like I’m sure you know how much of an art geek I am at this point but we can go further and let me tell ya: I LOVE PENCIL SKETCHES SOOO MUCH. And the way Rebecca shades her drawings…

 Image result for perfect gif

Meyoco

Another artist whose choice of color combinations I love so much. I notice Meyoco likes to use bright and pastel colors and together with her thin lineart, it creates this fluffy and airy feeling to her illustrations.

Also: I WOULD DEFINITELY BUY THE CLOTHES HER OCs WEAR!!! <3 <3 <3

🍹🍹🍹 (art tools info: @pearlescentpink)

A post shared by meyoコ (@meyoco) on Jul 9, 2017 at 8:30am PDT

Griselda (aka lord_gris)

Pretty girls. Beautiful coloring. Her fan arts are gorgeous especially her version of Beth and Plum from Bravest Warriors.

What I loved most about her though, is that she is so supportive of aspiring artists. I mean, I’m sure other big artists are supportive of newbies as well but man, you should see the captions on some of her photos (you can have a taste of her inspiring goodie-caption below).

I was talking to someone the other day and they asked me if I ever felt pity for people, like if I looked at their art and thought “you’re never going to be any good”. I mean this was a non-artistic person so I think they thought some people blasted out of the womb with a magic paintbrush that they can whack on a canvas and the Mona Lisa pops out. So I said to them “heck no! Hold the phone! Let me get you my sketchbook from when I was 11”. They were shocked as they fllipped through it and said “wow I drew better than you when I was a kid.” Honestly most people drew better than me when they were kids. I just enjoyed drawing, so I kept doing it, and improved as a byproduct. When I say I believe in you guys I think it’s really easy to sort of shake it off and say “well she’s talking to everyone else, not me” but I am talking to you. If you’re making your art no matter what then I absolutely believe in you, because I’ve been through the same journey. I’ve never looked at any persons art and said to myself “well they’re going nowhere fast”. The only thing I look at is people’s attitudes. If they’re always talking about quitting then they’re probably going to quit, and that’s what’s going to keep them from growing. But anyone who is tenacious and perseveres is going to be so amazing at art. And I earnestly think that. And I want people to be kind and patient with themselves during the process because it takes a long time. But don’t ever think to yourself that just because your art isn’t where you want it to be then it’s hopeless. Keep going, never stop :3 #sketch #redraw #drawitagain #drawthisagain #moleskine #copicart #oldart #draweveryday #artsanity #dibujo #practice #autodesksketchbook #pencil #mechanical #doodle #scribble #improvement #fashion

A post shared by Griselda (@lord_gris) on Jul 8, 2017 at 1:09pm PDT

See??? How can you not be inspired by that?? *clutches heart* Her captions really inspire me to be better and keep on drawing <3 <3 and she’s never ashamed to share the struggles she has gone through and are currently going through as an artist.

Sara Tepes (aka sarucatepes)

Gorgeous hair. Victorian/gothic-ish vibe to her drawings; kinda reminds me of Brett Helquist’s style, the artist who made the illustrations for Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events.

6 of the princess drawings are up in my shop along with limited edition prints of all 12 of them, link in my bio! Use the code PRINCESS30 for 30% off if you wish to purchase all 12 of them. I will snap some better products pics of the prints tomorrow, it’s super late here ahh * * * #disney #disneyprincess #fanart #shop

A post shared by Sara Tepes | 18 (@sarucatepes) on Mar 24, 2017 at 8:29pm PDT

Sara and her works constantly remind me that your age is never a criterion on excelling at what you do. By the way, she’s around my age so she makes me pumped up to draw more <3


And just so y’all know, these are just like 5% of the artists I follow in Instagram and YouTube. But they are some of the artists that never fail to inspire me with their works. My People Who Inspire Me list is really long. I still haven’t mentioned the webcomic artists, and authors, and bloggers, and just about anyone else who inspire me. Maybe next time 😉

The point here is that: it’s good to have people you look up to, I like to think. You find the motivation and inspiration to do your best and keep working hard on what you do. Also: instead of letting yourself wallow in The Green Monster of Envy™, you could spread the love all around and not hurt your self-esteem, right???

FANGIRL WITH ME: Who are your role models? How do they inspire or motivate you?  Are you a Universal Fangirl™ like me? DO YOU LIKE SUCCULENTS??? (Seriously. I need someone to fangirl over succulents with stat.)

Have an awesome fangirling day, awesome peeps! <3

A Crucial Life Lesson I Learned from a Chicken

Hey everyone! I’m currently hitting the books, studying for my pre-midterm exams right now and I didn’t have any post scheduled for today. Hopefully, I’ll have a new one next Wednesday but in the meantime, here’s a short post I did… *checks the date* whoa, this was last year??? It’s that old?! Whaaaaaat

Ahem. Anyway. If you don’t know yet, I have an incredibly soft spot for chickens. And birds, in general*. I miss my chicken, Maui**, sooo much. And here’s a life lesson I learned from hanging out with them last year. Enjoy! 🙂

*And cats. And fishies. And bunnies. And dogs (so long as they don’t bark at me or bite me. I still have a bit of trauma from a childhood incident)
**I call her that because she has this tribal-like design on the feathers around her neck and Moana was the jam last year. She’s also a human-attention-seeker, much like Maui the demigod.

You read that right. I learned something from Scrabble before, this isn't unusual already, right? | Life Lesson, Inspiration

The chickens in my grandfather’s backyard all sleep in our neighbor’s fruit tree. It is the tallest tree and the one with the most numerous branches in their vicinity. It’s like their penthouse suite. Overnight security and so high up from the ground.

There was the youngest of all, basically still a chick, that I call Tom Hanks* and he wanted to follow the older chickens up in the tree. But he was still too young and his tiny wings couldn’t take him that far up yet. I watched him go farther and farther up. He perched on our neighbor’s wooden fence and tried to fly towards the tree. But he fell.

Later, he gave up and had to retreat to his old nest. He was sleeping on that nest that night.

Observing Tom Hanks made me think of the goals we set for ourselves and the obstacles we had to face in our lives.

I once mentioned that I don’t agree with people who said that you “only think” that obstacles are big. Like obstacles have some weird deceptive power that make them look big. “It’s all in our heads,” they say.

I think not. I think obstacles are big and they’re supposed to be.

Because maybe, when we were facing those obstacles, we were just like Tom Hanks (the chick above, not the actor); still tiny and our wings can’t take us anywhere far.

Maybe we had to fall several times before we reach that treetop-penthouse.

Maybe we still don’t have the strength to overcome those obstacles.

Maybe we still have to grow.

Because really, isn’t that how life is? No one joins the Game of Life and immediately starts at level 99. And not everyone starts the game of life altogether. You could still be at level 18 and you’re already comparing yourself to someone at level 50. Give yourself a break.

If there was something I’ve learned from Tom Hanks the chick, it’s that when you fall down, you don’t give up. You go back and rest. You get to live another day and grow.

Who knows? Maybe by the next sunset you’ll finally reach that branch.

Happy obstacle-conquering, awesome peeps!

*I call him Tom Hanks because among the five hatchlings, he was the only one to survive from getting eaten by huge field rats and cats. Basically the Castaway/Survivor, amirite??

13 Ways to Be Inspired and Pump Up Your Creativity

It is a problem any and every creative experiences at least like ten times* in their life:

Error 404: Inspiration and Creativity Not Found

(Did you mean pizza?)

Frustrating, right???

And so, I share to you 13 ways to be inspired and pump up creativity. These are things I found through the ever-wise Google, most of which has worked for me. Enjoy!

*this didn’t come from any real statistics, just personal experience haha

Are you recently uninspired and are totally frustrated about it? I know no one likes being an uninspired potato so I list 13 ways to be inspired and pump up your creativity. | Inspiration, Creativity

1 | Take a walk

Or if you’re up for it, do regular exercise. Did you know that taking a walk—or, essentially, letting your body move—helps in the improvement of your creative inspiration? Apparently, a casual walk can help you see things in a new perspective and voila! Inspiration!

So fellow non-outdoorsy peeps, y’all have no excuse not to walk, ‘kay? It could just be a walk around your house or pacing in your room or taking the stairs. So long as you give your brain that stimulating effect after a brief exercise, you’re good to go! 😉

2 | Listen to music

And I don’t just mean any music. I mean, listening to music that strikes you and your mind in a positive way.

Image result for metal music monsters university gif

Like has that ever happen to you? You hear a certain song and you’re just struck with this feeling? Like a crack appeared and light went in. The song triggered a gear inside your mind and made it whir into action. Have you ever had that?

Depending on the kind of music that you want when you’re in a particular mood at a particular time, your brain will be able to go into “mind-wandering mode” where most of our creativity happens. It’s like the Pillar of Creation is where stars are born, ya know?*

Here are three musicians that gives me that “struck” feeling:

Owl City – synthpop, experimental pop, beautiful lyrics

AURORA – ethereal music, enchanting voice, amazing lyrics telling stories

In Love with a Ghost – lo-fi indie music, no words but is incredibly soothing

3 | Take a picture of beautiful things

Because of the convenience that comes with owning smartphones, taking pictures of pretty things is something that we all do. But to be inspired, I do something else: I look at ordinary things and try to see the beauty in them. I think it’s a good exercise to have, not only creative-wise but also in my own personal positive mindset practice.

It’s a way to see things in a different, more imaginative perspective. Sharing those pictures to the world and having people appreciate it are all bonuses, to be honest.

4 | Immerse yourself in nature

Related image

It’s something I learned last year: nature can be the most relaxing and best companion you could have. It’s like you could throw anything awful to it, and Mother Nature simply absorbs it and gives you something more positive and beautiful instead.*

If you have a garden or live near a park or mountains or the beach, take a step out of your desk or your room and just bask in the beauty of nature. Take it from me, it’s therapeutic. 😉

*when you think about it, that’s what trees do, isn’t it? Suck all the carbon dioxide and glet out oxygen for us to breathe.

5 | Bring your pet outdoors

And stare at them lovingly until you feel relaxed. No kidding. A relaxed state can help your brain go into that “mind-wandering mode” I mentioned above. And yo, there are reasons why some facilities make use of dogs to help veteran soldiers and patients experiencing post-traumatic stress.

6 | Watch an educational video on YouTube

And yes, I don’t mean vlogs or comedy sketch videos or late night shows. I mean sure, maybe a video of these kinds here and there could spark an idea. But ultimately, these types of videos are usually meant to entertain rather than to educate. And they won’t be able to help you see things in different light and spark an idea and inspire you.

There are plenty of channels out there that aim to educate and share different perspectives. Here are four of my go-tos:

+ TED Talks / TEDx Talks – incredible ideas on almost every topic you can possibly think of.
+ TED-Ed – three- to five-minute videos that aim to educate people in a certain topic with crazy-good animation.
+ School of Life – They’re kinda like TED-Ed and I personally love their videos on psychology and society.
+ Button Poetry – My go-to channel for awesome spoken word poetry.

7 | Listen to interesting podcasts

I’ve had a good amount of blog posts published here that were inspired from a podcast episode. Thing is, whether you’re into business, writing or even the fashion or beauty industry, if you just take the time to search the topics you’re interested in, you’ll be able to find a podcast for it 🙂

Here are some podcasts that I love:

<3 Invisibilia – a podcast about the invisible forces that control human behavior. Narrative storytelling + scientific research = a must-listen podcast.
<3 TED Radio Hour – Because I obviously can’t get enough of TED, each episode is about a certain topic with guests who had a TED Talk related to said topic.
<3 Ctrl Alt Delete – a podcast by Emma Gannon about how the internet and social media has changed our lives.
<3 Radiolab – a show where the boundaries blur between science, philosophy, and human experience.

8 | Take a break

As Eliza sang to Alexander, it doesn’t do you any good if you’re too hard on yourself. You might end up getting burned out or too overwhelmed which is unhealthy. Getting too focused on a task is mentally exhausting so give your brain the break it rightfully needs.

9 | Read blogs

Because, ya gotta admit, reading blogs written by other people can spark an inspiration, don’t you find? Brain Pickings, particularly, is a favorite inspiration hub of mine. And yes, I love all of you awesome peeps’ blogs <3 I’ve discovered so many awesome blog posts and new blogs and I can’t wait to share ’em to y’all in this July’s Fourth Friday Fangirling! 😀

10 | Be mindful of your thoughts

Remember that “mind-wandering mode” I mentioned above? The birthplace of almost all of our creativity? That involves daydreaming and flitting from one thought to another.

Image result for daydreaming gif

So try to take notice of these moments and when a flitting thought inspires you, take note of it immediately. Remember thoughts can be like butterflies; they’re there one moment and gone the next. Daydreaming usually happens to me when I’m commuting or bored. Speaking of boredom…

11 | Try “Eat that Frog”

Remember the productivity technique where you have to start the boring stuff first? You could apply it to creative inspiration too. Yep, boredom can boost your creativity and I talked about how the heck that works. You can check out that post here.

12 | Take a step out of your routine

I’ve talked about how new perspectives can help you be inspired and unleash your creative awesomeness plenty of times above, right? Now, what easier way to see things in a new angle than to step out of your everyday routine. Maybe you can listen to an unfamiliar song or use a different route than your usual or learn something new.

13 | Be deliberate

Now if you really want to be inspired and pump up your creativity, you have to be deliberate about it. And when I say deliberate, I mean: don’t do things half-assed and flush away your glumness in the toilet. Instead of thinking “I can’t do this…” or “But this is how it’s supposed to be,” ask yourself these questions: “What if…” or “What other way is there?” or “How would *insert different person* see this?”

In other words, keep an open mind. Because an open mind would attract inspiration and creativity more than a closed one.

And remember, awesome peeps: inspiration and creativity are not infinite.

At one point, you’ll use up and exhaust them. So when that happens, frustrating as it may be, know that it’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t mean that you’ll never see them again. The world is large enough to offer us many platforms for inspiration and creativity; you just have to find them. 🙂


Other awesome articles on finding inspiration you can check out:

50 Ways to Find Inspiration – Tiny Buddha
How to Unleash Your Creativity and Find Inspiration Today – Psychology Today
6 Places I Go Online to Be Inspired – yours truly

Your turn: How do you get inspired? Where do you find inspiration? I’m sure there are still more ways out there, so are there any that works on you that I haven’t mentioned? Do share them all! I’d love to hear about them!

Have an inspired day, awesome peeps! <3

5 More Places to Find Gorgeous Free Stock Photos for Your Blog

About ten months ago, I shared the places where I get gorgeous free stock photos that I use for my blog. You can see that post, which I edited to match my current “style guide”*, right over here.

A lot has happened to me in the last ten months. But obviously, my love for free stock photo shopping haul hasn’t faded one bit. I’ve been able to find and discover more places that offer super-gorgeous free stock photos. And I thought of sharing them to you. Because why the heck not???

*sorta, but not really. I dunno, “style guide” seemed like too fancy for what I do but I can’t think of any other phrase to use XD

5 More Places to Find Gorgeous Free Stock Photos for Your Blog | I share five more places where you can get super-gorgeous, high quality free stock photos for your blog! | Blogging Advice, Blog Design

A Quick Reminder on Licenses

Always, and I mean A L W A Y S, read the license terms of the website you’re getting your stock photos from. Is it okay for personal and commercial use? Or just personal use? Does the owner of the photos want to be attributed or not?

If you see the phrase “CC0 Public Domain” anywhere in the site, this means that you can copy, modify, and distribute any photo in the site, even for commercial purposes without asking for permission.

Sites that offer free stock photos always have such terms somewhere in their website. Maybe they have a separate page or it’s in the same page as the particular photo you want. I’ll do my best to identify a tl;dr version of each of the websites’ terms below but it always pays to check out the terms yourself. 🙂

Now that we got that done, let’s have the virtual itinerary for where you’re having your stock photo shopping spree, okay? Okay!

Styled Stock

Holy macaroni, the kinds of stock photos provided by this site is <3 If you’re a lifestyle, fashion, beauty, or food blogger, do check this website out. They have gorgeous styled stock photos that make use of white space (which I love) and are super drool-worthy! And if you’re looking for a stock photo in a particular color, you can search their site with photos in that color too!

Photos can be: used for commercial and non-commercial use, no attribution needed. But they greatly appreciate a link back to their site.

StockSnap

This site has a huge array of beautiful, high-quality photos. They’re kinda like Pixabay, when you think about it. But I also gotta admit: they have fewer photos that are like the generic stock photos with watermarks you usually see in Google Images compared to Pixabay.

Photos can be: used for commercial and non-commercial use. CC0 Public Domain. No attribution needed.

Kaboompics

I recently discovered this site and I am absolutely in love with it!!! Their photos have this wonderful combination of heavy atmosphere and vibrancy…? I guess that’s the best way I can describe them. Another thing I love about Kaboompics is their search function. Other than giving you the capability to search a certain keyword, they also give you the option to choose either a horizontal or vertical image in a certain color. And you can also download your chosen photo in a custom width.

It also doesn’t hurt that the overall site’s design has a minimalist vibe to it and is very user-friendly. Not much ads crowding the entire page so <3 <3 <3

Photos can be: used for commercial and non-commercial use. Attribution needed. Redistribution of their photographs is not allowed.

Death to Stock Photo

This is another website I discovered a couple months ago. Their photos are being used by Spotify and Twitter, among other websites and apps. Since there are tons of photographers who collaborate with Death to Stock, you get different styles of photography every project. You can also sign up to their newsletter to get beautiful photo packs every month.

Photos can be: used for commercial and non-commercial use. No attribution needed.

Ivorymix

I’ve always loved reading the blog posts on Ivorymix so when I learned that they also give free stock photos every month… well, let’s just say I’ve never typed in my email so fast before. Most of the photos I use as background for my graphics are from Ivorymix’s free stock photos.

Photos can be: used for commercial and personal use. Redistribution of the photos are not allowed. No attribution needed but is always greatly appreciated.

Your turn: Do you do your own blog photography? Or do you use stock photos like moi? I’m sure there are more sources for free stock photos out there, so do you know some that I didn’t mention? Share them all below!

Happy blogging, awesome peeps!

Knowing the Creativity-Boosting Importance of Boredom This Summer

Are you the kind of person who’s super excited for summer because you’ve planned on doing absolutely nothing at all? Because, pssh, summertime = recharging time, amirite???

Hey! High five! That’s me too! 😀

Well let me guess: halfway into the break and you’re already letting out undignified wails and gradually melting into a pathetic puddle who has declared yourself Extremely Bored™.

Hey high five me too.

Knowing the Creativity-Boosting Importance of Boredom This Summer | I share what I learn about boredom. Apparently, it boosts creativity. *cue theatrical gasps*

I mean let’s face it, summer boredom is the work of a jealous evil workaholic sorcerer. Some lucky ones avoid it altogether by signing up to summer camps or applying for summer jobs. While the rest of us poor unfortunate souls are left to deal with it in the most ungracious ways possible. You know, like rolling around the bed moaning like a llama.

But you gotta admit, we all avoid it. We avoid summer boredom like the contemporary plague that it is. We keep ourselves busy and we run to the other direction whenever we see it coming our way.

Actually, when you think about it, we avoid boredom, period. Whatever the kind.

But have you ever tried being like the ever-philosophical Hammond* and stopped for a minute and thought: why do we hate boredom?

“Oh pssh, that’s easy, Kate. It’s awful, it makes you feel anxious, you feel like a bum, and you feel awful for being an unproductive puddle of uselessness. Did I mention IT’S AWFUL??”

*Mistborn Series, anyone?

But what if I tell you that boredom is actually important?

And no, I’m not just being a Sunnyside Sunshine Sarah here. I’m not trying to see the good thing in even something as glum as boredom, okay? It’s true! Boredom apparently boosts your creativity. You want proof?

Okay, let me enumerate them in pretty purple diamond bullet-points:

University of Louisville researcher Andreas Elpidorou pointed out that boredom is a “regulatory state that keeps one in line with one’s projects.” Basically, boredom is your brain’s way of warning you that you are not doing anything productive and you have to come up with something more stimulating to do.

In two separate studies, researchers have found the connection between feeling bored and getting creative. Each study had a group of participants do uber-boring tasks such as reading phone books and watching an incredibly boring video clip. And these bored groups outperformed groups who were relaxed or elated on creativity tests.

Oh, and in case you’d think this is some modern finding we’ve only realized recently, you’re dead wrong. Philosophers from way back to a century ago had already mused about the importance of boredom in our everyday lives.

British psychoanalyst Adam Phillips pointed out the adults’ way of making children grow out of boredom by providing them young ‘uns with interesting things. And this is hindering that child’s opportunity to find, on his own, what interests him.

What these pretty purple bullet-points tell us is that boredom exists for a reason. It is that push that motivates us to engage in more creative and fun activities.

Seeing as we’re gradually turning into a creativity-seeking world, it’s no question really that we are also looking for more interesting and highly creative things to do.

Of course, you need to know the difference of a good type of boredom from a bad one

Because much like how there’s a good type of stress and a bad type of stress, according to British philosopher Bertrand Russell, there are two kinds of boredom: a fructifying one (the motivating kind of boredom) and a stultifying one (the boredom that turns you into an undignified wailing llama).

Being able to differentiate between the two can be useful in dealing with boredom in your everyday life.

So here’s what you can do with the good kind of boredom.

Instead of running for the hills or containing it in a glass jar, treat it like… well, treat it like Sadness*. Allow yourself to go along with it. Let your brain experience boredom. Doodle random weird-looking creatures, make an improvised origami, spin a pen. Make something out of being bored.

*I swear, the moral of Inside Out is super applicable to life

And how exactly do we make use of being bored, Kate?

Great question.

You know that famous productivity technique, “Eat The Frog”? Where you do your worst and most tedious task first thing? Same concept.

When you think you need creativity to finish a certain project, try to start your day accomplishing the boring tasks first. In a way, it’s like your brain saving up your creative energy so you could use them at the right time 🙂

Your turn: Do you get bored often? Have you taken the Boredom Proneness Scale Test? What do you do when you’re bored? Share your thoughts!

♦♦ Have a creative day, awesome peeps! ♦♦

Come in, come in. We have PIE! | Fourth Friday Fangirling

I gotta admit, much as I was excited for this feature, I didn’t get to explore as much new blogs as I wanted. But I still got to find really awesome posts and bloggers to share and feature for this month.

Because can you really believe that not much had happened in the blogosphere??? I refuse to.

Gathering all the posts I’ve bookmarked and blogs I took note all throughout this month, I realized that I unintentionally had a sort of theme going on.

PIE!

Perspective, inspiration and energy. Which, let’s face it, are pretty abundant here, don’t you agree?

Ever since I started college, I’ve always wanted to see things in different perspectives. I guess it started out after I watched a video of Hank Green where he said something about people’s differing worldviews and this book I read. Gosh, those were so long ago, I forgot what they were.

Their impact on me remained, though. Both the video and the book made me want to understand and be more considerate of the things and people around me. I became an Anton ego.

Related image

But…you know, a bubblier and happier Anton Ego, I’d like to think. (We both have sophisticated tastes tho hahaha)

When I think about it now, it was no surprise that I went to the blogosphere to find those varying perspectives. I’ve had this blog for nearly three years and I’ve seen so many inspiring and energetic people with opinions similar and different from mine. If that doesn’t make you more open-minded, I sure don’t know what will.*

For this June, I want to share some inspiring and personality-driven blog posts and blogs from bloggers you may or may not know. One thing I can guarantee for y’all lovely peeps: these are packed with perspective, inspiration, and energy.

*Perhaps opening your skull will make you more open-minded, hmm? Get it??? 😀 *crickets chriping* Kfine.

Come in, come in. We have PIE! | Fourth Friday Fangirling | Teen bloggers' impact, regrets, redemption, and telling it like it is. This first feature is kinda packed, if you think about it. BUT SO GOOD I TELL YA! :D

 

Teen Bloggers: Impacting the World, One Blog Post at a Time

I’ve always felt blessed that I spent the last… *mutters and counts* three years of my teenage years skimming through the Teen Tag of WordPress. Through it, I got to meet the most spunky, inspiring, hilarious and purely awesome fellow teenagers who are, honestly, more awesome and opinionated than I was at their age. (Gosh, I sound an old lady. Just so y’all know, I’m still nineteen 😉 )

Two of said awesome teens posted two inspiring blog posts this month that had me so inspired, I think I fangirled over their comment section more than was publicly appropriate.

Elm of—oh gorsh, we can all agree we only have one Elm in this part of the blogosphere, right???

Anyway, if you haven’t read it yet*, Elm shared a few weeks ago about how she was going to speak to a group of students in Dorset, “My Blog in the Real World”. I was beyond ecstatic reading her post and felt completely inspired.

This just shows how we bloggers—no matter how small or big, young or old—have a voice and the capability to impact people. And I’d like to quote Elm on this:

Remember that your words can mean something; it’s words that can change people’s minds and let them understand things which they otherwise wouldn’t.

I may not be able to help everyone or do everything I want to do. However, what I can do is worth it. What I can do is help as many people as I can and speak as loudly as I can.

Don’t be afraid of taking new, potentially scary opportunities. It could change your life, or the lives of others, one day.”

And then there’s Bea of Child of Cynicism.

OHHHMYGOSHHHH HER POSTS AHHHHH!

If you don’t follow her blog yet, I urge you to. Like seriously. Just get out of here right now and go and click follow. (But do come back afterwards, because I still have like two or three more blogs to feature below hehe)

She doesn’t have a regular posting schedule but, I can guarantee you, every post of hers is inspiring and thought-provoking. I am basically a puppy wagging its tail when they see their human companion in the vicinity whenever I see she has a new post. They’re the kind of posts that make you question how the world around you truly works and make you think of certain societal issues.

Her post “To Teenagers, Everywhere” is a short yet straightforward and incredibly inspiring message to teenagers who are struggling with school-works and exams at the time. Because let’s face it, we teenagers have practically spent most of our lives in the classroom. Don’t you sometimes wonder about your self-worth whenever you failed a test or flunked a subject? I know I did, and still sometimes do.

Bea’s post is a helpful reminder that, no, you are more than your grades and your self-worth isn’t measured by your academic performance. Here’s a little snippet:

Please take the time to realise that your grades do not define you. That they cannot measure the content of your kindness, or the vastness of your intellect. They do not determine your intelligence, nor do they determine your future.

An Inspiring Advice on Regrets

I remember discovering Corey of The Nostalgia Diaries a few months back (or was it last year…?) when I joined one of the blog parties hosted by Steph of Scale it Simple. The Nostalgia Diaries has since become one of my go-to places for Internet therapy and I always leave her blog feeling comforted and reassured. Her writing does that to you. (Or me, in my case.)

Her post, “On the Road of Life: Let There Be No Regrets” resonated to me so much despite our age difference. It just goes to show that we all go through similar struggles in life, despite how we may be in different levels in this game called Life. Seriously, I want to like quote the entire-freakin-post because her writing is that good but that would make this feature post incredible long already* so here’s me trying to restrain and sticking to, like two paragraphs instead:

“I sometimes wonder what my life would have been like if I’d stayed back in Ohio. My guess is that it would be very different than what it is like now, but then again, how am I to know? Would I be married? If I was, would we have a perfect little suburban house? Would we have a couple of kids? Would I have a different career? Would I even be working at all? Would I love my life? The only answer I can give to these questions is maybe. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe not.

I could sit and wonder about what my life would be like, but where would that get me? Engaging in that kind of wonder can be a slippery slope, because oftentimes it can lead you down the road of regret. To be perfectly honest, that’s not a road I want to be on.”

*Like dude, I reached the 1000th word here already

Redemption – A Cinematic Poetry (Seriously.)

I just discovered Sarah and her blog, Developing Brakes, this month and I’m so happy that I did. She likes to muse about life in general and share her poetry. One particular poem of hers became this stunning short film with the help of her friend, Sam Neff. You can watch it below.

PLEASE TELL ME IT MOVED YOUR HEART TO PLUTO AND BACK.

Because that’s what it did to mine the first time I watched it. I watched it a second time for this feature post and mygash, I think my heart went for like FIFTY ROUNDS in the Milky Way before it settled back to its place on my chest. It’s so beautiful.

Telling It Like It Is

I read that there had been an influx of new bloggers recently but I wouldn’t know just how many there are because I don’t know where they hang *laughs nervously* So if you’re a newbie over here, please do come and say hi or holler or like contact me via email or through social media! I’d love to check your blogs out! 😀

Anyway, Lisa of Diary of an Average Girl is relatively new. She started her blog last April and already she’s made an impression on me. As in, staring at her no-nonsense and tell-it-like-it-is personality with wide-eyed wonder. It’s refreshing and I like reading blog posts with the blogger’s personality just oozing out of every word.

Her post, “Politics, Blogs and Influencing Opinions” addresses the impact of Internet influencers to politics. She even pointed out how some of these influencers seem to be pushing their own political beliefs into their followers, instead of becoming a guiding light, that person who can help their followers in creating well-informed decisions, politics-wise.

And I completely agree with her. I’ve had the same problem with my generation lately. I mean, it’s good to see that a good amount of our country’s youths are starting to become politically aware and are voicing out their opinions. But in most cases, they are more opinionated yet not exactly informed. And that’s the problem. That’s where influencers could come in and help fill in that gap. Here’s a snippet of her post:

Like I’ve said I truly believe everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but if you take on the title of a ‘social media influencer’ then you need to bear in mind that you are in fact influencing people’s opinions.

(…) Despite this, I haven’t actually found any of these political opinions being thrown at me every time I click on an Instagram’s story, helpful. Quite the opposite, I find it off-putting. The reason being, that none of these opinions are providing me with any helpful information. No facts or figures are being given, no discussions about election manifestos. Instead, just a quick ‘vote this party because they’ll protect the NHS’ or ‘vote that party because they’re better for brexit’, but no reasons why are provided.

I hope you loved all these, bloggers and blog posts I featured. And I hope you’ll take the time to check their blogs out. They are all incredibly awesome. 😀

Of course, I truly believe there are more incredibly awesome bloggers out there waiting to be more known and I’ll do my best in the following months to find them and give them this tiny platform of a feature and spread the lovin’ they definitely deserve. 🙂

Happy blogging, awesome peeps! <3

My Two Cents on Failure (+ How to Deal With It)

Note: This post was something I first wrote and published nearly a year ago. Having read it now, I realized how much it still resonates to me to this day. I’ve edited a bit of the post and added some things but the point still remains the same. Enjoy! 🙂


In this success-driven world that we live in, failure is something we’d rather not experience. (Like at all, please??)

It’s something embedded into our minds as early as when we were kids. We don’t like seeing the red marks on our paper because our parents don’t, right? We spray away failure like we spray away mosquitoes.

But something surprised me when I Googled ‘failure’ for this post. I was immediately bombarded by links with the same theme:

It’s amazing how the idea had spread over every industry like a wildfire. But it had the most tremendous impact in the competitive fields of business and arts. You’ve seen and read the success stories. And they all have that same format.

“I’ve had 10 failed projects in my career… BEFORE BUILDING MY MILLION-DOLLAR ONE!”

“My 499th audition gave me my big break!”

“After 18 years of searching, I’ve finally proven the existence of unicorns!*”

This tells us that persistence will pay off. And that’s great! It motivates people not to be disheartened when you fail. Besides, failure is needed for us to thrive. It’s a core ingredient in trial-and-error. And it lets us know what not to do to be successful.

However, this “failure is the secret to success” bit can also further feed that success-driven mentality, deliberately deceiving yourself that failing will actually bring you nearer to success.

And that’s not at all good yo.

My Two Cents on Failure (+ How to Deal with It) | I share what I think about how "failure leads to success".

Romanticizing failure does not necessarily make you any closer to success.

I mean, I totally agree that it’s a great way to not get discouraged and not go total Eeyore mode, giving up on life. But there’s a fine line between encouragement and false hope.

The thing is: not everybody will succeed. And failing? Sucks.

When I graduated in high school, I subconsciously brought with me this reassurance and certainty that college will be the same. I was like, “College? Pssh, cake.”

Dear past self: They’re. Not. The. Same.

If high school was Super Mario Level 7**, college is Flappy Bird. No levels. Just pure agony.

And that cold water of reality didn’t splash onto my arrogant face until my second year in college. I didn’t reach the cut-off for a major subject and I was bummed. No, scratch that, I was more than bummed. I was devastated.

It was like a super-confident bump car driver who likes to constantly flip his hair tried driving a ten-wheeler truck for the first time. And he ends up clutching tight at the wheels and crying for his mommy.

So I’m not gonna argue with you. Failure hurts like Gordon Ramsey telling you that sunny-side egg you cooked isn’t even worthy to be served to dogs.

It hits your self-confidence and shatters your spirit. And to someone currently experiencing failure, being told “everything will be okay” may not be the best mood-lifter. And neither is the rhetoric of failure leading to success.

See, success may come later. But failure needs to be dealt now.

So sure, you may reach success afterwards. May. Meaning there’s a possibility that you won’t. And I’m not trying to be Jenny Rain Cloud here. It’s a fact.

For most of our lives, success is something that we will accomplish in the future. But failure can happen any minute and it’s experienced at present, so you deal with it now. If you don’t, failure doesn’t lead to anything good at all.

So then, Kate, how do we deal with failure?

Great that you ask. Here are three things you could do:

<3 Don’t think that the entire universe is ganging up against you. Believe me, I’ve been there. I’ve had my fair share of years being an angsty kid and thinking everybody hates me. They don’t–or… not all of them do. Every person you’ve met has faced failure to a certain degree.*** And the universe is just being the huge thing that it is. In fact, leave the stars alone; they’re minding their own beautiful twinkly business yo.

<3 Think, instead, of what lessons you could take away from failing. Remember that 4-step cure I shared for missed opportunities? Missed opportunities are kinda like failures too. And it always helps to see that even the most awful things have a positive takeaway you can carry your whole life. Lastly…

<3 Give yourself the time to feel all the awful. If there was one thing I’ve learned in Pixar’s Inside Out, it’s that there is nothing wrong with feeling the negative things. It’s okay to feel bad.

There will be happy, colorful moments (like when you’ve proven unicorns are real) and there will be sucky ones (like when you realize you were just dreaming).

So really, it’s okay to feel bummed out or even devastated that you failed at something you’ve worked so hard for 🙂 Use up an entire box of tissues, if you must! But when you’re done, get up and start moving.

Because at the end of the day, success won’t come to you. You run towards it.

After having my pity party for like a day or two, I had to get back on my study desk and hit the books again because I had that comprehensive exam to face.

I passed said exam and I’m contented now. I even have this newfound determination to put in more effort into my studies 🙂 And I realized, I probably won’t have such a huge character development if it weren’t for failure.

And here’s the catch.

Yes, failure may lead to success. But for that to happen, you don’t just give yourself encouragements and confidence-boosters. You have to put in some hard work and effort, too 🙂

That’s how the bump car driver learns how to drive ten-wheelers. That’s how you cook a sunny-side egg that will have Gordon Ramsey on foodgasm.

That’s how you will grow.

Your turn! What is your biggest failure in life so far? How did you cope and rise out of it? Share what you learned!

Have an inspired day, awesome peeps! <3


Other awesome articles to read about this topic:

Challenging Success-via-Failure | Psychology Today

How Fear of Failure Destroys Success | Lifehack.org

*Who do you think was the pathetic potato who said that? (raises hand)
**Is this the underground lava level with that dragon???
***Unless, you know, that person is a newborn infant. Then protect that precious lump of baby fats from failure until he’s all grown up to handle them!