Reflection - A To Z Challenge 2016

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Proper sequence of ideas creates sentences. Amalgamation of sentences in turn recreate those ideas in the minds of the readers who wish to know your thoughts.

April month had been a ride as far as thoughts, ideas, goals and A to Z challenge were concerned. I brought all of these together and created a theme for A to Z challenge - “ Finding Myself : Living My Life” .

A to Z challenge is a platform where more than thousand bloggers write their posts and go on a reading spree. For me, the theme was more for myself than others. Finding your own self and your passion isn't as easy as is portrayed often.

Most often hobby is mistaken to be one’s passion. Distinguishing between both is one's own job.

Finding my passion and living the life on my own terms, Finding Me was my goal as well as theme for the month of April along with the writing challenge. Writing daily wasn't much pain as I knew what I wanted in life which eventually would be published as a series of blog posts.

During this journey, I read many new, unknown and previously known bloggers and was amazed at the talent people possessed. Ideas are diverse, and so are the people. Most people chose themes close to them, while others preferred sharing knowledge they possessed. Still others displayed their creative side with poems and fiction.

About my writing during this challenge, Though I cannot say I liked one blog post more than the other, these two I wrote with all the passion I felt when I took up the topics.

Horrible Husband
Ode to Pappa

Learnings from this challenge were ample. I learnt that I make writing mistakes which span from the most basic to most difficult ones. Though writing on a daily basis and coming up with new topics everyday isn't that easy, I found it comfortable because mine was more of free write. Given a choice, I would prefer writing one post systematically over writing on ten topics in a spree.

The theme allowed me to focus more on my growth in every field and I'm happy that I chose the theme I wrote on. I may not have gained many readers and followers, the self discovery proved worthwhile.

I have read about choosing and preparing for the next year challenge in advance. For the likes of me, I do not know how feasible and realistic that could be. But the entire writing exercise has given me new techniques and goals.

I wish to take the learnings of this month and try and improve my writing. What do I wish to be known as? A writer.

I wish to thank The Blogchatter team for the support. Chandni and Richa deserve more thanks than anything.

Here is a list of my blog posts of the April A To Z Challenge 2016.

- Amateurish

- Beyond

- Carry Creativity With Confidence

- Desire, Determination VS Dealing With Depression

- Express Yourself

- Finding Me

- Grab The Opportunity, Ideas Galore

- Horrible Husband

- I

- Be Jealous

- Killer Instinct

- Loose and Lose : Learnings From Lagori

- Mirage and Marriage

- Nemesis

- Ode To Pappa

- Panache

- Queen Escort or Queen Regent

- Reclaim Your Lost Glory

- Soul - Seek and ye Shall Find

- Ten Thousand : Tangential Thinking

- Be Unbroken to create Utopia

- Vehemence

- All Words and No Play

- X Factor

- Yours Truly

- Zero Zip Zilch

Zero Zip Zilch

#ATOZ Challenge Theme: Finding Myself - Living My Life

“With no cavalry to guard me, I started my journey on my own; vulnerable to attacks by all from every direction. I had absolutely nothing to guard myself. So what did I do? I used all the skills and qualities that I possess to guard myself. Was it easy, you ask. Of course it isn’t. Did you fear, you ask. Yes, of course. Sometimes I felt like giving up and running back to my safe haven, but something stopped me every time. The desire to keep going and the success encouraged me, and I kept moving ahead. I grabbed the opportunities which I saw fit, and turned away from temptations and forces which kept pulling me away from my path.”

How exciting it would be to start on a blank canvas! Would you like to make a fresh start by painting on a blank canvas or the one which has scribblings on it already?

I see a blank canvas in front of me and I am excited. Call me what you may; stubborn, rebel, bold. But I wish to own a blank canvas of my own; just for myself on which I can write to my heart’s content with not even a dot on it.

Zero Zip Zilch. Nothing. Nada!

I wish to start everything from the scratch, knowing now what qualities I have regained and what qualities I require. The canvas is new and is ready to be used. I have almost learnt the purpose of my life. I am still seeking, learning and going Beyond the conventional rules laid; that is a continuous process. It isn’t easy. All that I have learnt throughout this month, I wish to apply it to achieve my goals.

Right from my very first post of #AtoZChallenge, I had chosen to write for myself; for my improvement in every field I thought was possible. The journey will go beyond this challenge. What I learnt till now throughout this month has benefited me a lot and laid a foundation for me to start thinking about myself.

Battles in life are always present. You will be told to sacrifice your goals to fulfil someone else’s. Would you do it? Answer is left to you. But do not forget your purpose of life. Your passion! It requires your qualities and your zeal. And how do you begin your pursuit of your passion? Start from nothing. And build it one brick at a time.

Knowing what qualities I will need to achieve my goals; be it Killer Instinct, Being Jealous(this was a contradicting blog post), Panache, I need to make sure that the crown on my head doesn’t falter and eventually fall down.

My Pappa will always be my inspiration. And not to forget the Horrible Husband  :D (Read to know how Horrible Husband helped me)

                                       

                                                 

With this my A To Z Challenge 2016 comes to an end. But my journey of “Finding Myself” continues… The Journey has only begun.,. And from where did it begin? From nothing. Phoenix rises from the ashes. Begin from nothing and build something.

Yours Truly

#ATOZ Challenge Theme: Finding Myself - Living My Life

Dear Yours Truly,

Yet again I am writing a letter to you. It has been a fabulous month of self discovery. Although this is a long process unlike what I had assumed, I could see that you thoroughly enjoyed discovering and writing about things that you had thought deeply about. I am glad that you have started implementing a few and hope you will continue with same zeal and energy to work towards your goals.

You have always been a shy person who preferred staying away from the crowd. So I guess that is what turned you to writing. Instead of speaking, you pour your thoughts on paper. May be that is why writing suits you the most. But at times, you have shown your gregarious side, though it is very rare.

Though you may have had high hopes and dreams, do not forget that you have lived an ordinary life. Though you wanted to touch the stars, you followed the crowd.

It is never too late, they say, to try something. You may have to start few things from scratch. But if you show your immense desire towards your goals, and the childhood vigour that you owned once, nothing can stop you from achieving them,

What is the purpose of your life? What is your passion? These are the most important yet difficult questions that you need to ponder. You have almost come close to them. Some answers you have, some you do not. Some thoughts will be saved in your drafts or your journal. Well this reminds me to tell you that you should maintain a journal for your daily activities. Do you remember keeping diary to keep note of the many things that you wished to learn and do during summer vacation? And there were separate sections for each.

And then you would write each in different colours and make pointers. Height was you had made another page which had pointers to these notes. The point I wish to convey to you is that though these things may look unproductive to you now, I would ask you to do them to keep an order.

All I would like to say right now to you is that keep pursuing your passion no matter where you are. You may not find success, but satisfaction that you kept trying will be better than not trying at all. Set high targets and high standards. Do not stagnate, keep moving ahead.

Yours Truly,

Yourself

X Factor

#ATOZ Challenge Theme: Finding Myself - Living My Life

What would you need for your passion? If you know what is it that you are passionate about, you won’t need a quality to be imbibed. Passion itself will make you go way ahead. So why do you need an X Factor?

X Factor, in simple words is a special quality that a person has in her/him self. Are both passion and X Factor the same? Need not be, in my opinion. I may be good at doing something, which is my X Factor, but that need not be my passion. So incorporating this quality to achieve your desired goals should be the focus. Make the best use of your quality to achieve your passion. What better thing can be than that?

Your X Factor is your strong point and your passion is something that you are after. Combine both and the result will be awesome.

Identify your X factor and start working towards your goals. I have my own X Factor and this is the advice I give myself- Use it to pursue your goals.

All Words and No Play

#ATOZ Challenge Theme: Finding Myself - Living My Life

Words. Weave them with one another with creativity and voila! You end up with a well crafted crochet; words beautifully twirled with twists and turns.

Are all people gifted with this craft? Perhaps no. Writing is an art if you take it seriously to win audience's hearts. Just writing a line without any magic in it has no impact on the audience. And by magic, I mean the art of properly knitting the desired words and discarding the overwhelming ones. Mere connection of words with conjunctions doesn’t leave the desired influence in the minds of the readers.

Writing is a matter of playing with words. And by playing, I do not mean having fun at the drop of the hat. It means choosing your words properly and infusing them in a sentence to convey your thoughts. A dry string of sentences attached with one another hardly gets any attention. Writing gives you information. A very good piece of writing makes you think beyond the reality, just like how dreams do. Dreams take us to places unimaginable. Writing has the same effect. If words are chosen properly and created into effective sentences, they bring out the picture infront of your eyes; it is as if you are watching the movie infront of you.

Words that you spin are crucial to convey the meaning. You should be smart enough to play to create a masterpiece that will keep the readers gripping and coming back to read what you have in store for them.

Why this topic about words and writing today? This is what I have always loved to do. Write, write and write more. But in the process I didn’t actually learn how to draw audience to my writing. In this Journey of Self Discovery throughout this month with the A To Z Challenge, besides learning how to tackle many things, I gave deep thought towards my liking for writing. And this is what I concluded. Your content is your strong point if you need people to read what you have written. Mere dry words running in sequence are just words. Playing and weaving them properly is an art.

Vehemence

#ATOZ Challenge Theme: Finding Myself - Living My Life

Dear Thou,

This is your long lost but recently re-acquired quality that is writing to you. I am glad that you have kicked out procrastination and gave me my deserved spot yet again. It looks like ages since we last worked together.

I remember the endless hours you, as a child, sat on your small study table to complete the tasks that you set for yourself. There was nothing that could stop you. Your mind was ever busy, and like a scrap book with variety stuffed in it. Your brain would be brimming with ideas. Giving shape to them you sat, either with the words that fired themselves from your brain, or devising plans and activities so that they could be implemented in future.

It was in your early childhood that you learnt to use internet, but you never started using it for your ideas until recently. But before internet crept in, it was books and magazines that would give you knowledge. Your closet, was your storehouse of knowledge.

Do not forget that it was I who gave you all that exuberant energy that would sometime overflow from your mind.

You and I together achieved milestones which made people think you would achieve a lot when you grow up. Times changed and with that you forced yourself to change too. And in the turbulence you lost your energy of doing things differently and followed the crowd. Although you achieved a lot, I couldn’t be of much help since it wasn’t your passion that you were pursuing. You allowed yourself to leave me behind.

With time, you allowed procrastination to fill the empty spot which I owned once. You allowed yourself to settle in the mundane life and job which didn’t give any exposure to your passion.

But now that you have finally realised your passion and allowed me my rightful space in your life, I would like to tell you that this is one of the best decisions of your life, the first being that you have made a firm decision to pursue your passion and your likes.

In your endeavor of achieving your desires, although you might have to start everything from scratch, I would like to tell you to have the same vigour, gusto and energy that you had as a child. It was that vibrance that made you take those baby steps that you had achieved. You had taken several risks, and with your ability to tackle them along with my help, you won everything. I want you now to work with the same childish energy that you once displayed. Thinking of what will happen and fear of failure will bring you down. You do remember how you worked before, don’t you?

Yours Truly,

Vehemence

Be Unbroken to create Utopia

#ATOZ Challenge Theme: Finding Myself - Living My Life

The saturation level had reached a while back. There didn’t seem any promising land nearby any soon. The scorching heat had created a parched throat and it seemed as if unconsciousness would creep in anytime soon. But the will to go on and not give up was stronger than before. The journey promised an equally deserving reward.

It is said that hope never dies. The strong desire to achieve something keeps you going.

Moments of depression come along with questions in mind - Why the hell am I living? For whom am I living? Haven’t these questions caused distress in mind lately? Ample time spent doing unproductive work, time spent in pleasing others and living for others, where did the years vanish? What will they think if I give my answer? Will I be termed too bold?

In the face of all this, we forget what we wish to do with our life. The struggle sometimes looks never ending and we give up.

If you have read Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, you will realise how tough life can be in times of intense adversities. All I can conclude is that perhaps the will to live surpasses everything.

Progress is life is a must. One cannot remain stagnant with something for too long. Of course, we should be satisfied with what we have, but that shouldn’t stop us from going ahead.

There is no Utopia anywhere. It is we who can create it for ourselves. Being unintentionally tied to many things can hamper your process, even your downfall, but that needn’t be the reason for giving up. There are times when you might have to face the worst, but not giving up hope and coming out unbroken is one of the keys to success.

Your strong urge to achieve your passion is not going to be easy unless you are made to suffer. It is not out of freewill that people choose to suffer. But out of that comes up a strong person who is much different that the frightened person that she/he was.

Stand erect, do not falter, do not give in to demands of the people if you wish to create Utopia for yourself. People will throw stones at you, learn to build your fort and use those stones if they are useful.

History has been witness to people who have suffered and come out successful.

Be Unbroken, create your own Utopia!!