B is for Be Brave and Begin!

Yesterday’s post was on the theme of Adventure. Until this evening, I had no final decision on what my ‘B’ post would be about. I had thought about ‘Blogging’ or ‘Beginnings’. Earlier, I tweeted to some fellow ‘AtoZ’ers that I had no idea what I would be writing about. An immediate reply from my Twitter friend @cagssoc simply said ‘be brave’. So, with apologies to another friend, @David_Ferrie, who suggested ‘belonging’, my theme today is a mash-up of ‘Beginnings’ and ‘Be Brave’.

The turn of a year marks a new beginning for many – new resolutions, new plans, new dreams. Like many people, I set out some things I wanted to accomplish. You can read about them here. Surprisingly enough, I have made progress on most of them. At least they have all begun.

I could equally tell you many dreams and aspirations I had which never made it out of the starting blocks. I think most people have their own stories along that particular line. But what is it that holds people back from achieving their dreams? Sure, financial wherewithal can often be a big inhibitor. But, at least in my case, there is something even more fundamental than that. If I am completely honest with you and with myself, I will openly admit to enormous self-doubt and lack of confidence. I know I am far from alone in feeling that weight of that burden when it comes to moving forward in life.

Being brave in the face of these doubts is not something that comes naturally or easily to me. I have never possessed any great belief in my own abilities. Yet, in many ways I have achieved so much, particularly in the past ten years. In many cases it has involved stepping way outside my comfort zone to start something new. For example, overcoming my lack of formal musical training to direct choirs; shaking off my professional self-doubt to achieve a management-level career (when many believed I would not); convincing myself that I perhaps do have a creative side in the form of photography.

Perhaps the best example I can give is the very act I am engaged in right now – blogging! I always enjoyed ‘words’ but usually restricted it to writing parodies and limericks to poke harmless fun at friends or family members at special occasions - a safe audience in many ways. Then along came Twitter and through it I learned about blogging and met many exceptional bloggers. I was inspired by them – to the extent that I decided to be brave, step outside my comfort zone and begin a bit of blogging myself. Overall, while it has been slow progress, I have thoroughly enjoyed it and I feel it is something I was meant to do.

So, is there something you feel inspired to do? Are there dreams and aspirations you want to fulfill? Are you a little nervous (or a lot nervous) about taking that vital first step? Yes – I’m that person too and the best advice I can give you is Be Brave and Begin.

__________________________________________________
* The accompanying photo above (which I call 'Bangers and Mash' - taken in Cafe Kylemore on O'Connell Street, Dublin) is a great example of stepping outside my comfort zone. During last year I developed a great love of street photography. I try to remain unobtrusive but occasionally someone cops what you are doing. I believe the lady in this shot suspected something, but the scene was too good not to shoot it. This is definitely not comfort-zone stuff and requires a bit of bravery but it's great fun - and no one has accosted me yet!!

A is for Adventure

So, here I am – at the start of a new challenge. As if I don’t have enough challenges on my hands as it is! However, I prefer to look on this particular challenge more as an ‘adventure', though it feels more like a ‘mystery tour’ as I start out.

You see, I signed up for this ‘A-Z Challenge’ for bloggers pretty much at the 11th hour. As a result I’ve really had no time to consider it in any great detail. Anyway, what is it all about? Well, basically it is a challenge put out to bloggers to make one post each day for the month of April. With Sundays off for good behaviour, that makes 26 posts. To add to the challenge, we are asked to blog thematically from A-Z over the course of the 26 days. So here I am – starting with the letter A – for Adventure!

Those who know me well would most likely not use the word ‘adventurer’ to describe me. In fact, I would probably be considered a ‘risk-averse’ sort of person. That’s not to say I haven’t stuck my neck out at times during my life but I usually do like to know roughly where I’m going. However, apart from having made the momentous decision at the last minute to sign up for this challenge and deciding that A stands for Adventure, I really have no idea where this is going to go.

But, you know, that’s part of the fun. It reminds me of the first real adventure I undertook in life. Back in my college days in the early eighties, I decided to spend my last summer as a student travelling through the USA by bus. I traversed from east to west and back again by an alternate route. During one particular stretch, 4 out of 5 days were spent sleeping on the bus. It seemed a better use of time than stopping to overnight in some hostel or the like. All in all, it was a wonderful 5 weeks. At the end of it I was convinced I was born to live a life of travel and adventure. Instead, I graduated and took all the roads most travelled, including a permanent, pensionable job. To this day I work for the same company. As you can see, Adventure is not my middle name.

As I come closer to the end of that career, however, I see priorities changing. My career has reached its plateau and as I begin to look ahead to the foreseeable future when I will retire (hopefully early), I have already realised that new beginnings are possible and that it is never too late to embark on new adventures. Within the past two years I have discovered a completely new hobby for me – photography. I have also discovered recently that there are new challenges for me in the world of music. These are the new adventures that I hope will sustain me (mentally at least, rather than financially) when I eventually get fed up with the ultimately futile and frustrating corporate world of work.

I still hold a glimmer of hope of living out some travel adventures. Time will tell. You never know what is around the corner - it could be good or it could be bad. One thing is certain, everyone has bad times in one way or another and therefore I increasingly realise the importance of making the most of the good things that happen. So if opportunity comes knocking – seize it. You may never have another opportunity like it again. It’s all part of the great adventure that is life!

And with that, I'm off to think about what B might stand for ......

___________________________________________________________________
* I was looking for one of my photos to accompany this post. I chose the one above, recently taken in Sally Gap in the Wicklow Mountains, as the deserted road leading into the hills portrays a sense of venturing into the unknown.

This post is part of the Blogging from A-Z Challenge. Please click the link to see a list of participating blogs and hopefully take the time visit a few.

My New Challenge

Yesterday, a friend on Twitter posted about this thing called A-Z Challenge for bloggers. I read it with interest. However, before finally heading to sleep last night I decided I wouldn't participate. I have a busy month coming up and I convinced myself I would not be able to find time to compose 26 blog posts during April. This is a reasonable conclusion to reach, considering that I have managed only about half that amount of posts in the past 15 months!

I woke up this morning and the first question that entered my head was had I enrolled for the A-Z Challenge. Now, I reckoned there was something in the fact that this thought was in my head. So I reconsidered and decided to enroll for the challenge. Sure - I may not complete it, but what have I to lose?

My first real post for the challenge will be coming up a little later. Beyond that, I have no idea what I will be blogging about, but I'll make it up as I go. I can't promise anything profound or even interesting but given the time constraints I can probably guarantee plenty of random ramblings - and some random photos too!

I hope you can find time to dip into my posts during April and leave a comment here or there. And don't forget to visit other bloggers taking on the challenge too. Click on the A-Z Challenge logo over on the right to find a list other blogs participating in the challenge.

Setting Out My Stall for 2013

I’m a bit of a procrastinator by nature – if something can be put off until tomorrow, then generally that’s what I do. This, though, is not to be confused with laziness. I prefer to think of it as prioritisation. I like to prioritise things that interest and stimulate me. In very general terms, if something interests me, then I like to do it now. If something interests me less, then I prefer to put that off until another day. Very often we hear people say they don’t have time to do this or that. In reality what they are saying is – “it is not a priority for me right now”. In other words, they are saying it is not as important as whatever it is they are doing instead of it.

2012 was a good year for me in terms of doing what interests and stimulates me. My passions, as many of you know, are music and photography. Musically, our Folk Group undertook a number of really interesting and successful ventures – the high point of which was a major concert which raised over €5,000 for cancer support services in our locality. Photographically, I took over 8,000 pictures. While most of these were rubbish, they were interspersed by a sufficient number of decent shots to encourage me to keep learning and trying new things.

But what about 2013 – what do I want to achieve this year? Well, in no particular order:

• Finish my edits. Yes, I need to finish off the photo book that I promised I would do with the best shots from 2012. It is 90% complete – and I am definitely procrastinating over the last 10%. Need to fix that! 

• Take more photos. Ok – it might be difficult to take more than 8,000 photos but the key point is to keep shooting. If I’m honest, though, my real aim is to take better photos! 

• Get a new camera. My current camera (my first one, in fact, if you discount the camera in my phone) is a high-end compact. I now feel I am ready to experiment with different lenses and for that I am going to need a D-SLR camera. This is something I can put off for a while as it is important to choose the right camera for me. So no immediate rush to part with hard-earned cash, but it is something I need to do at some stage. 

• Start a new musical challenge. This plan has already been laid and will begin during March. More about that anon. 

• Write more. I started this blog with a view to developing my writing skills and to marry those with my photography. This is definitely something I procrastinated about in 2012. I lost count of the number of times I had an idea for a blog post but didn’t follow through on it. To be honest, writing scares me a little but that’s part of the challenge – to overcome that fear and do it anyway. 

I hope you achieve all that you dream of in 2013. Above all, decide what is important for you, what interests and stimulates you. If you are putting these things off until another day, then perhaps you need to re-evaluate. Life is to too short to procrastinate about what is important to you.

* The photo above is one of the very first I took this year, just after midnight at the New Year’s fireworks on Dun Laoghaire east pier.