Jan: Happy first anniversary to Live In(spiration) Progress!
First anniversary, latest collection of lists and other creations
Hey friend! 3rd Jan 2023 marks the 1st anniversary of the launch of the newsletter, and 6th, the first issue! And with that, here’s the first issue of the year!
Happy 1st anniversary together, and thank you all sooo much for being (and still being) here. I’m very grateful. Hopefully, this issue serves as one of the great ways to kickstart or at least accompany, the start of your new year.
List of 5 Ideas:
Make 2 lists:
Stuff I missed out on out of fear
Stuff I was scared of but did it anyway and I’m still here (as in nothing bad happened).
Puts things into perspective.
I think choosing to do what you love and want is important. But I also think that’s as important, if not more, to choose what you’re willing to suffer for. It makes pursuing and prioritising your goals a little easier.
Goggins’ Cookie Jar Method — I already have a digital photo album with screenshots or photos of things that made me happy/kind/encouraging comments from others etc, and a list of achievements and words of self-encouragement typed in my digital journaling app + notion page with all my goals. But I still decided to make a physical one with just my achievements (even tiny tiny ones like surviving a rehearsal I was worried about or not cancelling but showing up to something out of fear) written down (or printed with my mini thermal printer) into separate rolled strips of paper that I can pick when I’m feeling down since I think handwriting it just makes it feel more real, and revisiting them one by one tangibly just feels so different. Other tangible alternatives to rolled-up slips of paper could be writing them in a notebook or ring-binding small index cards that you could add on to later. As long as you’re able to pop in any new additions anytime as they happen.
List of things I survived (can also be part of Goggin’s cookie jar)
5 recent favourite Quotes
If it drains you, it's not for you. Always remember that. (Source)
When your tears are falling just let them shed. I wish you’ll think of it as if that weight inside your heart is getting out of your body drop by drop, like that. (Source)
It's an odd feeling living in the future that someone else yearned for. (Source)
You don’t need to keep exposing yourself to unsafe people to prove how compassionate and kind you are. (Source)
Sometimes, life just sucks, and making it through is enough of a triumph. (Source)
5 readings I found thought-provoking
Common Misconceptions guess if it’s fact or bs, then rate your confidence level. It analyses how accurate your gut is and how confident you are at making predictions. Quite interesting, though honestly, not sure how accurate. Take it with a pinch of salt.
My experience with imposter syndrome — and how to (partly) overcome it — it’s relatable, helpful and actionable. I think it provides many insights that could help anyone who suffers from imposter syndrome.
5 things to think about this month/writing/journaling prompts:
Will your younger and future self be proud of the current version of you?
If the options are equally bad, are they equally good?
Discover Your Philosophical Beliefs — a quiz that doesn’t take long, and the questions are really interesting and provide a different perspective.
Life-Changing Questions — you can even schedule for the quiz to be sent in the future (up to 12 months) later for you to compare your answers! I learned new things about myself like realising the true extent how of goal-oriented I am, which I previously underestimated.
Whether you land on “I’m going to DO the thing,” or “I’m going to let go of the thing,” you’ll be better off either way. (Source)
5 Random Tidbits:
My process as I prepared for the return of this newsletter was fixing the consistency problem I had with writing. I set a weekly reminder for Friday nights to write something — anything for this or my other newsletter about music. I even prepared a few issues ahead of time (two complete issues for LIP) before publishing my return issue to make sure I would commit.
Healing my inner child (see thread + comments): doing things I wanted but weren’t able to as a kid. For example at some point, I saw shoes that had pretty designs that looked like they were drawn/painted on, on sale when I was much younger. It inspired my short-lived dream to become a shoe designer. Now, as I slowly return to painting as a hobby, I realised customising shoes with paint (or other art supplies) is an option, and I’m planning to do that eventually to fulfil this childhood dream. I did wonder if wanting to do that meant living in the past, but the thought of it delights me and makes me happy, and I know I will be happy checking this off from the list of things I wanted as a kid, so why not?
I also recently bought a notebook for journalling to replace the one I filled up, in time for the new year. And my go-to has always been a black paper notebook since my first use in 2016. It has thick, dotted (hardly find them on black) black paper, faux leather hardcover which feels really nice. It comes in a pretty black shimmering box packaging with stickers for journalling, a pen holder attachment, a ribbon bookmark, and a manual paper bookmark (an ad for the company, but it’s still a bookmark). It’s. Perfect. For me at least. What I want and more. I got it for slightly less than $20 too including the shipping (at least the retailer I bought from). (Non sponsored content)
My (tangible) vers of the Goggin’s cookie jar, rolled papers in an organisational tray:
I recently bought brush pens to learn brush pen calligraphy, drew since I last did 3 years ago, and started painting again (I stopped after primary school, 10 years ago). My goal is to practice so I can paint on the tiny easel I have on my desk in the background of the previous photo.
I didn’t quite get the results I wanted or hoped for in either of the paintings, but I realised I am getting better at being okay with imperfection and giving myself permission to suck at something as a beginner (or a returning, occasional hobbyist).
Spoiler alert: none of them is great. And that’s okay.
Exhibit 1: Poster colour clouds
Exhibit 2: With Gouache paint, two failed beaches (despite a Youtube tutorial) because I was figuring out to use gouache for the first time and struggling to work with old paint with its crusty tubes and my old, crusty paintbrushes. What can I say, all my art supplies are from over 10 years ago. And then I painted a landscape because I wouldn’t go to bed unless I created something half-decent, or not terrible, at least.
Exhibit 3: And lastly, my various attempts at copying a drawing of an eye (I love drawing eyes, it demands a lot of shading and it’s super pretty and satisfying to draw). I went through a drawing tutorial for the first time to draw the smaller, shaded one, but I gave up and just copied (as I always do for all drawings) the final drawing shown at the end of the tutorial to create the biggest eye on the page that I was pretty satisfied with, though not perfect or as hyper-realistic as I’d like for it to be.
Hope the lists were useful and entertaining. Thoughts? Let me know! Hit reply or chat!
P.S. Chat feature on Substack is on in the Substack app, so feel free to chat there to say hi or discuss anything there as part of the Live In(spiration) Progress (I call it LIP) community :)
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