Life is fascinating in its habits. How often have you had a moment, when it felt like everything was coming together perfectly? Or when you meet – and really connect with – someone and you discover you’ve been in the same spaces for years but never met. It is like the universe is saying … now is your time. Yes, as the cliché goes, ‘everything happens for a reason’ and, often, things happen when they are supposed to happen.
Being a chronic ideas person, I have spent a lifetime buckling under the weight of “what-ifs” – things that would be great, if I could only get them going, which I don’t because of one reason or another. In recent months, to combat this, I have been working with a mentor who is helping me to be more decisive and clear. One of the big steps has been actually prioritising and implementing ideas, not just talking about them. I have had a list, since childhood, of things I was going to do. Some are still on that list … because I never started … and now I am.
In this extended moment, as I make the transition from procrastinator, and start putting steps in place and starting a couple of projects that are close to my heart, I am contacted about participating in the National Start Something Day initiative which looks to encourage people to start something as a way of getting us all engaged and committed in the society we exist within. Driven by Sanlam, NSSD is about starting ‘today’.
For those who follow me on Facebook and Twitter, you will know that, lately, I have been fiddling with photography, using an iPhone, (iphoneography) and have a Flickr Page and Instagram account which I am quite active on. I have always written. It has been my work and my hobby; my pleasure and my duty. I was never the person to willingly take pictures of the world around me, until my son was born and this changed. I have his nearly four years in the physical realm documented extensively through pictures and videos. Out of this, I discovered the joys of photography, of being able to capture moments and discovered I quite enjoy it.
Because there is no demand on me to be more than competent with pictures, and I do not earn a living from being able to take great pictures, I have been able to have fun and, for about 2 years now, have promised myself that I’d learn a bit more about it and get better. This was another item on the long to-do list until now.
As part of NSSD, I am starting a Fundamentals of Digital Photography course. It will enable me to continue to explore the world of photography and combine this with my writing. I can also see myself creating the evolution of my family and life in pictures and, it should enable me to expand evolutionary’s tech section to include cameras. I got myself a Sony A33L D-SLR – had to Google what this meant – and will also have a Nikon D5100 to review.
I will be blogging about my experience and growth (in words, pictures and sound) over the next few months here, on the NSSD Facebook page, Flickr, Instagram, etc. I hope you will join me on this journey and start something yourself. Life is meant to be lived and I see this as a chance to live a little.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” Mark Twain