locking in and just doing the d*mn thing
Welcome to Essay #1 of Anne's Scribbles - on defining values
Today was not my usual Monday morning, but I’ll get back to that later…
On Saturday evening, I arrived back from a week in San Fransisco where I, by some random force of nature, decided to start a Substack.
I don’t write, in fact, writing was my worst subject in school and my goodness, if we didn’t live in the world of autocorrect and editing messages, I would be a 28 year old misspelling the word mispelling. Also if you know me, when I get overly excited, my text messages start to make no sense. Typos Everywhere.
Why did I start a substack? Well for one, I like a good challenge, and blogging as grown on me again. I was lately inspired by my friend Veronica’s substack where she shares her prose and inner thoughts, it’s such a treat to read. Here is her latest:
There’s something about reading other’s words and resonating deeply on topics that only lived in my internal monologue.
Having Discipline and knowing Values:
Lately I’ve been contemplating on the idea that I’ve ‘retired early’ in my mid twenties; where I really haven’t unlocked the deep personal desire to "do anything fullfilling” career wise. For the past two years, I’ve focused on moving myself to New York City, getting a promotion in my tech job, and slowly realize that the dream to move abroad in my twenties may have been a mirage and daydream of my youth - this is a future topic to explore. I entered the era of content (which I’d say is quite healthy) at an early age, and really stayed quite happy with where I was at in life. But at a certain point, I started to notice exponentially how little I was learning and how much that bothered me.
I came to the realization that my core struggle was lack of rigid discipline and focus on my values. Long gone were the days when I had to force myself to study for school and wake up early for classes. But frankly, I’m realizing how incredibly important that skill is to have, especially to do new and hard things.
On the lines of values, Brene Brown has a great list of values exercises that I have ran through at work. The key task is to write out your current career & personal alignment/misalignments of your top 5 values, then seek opportunities to balance these misalignments in order to feel more fulfilled.
For me, my top 5 are: Growth, Connection, Collaboration, Adventure, and Autonomy
Whether its crossing off some life objectives, or I’m just understimulated, this past summer has been a culmination of questioning everything I’ve been doing and deciding to just do the d*mn things that have tickled my interest and align with the above 5 values. Heres a few to start:
Working on a startup idea: learn a new industry and practice asking dumb questions
Drafting up a podcast proposal: exercise the creative mind and observe the inner workings of content development
Engaging more with my C-suite/Executive Stakeholders at work: better communication with people who can make decisions
Taking my first ever 10 week lifting class: push my body to its max limit before giving up
Starting this substack and sticking to it(!?) - build a community through writing
Making more of my photography business…
Which leads me to my current state of existence, writing from a NYC Bluestone Lane Cafe off of Chambers St after photographing my first ever courthouse wedding!
Taking PTO from your day job to do a gig seems extremely odd (to me) but I didn’t even question it, it was all I could talk about
I’ve enjoyed photography since I could remember; my dad handed me a fuji film point and shoot (not the cool ones we have now, a literal block). Since then, I’ve taken the role as acting band camp historian in high school, which then evolved to designated graduation photographer in college, and now photographer of big life moments for friends. In the midst of all of this, I’ve gravitated to story telling with film while I travel.
Out of all the hobbies I’ve dabbled in, photography has been the most consistent but ever evolving aspect of my identity, there is more to explore there and I’m looking to figure what's next…
I’ll end the essay here (it’s taken me 3 hours to write this… smh)
That said, I plan to share more photographs, latest digital & non digial consumptions, and cool things that I see others are doing. If you resonate, please don’t be a stranger, I want internet friends!
I already love this so much!!
Love this Sissy!!! I love your humorous voice :)