Study Journal

5 October 2012

It is nearing the end of the semester and the examinations loom forebodingly. Of course I, in my usual style, have procrastinated leaving the truly important stuff until the last minute.

English is one of my modules for this year. Two actually, but I cancelled the one module because of the extreme stress it created. That something as familiar and loved as an English writing course should fill me with such anxiety is a bit of a mystery to me.  I do know that I have a fear of failure, and perhaps this fear is magnified because it is a subject I enjoy and the possibility of not doing well would be mortifying.

Anyway, to the task at hand:

Exercise 1.15

1. If you were to take a trip down memory lane, for the purposes of writing about your life, what details from your high school years might you select?

Ooh, this is a difficult one, every moment of my teenage years seem to be filled with details that are worthy of mention.  Does one write about the first year of high school? A new school, new friends, new subjects, new experiences both scholarly and socially. Then there is the second year, one filled with life- changing experiences; the year my social life started and seemingly ended because of the turn my family life took. The third year also holds promise; it was a year of choices, one that would affect my academic career, letting go of childish dreams and setting sight on future endeavours. What about the penultimate year? A year of rebellion and betrayal. Yes rather dramatic, but that is the way it seemed to a 15/16 year old seeking answers and rejecting help. And of course, the final year should be added into the equation, but one that was not quite noteworthy. A long slog for sure, and one that would determine whether the choices made in the third year were good ones, academically speaking. So many choices.

I have re-read the exercise and wonder why I thought the writing needed to be chronological? What do these English lecturers mean by 'details'? It precisely that type of question that complicates my life, if this was an oral rendition I would be sighing in frustration.  I will now spend the next few hours debating with myself about what needs to be written and it is this type of attitude that procrastination delights in - three weeks to the exams and a myriad of exercises to complete.

Happy 2012

Time flies when you having fun

The festive season along with New Year has come and gone and I have done little to no marketing *gasp! Inexcusable if one wants a successful business. Inexcusability aside – the planets were not working in my favour. Yeah! Blame the universe *grin So what have I been doing since my last post more than six months ago? Having fun! To be more precise I signed up for a jewellery design course – Wow, this has opened so many more avenues and I love it. The class is small, four to five people, which makes it cosy and intimate. Loads of encouragement helps with overcoming the lack of self-confidence inevitable in any beginner working with a new medium. The classes are structured in a way conducive to a mixture of beginners, intermediaries and advanced students. I find this helps in maintaining momentum, when I see the advanced students working on their projects, it spurs me on to learn more so that I can reach that level of expertise. Not even the amount of time it will take to reach that level daunts me, I have so many ideas bouncing around and am constantly learning new techniques that time has no meaning. Fortunately, there has been progress and I am almost finished my final silver project (beginner level); a ring of my own design, set with two reddish carnelian cabochons. Here are the pics of my first two silver projects:

In sight

Is it not funny how life happens? In my last post I mentioned how my complementary business came to a halt when I moved and how I had not tried to build up a client base again. Well, about a month ago we went to a get-together for Neil's daughter's birthday and I landed up giving someone an Indian Head massage. I was told I should advertise because I had 'magic hands', LOL. But it did get me thinking about a possible alternate income source besides my beadwork. Unfortunately one step does not complete a journey and before I start getting too excited about the prospect I have to sit down and do a little bit of planning. Keep my feet on the ground! Another exciting development, for me, is learning a new beading technique. A couple of months ago I met a wonderful Zulu lady, Christina who is very talented in creating ethnic beaded jewellery. I invited her around to my place and she brought along a cousin, Sellina. Wow, these two ladies rock! The connection was instantaneous and we now have a regular get-togethers once a month. It has become an exchange of ideas and techniques, hence me learning how to create a 'raslo'. Christina and Sellina have learned how to use stringing wire and crimps along with the skills of the various beading tools. A raslo is a collar-type zulu necklace and comes in a variety of widths and colours. Now, I'm probably not using the correct terminology but these ladies are self-taught like me, and the language barrier reduces explanations to simple terms and most understanding is a result of practical demonstration. so the best way to explain is to show you the raslo which these women taught me how to create. Anyway, now that I have learned a new technique it opens all sorts of possibilities one of them being an ambitious project. Sorry, but this I'm keeping under wraps for the time being.*grin* Well that is all for now folks. Have a fabulous week!

A new beginning

2004 was quite a year. My daughter fell pregnant and the company I worked for was offering voluntary separation packages (a fancy phrase for optional retrenchment). I was pursuing an interest in complimentary therapy which was worlds apart from my occupation as an insurance trainer... Decisions had to be made, so after a discussion with the family and a look at finances I opted for the company package deal. A HUGE leap in faith on my part - and the saying 'look before you leap' took on a new meaning in the following years. A couple of things I discovered was that I knew absolutely NOTHING about marketing myself and that other people made it look so effortless. Anyway I pursued the complementary therapy and managed to build up a small clientele. This was from word-of-mouth and not from the expensive ads I placed in the local newspaper. My conclusion was offer the best service you can and once the 'word of mouth' clients have built up, then look at advertising. Great...and then I moved and of course that meant no more client base. The move, from a home that had seen joy and sorrow, was a particularly hard one emotionally and I spent months wallowing in self pity. Not a good thing when you need to earn a living! I literally spent weeks indoors making no effort to care for myself, with absolutely no verbal communication with anyone other than my family. Talk about self sabotage! Fortunately my friends and family ignored (or maybe they didn't) my rather dark state of mind and one friend introduced me to several inspirational writers and speakers. One that stands out in my mind, and provides me with the 'tools' to cope is Mike Dooley - wow but this man knows how to motivate! I had the pleasure of attending a talk he gave at Monte Casino in Johannesburg a couple of years ago and impressive does not even begin to describe the experience! Thoughts become things, is tagline that I will forever associate with him. Things he taught me. Don't worry about the HOWS Do whatever you do with JOY and ENTHUSIASM Don't dwell on what you want for too long but DO visualise, taste, smell and feel exactly what you want your life to be and do this for a few minutes a day. Be PASSIONATE about your dreams (ok, maybe he didn't say that, but that is what I got out of it) So, if you are where I was a couple of years ago or if you are looking for life skill tools, or even just some inspiration do yourself a favour and purchase his CD programme called Leveraging the Universe or Infinite Possibilities - both are filled with humour and down-to-earth advice on how to live your life to the fullest. You won't be sorry and you may even thank me :)

Starting out

This is my story about how I got involved in beading and the journey involved in learning how to market my products.

How this blog will evolve I have no idea - although this is a big no-no when planning a business, one has to have a business plan or so the fundis advise!

This blog is not my business but a story about how my business started. I will be sharing my emotional ups and down, my detours into other business 'opportunities' and how I see the business world in general.

If you are expecting structure you will be disappointed

If you are expecting business logic you will be disappointed

If you want a fresh outlook expect it!

There are so many people that have inspired and motivated me and I will be giving credit where credit is due. These people come from all walks of life, some I know personally, some I have read about and some I have even lived with (yes, I do mean my family).

Expect links on beads, links on inspiration and links to networks of people that are, like me, trying to make it in the business world.