It's the end of April, and therefore the end of blogging every day...well...almost every day because I missed yesterday, but you know what? I'm not as bothered as I thought I'd be. If I let missing one day affect my achievement for the whole month then that would just be ridiculous. I've done 29 blog posts in the whole of the month, and coming from someone who would sporadically post whenever I felt like it, that's a big deal. 

Coming up with new content every day is hard I tell you - I applaud all those fantastic bloggers that do it on the regular because it's something that I really couldn't do for a long period of time (a month was enough for me). However, on the flip side, when you do think of new ideas, it can often lead to more new ideas - it's like a cycle of ideas, that once you start you could potentially keep going for a long time. I know that sounds contradictory to what I initially said but let me explain. I've discovered over this past month that I'm very much a mood writer; I will only write what feels good to me at the time despite having a plethora of ideas listed down somewhere. I could have a million and one ideas and not want to write any of them at any given time, so that's where the content creation part became difficult.

I'll tell you something, my perfectionism was really tested to the limits this month as for the most part I wasn't 100% happy with everything I was putting out. Not that my content was rubbish, but I've got this little voice inside of my head that tells me things aren't good enough or aren't at the standard I want them to be. This voice is the biggest bullshitter ever, but it's still in the back of my mind, so for me to do a months worth of content just for the sake of content was a massive shift in mindset for me. I was creating to be creative, and to be quite honest, there's no such thing as perfect anyways - if I always strove for perfection in every single blog post then I probably wouldn't post much at all (hence the lack of posts pre-beda). It's helped me realise my potential if I just put myself out there and go for it. Get a post together, make it work, make it happen - you can only get better with practice, but you need to just start!

One massive thing in particular that I have discovered is a motivation and drive within myself. For the past few months, I've been on a massive downer and my anxiety was at an all-time high, this affected my motivation so much. Having this project to focus on gave me a purpose to get up in the morning, a purpose to get up early to smash out a blog post for the evening because I knew I wouldn't have time otherwise. All through the month of April, I was constantly thinking about my blog whether that be new ideas or planning my day around when I could get something written up - it pretty much became my life. 

Although I don't think I'll be writing daily posts any time soon, it has really sparked something within me to carry on - I know I can do this and I get so much enjoyment out of it. I've genuinely loved seeing my blog so full, and it's really established a sense of pride in myself and my work that I haven't felt in a long time - I definitely want that feeling to carry on. I'm proud of myself for sticking to it (all bar one day, I forgive myself) and know that I can do whatever I set my mind to. It's the end of BEDA but it's the start of a new chapter of my blog.

I listen to music almost religiously; all day every day no matter what I'm doing - in the shower, walking to work, tidying my room, in the car, scrolling the internet, playing games, anything! Anything other than working, however; and when I say working, I mean writing my blog, or figuring out my business. 

It's especially when writing my blog that I can't concentrate with music; writing and listening to lyrics (or words) has never worked for me, and I've never been able to fully commit to it without getting distracted. However, a few months back I watched a video on YouTube (I can't for the life of me remember who made it) and they suggested a "Deep Focus" Spotify playlist to work with and it worked WONDERS.

The playlist has rock/pop/alt vibes with lyric-less repetitive sounds - it's almost relaxing. The repetitiveness of the music almost makes you forget that you're actually listening to music, you kind of tune out to it and this is perfect. Ever since I found this playlist it's been a saved favourite, and I'm even writing this blog to it right now. If you have trouble concentrating with music then I'd highly recommend giving this playlist a listen.

I started a new job on Wednesday and it occurred to me that starting a new job can be scarily daunting for some people - don't get me wrong, I was scared shitless (for some reason) before I stepped through the doors officially for the first time, but more often than not, these worries that we have are all in our heads.

I've made a list of a few tips that will get you off to a good start in any job, and probably put you in a good light with your employer too:

‣ Ask lots of questions

Don't be afraid to ask questions and get people to repeat themselves if you're not sure - you are not annoying anyone I can assure you. The more you ask, the more you'll know, and the quicker you'll know it. I'd much rather someone ask me a million questions than go around not knowing what they're doing messing everything up - you don't learn if you don't ask.

‣ Shadow as much as you can

Whenever there's a chance to watch what somebody's doing then I'd take that up - don't wait until you need to do it until you see how it's meant to be done. There's no point winging it when you can see what someones doing first hand. For example, I've been watching my colleagues booking in large parties into the restaurant and finding out what kind of questions they ask, how they book it in, what procedure they use, etc.

‣ Introduce yourself

Don't be a wallflower; introduce yourself to every new person you meet. This is a simple icebreaker that often improves your confidence early on if you're able to do that. I know this may be a really daunting tip for the more introverted types, but I'm a big believer of "fake it till you make it" in the way that if you act confident you will soon become more confident.

‣ Arrive early

For the love of God, don't be late to your first shift! If anything, be 5 or 10 minutes early so you have time to settle in and talk to your manager or senior colleague if necessary.

‣ Be yourself

This is probably the most important thing and the most self-explanatory. The more yourself you are, the more at ease you will be; act as though you've known everyone your entire life (this goes along with the fake it until you make it thing too). I'm not saying tell everyone your deepest darkest secrets straight away, but show your personality off. 

I'm aware that some of these are a lot easier said than done for some people; I used to be the kind of person that would be observant in a new job then come out of my shell when I've got comfortable and got to know everyone a lot better - there's absolutely nothing wrong with this either. These are just my personal tips for starting a new job.

What are your tips?

I've mentioned a couple of time now that my body seems to have just collapsed with exhaustion from the past couple of weeks. This whole move has taken place in approximately two weeks, and that's not a lot of time at all. I've managed to compress a shit ton of stress and worry in a short period of time; work (new and old), my accommodation, credit checks, what to bring, what to leave behind, is this really the best option for me, am I making the right decision? I never really had time to let anything sink in and was basically running on adrenaline a lot of the time, so now I'm really paying for it.  You know what though? It's teaching me a valuable lesson in listening to my body and what it needs.

I had all these plans when I moved to go exploring, meet new people, drive to new areas, go and work in coffee shops, etc, and I wanted to do them all straight away. I'm just too tired to do any of this stuff right now and for the tiniest minute I got upset that I wasn't out doing everything I wanted to from the go. I took some quiet time to myself and realised that there's absolutely no rush to do anything, but I need to take as long as I need to recuperate so I've got the energy to do all of the things - I'm here for the foreseeable future so I've got plenty of time. What's the point of doing everything, being more tired from it, and not appreciating or enjoying the new experiences? I only moved here 3 days ago for goodness sake!

I'm learning how to listen to my body mentally and physically and have been acting accordingly:

‣ I've been doing light stretches to remove the kinks that are causing me aches

‣ I haven't been setting alarms so my body can get as much sleep as it needs

‣ I've been meditating to clear my mind and focus on what's necessary for me

‣ I've been doing things that I love (from home) to make me happier like reading and blogging

‣ I've been drinking plenty of water

‣ I've been plain and simply not doing anything too strenuous to regain my energy

If you force yourself to do something when your mind and body isn't in the right place it'll probably do more harm than good in the long run. In today's day and age everything is fast-paced and needed to be done now, but everyone seems to forget to look after themselves every once in a while and take a break - that doesn't mean you need to take a week off work, but it could mean taking 15 minutes each morning to work on yourself in whatever way you enjoy or deem fit. The number one thing to do though is just really listen to yourself, because only you know what it is that your body needs right now.

I now have a designated gratitude journal, and as per Rhonda Byrne's book "The Magic", I am now not only writing what I'm grateful for, but why I'm grateful for it. Being grateful is slowly changing the way I live and the way I view things; it's helping me appreciate the little things in life, and when I feel down it makes me realise that the bigger picture is a lot more positive.

This is becoming a daily habit of mine, and it's nice to look back over all the pages and see how much I have to be grateful for in life. I have been writing down 10 things that I am grateful for each day, so I shall give you 10 of my favourites so far looking back:

‣ I am grateful for negative people because they make me realise how much life really does have to offer if you make the time to look for it.

‣ I am grateful for friends that share and having friends I feel comfortable sharing with because it means I don't have to go through my worries alone.

‣ I am grateful for meditation because it helps me truly relax and feel centred each day.

‣ I am grateful for the sun because it lights up the day for us and makes me 100x happier.

‣ I am grateful for being appreciated because it makes me feel needed and loved.

‣ I am grateful for saying "thank you" because it's polite and it's something small that can mean so much.

‣ I am grateful for my body healing through a headache because it shows how incredible the human body is.

‣ I am grateful for a bed to sleep in because not everybody has that luxury.

‣ I am grateful for not putting pressure on myself because I can be a little bit happier in everything I do.

‣ I am grateful for coming home to flowers on my desk because it really brightens up my mood.

What are you grateful for?

Today has been extremely busy with moving (more on that to come) so I've pretty much only just settled down now for the night to blog at 10PM hence why I'm late with this post - I probably should have pre-scheduled a post for today, but you know, that's sensible! 

I came across this quote on Pinterest and feel it hits home quite hard. I'm letting go of everything I've known and have moved to a completely new city away from my hometown which I have lived in pretty much my whole life. As much as I had no problems with living there, it wasn't doing anything to further me in life; or more like, I wasn't doing anything there - it was time to move on.

It hasn't quite sunk in that I've moved just yet, but I have a feeling I'll probably have a little cry about it, and you know what? That's okay! We're all allowed to be upset, I'm changing a big thing in my life and moving away to a strange place where I don't know anyone - it's bound to be hard. I've just got to push through, make the most of my situation, and continue to make positive changes in my life. 

It will all work out okay.