Aloha Friday, friends! It is good for you to be here today! If you haven’t heard already, this is my absolutely favorite day of the week, and no, not just because the weekend is oh-so imminent. Featured Fridays are the day on This Darling Adventure when we have the wonderful opportunity to throw the spotlight on someone else for the day to share something that they are passionate about! So without further adieu, please welcome my cherished friend, fellow writer, and epic adventurer, Lora!
Hello everyone! I am so excited for this year. 2017 feels full of promise, especially with California experiencing a miraculous amount of rain and snow literally drenching its drought emergency to drought free fertility. It’s nearing the end of January, the month of new beginnings, new years resolutions, and starting fresh. It is also the month of failing those hopes and missing the mark. We are very hard on January, creating it into a make it or break it month. Why does is all have to hinge on one month to begin again? The calendar should not determine when it is a good time to start something. Sometimes the bottom line to starting anew is to just begin.
Do you have dreams you’ve been storing up in a journal or goals you keep shelving for another time? I certainly do. From my own designer line of clothing to writing a book that gets turned into a movie, my storerooms are bursting with fantastical ideas. But leaving them to sit in waiting can overwhelm and build into a daunting task to accomplish. The more I put it off for another time the farther I am from seeing its completion. I want to encourage you to approach your storeroom with a different strategy: just pick a starting place and begin. No matter how big your goal is the best strategy for taking on a mountain is to conquer the boulder right in front of you.
I was listening to the radio recently talking about why people get discouraged so quickly when taking on a new challenge. The speaker pointed out that when most people begin something they judge themselves by the wrong standard. You see someone two years into his or her journey and look at yourself, only two weeks in, and think you are a failure because you’re nowhere near that other guy. Quit holding yourself to someone else’s standard. Allow yourself to go through the process of making it a week, 2 weeks, and then a month. And if you fail tomorrow’s always a new day and a new opportunity.
My mom and I kept complaining to each other that there’s no time in the busy day to make it to the gym. We both became grumpy about it and hard on ourselves for sleeping past our 5:00am alarm to get to the gym before work. Early mornings were not working out so we shifted our strategy. We decided we were going to make our workout happen at lunch by driving to a hiking trail 5 minutes away, do a 35-45 minute walk jog, and make it back in time for work. It worked! Then we kept going and soon we were going farther down the trail in the same amount of time and feeling much better in general.
Whether you have a healthy lifestyle goal or a passion to create something it is never too late to start. I have a story that needs to get out there and I am determined to pursue it. I have started many times on it, but with each new beginning I get a little farther and last a little longer. So do not lose hope, do not overwhelm yourself with what everyone else is doing or how far you think you should be. Sometimes you need to pause and just focus on the step right in front of you. Once you hit that then look to the next and the next until you’re running. I am so excited for 2017 and I hope you feel the same because right now, each new day, is an opportunity to start anew.
-Lora
Thank you again for joining us today! On a side note, if you know of someone who has a contagious passion for life and you would like to hear their voice on a Featured Friday, please feel free to contact me by clicking here. I would absolutely love to hear from you! And as always, make yourself at home and comment below! Cheers! 🙂
This Darling Adventure 
Great post and strategy! Thanks to both of you for sharing 🙂 Just wanted to add something that my son taught me… The word “fail” really stands for First Attempt In Learning. So if you do inadvertently judge yourself by someone else’s standards and don’t seem to make the cut, acknowledge that it’s just your first try. Get back up, dust yourself off, and see where the next step takes you!
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Hey, thanks so much for reading and taking the time to comment! Ooooo, that acronym is deep and so, so good! I really like it! I will definitely keep it in mind. Thanks for sharing!
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Awesome post. !!!!
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Thanks! 😊
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I read this somewhere – “Most people overestimate what they can achieve in a year, and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade” – and I think it’s true. People get really disheartened because there aren’t always immediate or fast results, and we’re living in a world of filters and facetune and everything being instant all the time, but if we measure ourselves by a more generous yardstick we actually do pretty well. I try to remember this but… every so often I forget! I think we all do! Great post! 🙂
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Ooo that’s good! Thanks for sharing! I’m loving that quote. And it is so true! It makes me wonder what this decade has in store. 🙃
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This makes me feel like a bad adventurer 😯
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Oh no! Hey, no worries at all! 🙂
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Another great post xx…love them
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Thank you so much! And thanks (yet again) for reading! 🙂
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First of all thank you for commenting on my idea about script writing, and thank you for putting up the inspirational message… I’m pretty sure I’ll be visiting this page regularly for that virtual moral support, thank you again and have a wonderful weekend!
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Hello again! It is my pleasure. Thank you for taking the time to come on over and visit This Darling Adventure. It is truly an honor. Ha! Well, definitely enjoy!
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My phones playing up, so I can’t click the follow button just yet but I’ll be sure to when I get home this evening, now that I have my first follower o feel inclined to write, woohoo!
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I am your first follower?! That is AWESOME! That just made my day… And yes, that means you have to write now! (But that is not a bad thing at all! Everyone gets start somewhere, eh?!)
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That’s right, your job as first follower is to throw some likes here and there… Wink wink nudge nudge! You are now an honory VIP! No pressure haha
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So nice and inspirational. I guess the main drawback for me is that I take it all to seriously. So a lot of times I do not begin at all. I will definitively keep in mind not to compare my beginnings to somebody else achievement based on months and years of work. And will try to keep it all simple and joyful. Thanks Lora and Lara for sharing!
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That can definitely be true as well and it makes beginning that much more difficult. But baby steps can get you there little by little, then you look back and see how far you’ve come (gosh, that sounded so corny!). Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to read and comment! 😊
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What a great idea and I love the look of your site/blog! Looking forward to following along!
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Hi there! Thanks so much for taking the time to “stop by”! 😊it is good to have you here! Welcome!
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Also, on a side note, your site is absolutely beautiful as well! You definitely have an eye for photography and your style is wonderful as well! Looking forward to seeing more! 👍🏻
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Thank you so much!! If there is anything you’d like to hear or learn about just let me know!!
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My pleasure! 🙂 And I will definitely take you up on that!
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