A tried and tested process to produce great content in a timely manner.
When it comes to doing things quickly, I was always conveniently “sick” during swimming carnivals. Try as I might, I would always come last — trying to swim forward but usually ending up at the bottom of the pool floor.
When it came to running races, I was always the bridesmaid and never the bride, with a huge amount of red ribbons riddling my teenage memory box instead of blue.
11 Writing Lessons I Learnt from Masterclass
Last year I decided to treat myself to a Masterclass subscription. I’d been pondering the idea for months, and because it was constantly in my thoughts, I bit the bullet.
For those who don’t know, Masterclass is a platform where (for a tiny fortune) you are given access to tutorials, workbooks and lessons from some of the greats. The categories covered include Film, TV, Music, Entertainment, Writing, Culinary Arts, Business, Politics, Design, Photography, Fashion, Sports, Science, Tech and Lifestyle.
I personally signed up specifically for the Writing category, as the authors present in the tutorials are some of my idols…
Lessons on life from those who have already lived theirs.
We all know how fleeting life can be. In the grand scheme of things, we are all but a blimp on the radar of history. And with such a small amount of time on Earth, it can often make you wonder why we fill our time with so many of life’s trivial concerns.
Below are some of the most common regrets people have throughout their life.
Too much time spent worrying
They say that most of the things we worry about never actually happen. And even if they do happen, worrying about them just means that we’ve had to endure those negative feelings twice.
Most…
If you can do this, you can do anything.
Four years ago, my father (in his early 50s, fit and healthy) was diagnosed with brain cancer. Two years later, after fighting with all his might, he passed away. It has been the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through, and due to my age, it was often something I felt like I was doing alone.
I was 23 when he was diagnosed, and 25 when he lost his battle. Although I have a beautiful partner, family and wonderful friends, I was the first of my close circle to experience the loss of a parent. …
The chemicals in your brain that can positively affect your mood.
Hormones are chemicals produced by different glands across our body that are released into our bloodstream, and certain hormones are known to help promote positive feelings and good moods.
The four main happiness chemicals are dopamine, endorphins, oxytocin and serotonin. Each of these chemicals can have an impact on happiness, with effects ranging from managing stress, increasing pleasure, reducing pain and feelings of general well-being.
To put it simply — if you’re feeling good, your brain is likely releasing one of these four chemicals.
So, what do each of the chemicals do, and how can we access them?
Dopamine
Introducing the…
Lessons we can learn from this man, the anomaly.
When I was younger, I fell in love with horror novels. Paul Jennings and the Goosebumps books were basically a gateway drug towards the likes of Stephen King.
Fast forward to now — no matter how many of Stephen King’s books I read, I can never quite put my finger on the magic behind them. Ever so subtly, King has the ability to freak me out. It doesn’t always happen instantly — his scenes and stories settle upon me over the minutes, hours, days that follow until I find myself unable to stop thinking about them. …
Why people have started sacrificing their sleep for more free time.
Sleep schedules across the globe were one of the many victims of 2020. Suddenly, people who were working from home could swap their usual commute for sleeping in a little later, their usual 10pm bed-time pushed out a couple of hours to binge watch a few of their favourite Netflix shows. The line between when their day began and ended became incredibly blurred.
They suddenly had a whole bunch of free time, it seemed. There was less time needed to commute, to socialise, to sleep. Instead, there was more…
Don’t be disheartened simply because there’s another candle on your birthday cake.
As my friends and I enter the year of the 30th birthdays, I have found myself in the midst of many deflated discussions and a whole heap of panic. Although 30 is still bloody young in my opinion, it’s quite commonly the age where people think they should have their shit together.
What someone actually defines as having their “shit together”, however, is ridiculously subjective. The variance of worries and concerns is huge.
- Some of my friends believe that they don’t earn as much as they thought they would be earning by this age.
- Some are in debt, when they…
Both the physical and mental benefits.
Any diet that restricts certain food groups can get a bad rap, and often rightly so. Restricting certain food groups can cause people to develop an unhealthy relationship with particular food — they view certain types of food as ‘good’ and ‘bad’. It leads to feelings of tremoundous guilt when they think they’ve ‘caved in’ and eaten a ‘bad’ food. It can cause binging due to a vicious restrict and binge cycle which many of us have encountered.
In reality, a healthy mindset towards food would see us being able to eat anything we feel like eating — all in…
Push your self-criticism to the side.
Many writers are plagued with self-doubt. We write a few sentences or pages or chapters in feverish passion before slowly tapering off into the realm of negative thoughts. We feel like we aren’t good enough. We wonder if we are wasting our time.
What we need to remember is that nothing we write is ever a waste of time. Each and every sentence we write is another stepping stone to becoming a better writer.
Every time you write, you are finding your voice. You’re crafting your skills, learning what works and what doesn’t. You will slowly notice the things you…
