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Click to hear 5 Original songs before release!

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In my last post I was talking about the unnecessary stress of social media, and trying to maintain a Pinterest worthy lifestyle and get the right shots for Facebook and Instagram. I know how hard it is not to get too caught up in this online world we live in, and as a ‘trying-to-make-it’ singer songwriter these platforms can be really helpful for gaining and growing an audience. I’m all for using social media for the right purpose…the challenge is not getting emotionally or too mentally caught up in it all. How do we enjoy a perfectly beautiful and enviable life, without the hassle of trying to create it in an image that isn’t true?

“Live from the abundant place that you are loved, and you won’t find yourself begging others for scraps of love.” Lysa TerKeurst – Uninvited

I think the key is in that word “enviable”…we spend so much of our time envying others lives, or what it looks like they have according to Instagram, that by comparison our lives are just plain ugly and boring. In order to feel good about our own lives, we feel we have to make everyone else feel awful about their own, without necessarily putting it in those words…we want people to think we have something they don’t.

I’m going to tell you a little secret; you DO have something that no one else has. No one else see’s the world like you, no one lives life quite like you, no one experiences the same things you do, no one else loves like you, laughs like you, thinks like you, dreams like you and no one is loved in the same way by the people who love you. You are unique, and though you’ve heard that many times, when it comes to being creative with social media, being unique is your best route to success.

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;     your works are wonderful,     I know that full well.” Psalm 139:14 NIV

Many people say they’re not creative, but I’m going to bet you are. You don’t have to be a painter or musician to be creative; creative abilities are not limited to handicrafts and music. These are simply the areas where creativity often shines the brightest, but they are not the entirety of the list.

“So God created humans to be like himself; he made men and women.” Genesis 1:27 CEV

Being creative can be as simple as finding shortcuts in the office to make workflow easier and more efficient. The way you arrange your throw cushions even though your house is a little untidy, the way you always make a unique design in your latte art. The way you do a simple little twist with your hair that just works, no one else can do it and it looks great even though you think it’s just ordinary. The way you can just “throw something on” and you always look fabulous. The way you see light and capture it in a photograph, the way you put together a science lesson so your students are inspired instead of confused. And millions more…

You may be surprised by the ways people appreciate your creative abilities, but even more so, you may be surprised by how much you appreciate them. Whilst I can’t claim to have mastered this, I do think I have discovered a key to success in being creative that is particularly effective for social media, but also helpful in general, and I’m going to share it with you.

Thankfulness and Gratefulness.

it’s that simple. I’m not the first or the only person to suggest this, the other day I was listening to a talk by Oprah Winfrey about living a successful life, and she said that it was absolutely necessary to keep a gratefulness journal and write down 5 things every night, that you are grateful for. The reason being, the more you focus on what you have, the more you appreciate it, the less you worry about what you don’t have, and the more full your life is.

“Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.” Oprah Winfrey

Brainy Quotes

Without the need for a journal my concept is similar. Simply notice the things that bring you joy, or make you smile or that you’re thankful for, and take photos of those! Start noticing how you see the world, when you notice something, ask yourself why. Start to appreciate your own perspective. Learn to be thankful for the little things that brighten up your day.

I’m going to show you some examples from my Instagram below, with some “Behind the Scenes” shots to go with them…this is never before seen kinda stuff so be prepared!

What I actually see when I first step outside my front door…

It had been raining for DAYSSS when I took these photos…all my washing was hanging on a strap between my veranda poles. Not only that, but Instagram shows a beautiful tree with sunshine streaming through…what it doesn’t show is that most of that sunshine doesn’t ever reach my little concrete bunker of an apartment…

      What my Kitchen actually looked like…you can see the leaves and flowers on the window sill.

I had been at work most days this week, and had very little time or inclination to do the housework. A cluttered house makes me feel really depressed, yet you wouldn’t know it in the Instagram photo. I had just been for a walk to help clear my head, and came home with those leaves and flowers, which then lifted my spirits enough to get stuck in and do some housework.

    My dining table that morning…

I was sitting on the couch, in my pajamas, trying to prioritize my jobs for the day, (starting with clearing off my dining table!) But I still noticed that the knitted jumper I had put on was my favorite colour, blending nicely with the warm brown tones of my tiger printed blanket and the coffee mug I had chosen specifically to try and brighten my morning with some hope…if my table had been tidy and ready for the morning, I never would have got this shot for Instagram.

          The rest of my house…

I realize most of these photos were taken about the same time, but I don’t usually take behind the scenes photos, I was planning this post at the time and had given myself the task of taking a “reality” image every time I took a photo for Instagram. I may have got my wardrobe organised and tidy and looking so trendy and enviable…but I had no clean towels for if I wanted to shower, because it had been raining AGAIN and I was trying to dry them all inside my tiny little house. I could barely move in my living room. Tidying my wardrobe helped me feel like I had achieved something, and when I stood back and looked at it I was proud of what I had done, and felt a little bit of joy at all the beautiful things I had in there. (is that weird?? Do people feel proud of their wardrobes? Or is it just me? :-P)

I’m not trying to put myself and my creativity on a pedestal, in fact I’m a little ashamed to share these photos from behind the scenes! I just want to show that it’s possible to enjoy a beautiful life amongst the chaos. I think it’s important to be real, but it’s also important to keep our heads up, and stay positive which sometimes requires a little creativity.  When it comes to posting on social media, being creative is about noticing the little things that you’re grateful for, that bring you joy, and that lift your spirits, it’s not about trying to create a life that is worthy of a photograph, but about living life in all it’s reality, and being creative in noticing the tiny little beautiful moments that bring you joy.

  Creative Ideas – Beauty in the Chaos In my last post I was talking about the unnecessary stress of social media, and trying to maintain a Pinterest worthy lifestyle and get the right shots for Facebook and Instagram.

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https://artistadventurer435461844.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/staying-motivated-chasing-dreams/

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https://artistadventurer435461844.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/staying-motivated-chasing-dreams/

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https://artistadventurer435461844.wordpress.com/2018/06/05/staying-motivated-chasing-dreams/

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It was hard for me to decide to actually sit down and write this article, I could see it on my list of things to write about “Staying Motivated”, but I kept sitting at the computer and then saying, “I am the least motivated person I know, why would I write something like that?”

I realized just this morning that I am actually highly motivated. I’m just depressed and lacking a little confidence right now, because not too many things have been going as planned recently.

Staying Motivated is a funny thing, so often we mistake it for a feeling that we get, or something that some people have and others just don’t. Well that’s not exactly true. If it were, the question “what motivates you?” wouldn’t mean anything. Different people are motivated by different things, and even one person will find different aspects of their lives are motivated by different things. For example; I work by day at Smokemart selling cigarettes and tobacco. I hate my job. But I am motivated to go because we have bills to pay.

I have dreams of writing and singing professionally; part of staying motivated at this stage is because I want to get out of smokemart and have a real life with financial freedom. I am also motivated by the fact that these are things my heart has longed for my entire life, somehow they are a part of me, and as a result I will keep on trying for as long as it takes. The feelings don’t stay. Right at this very moment I feel like my dreams are crashing down around me, my attempts to achieve even little goals are failing over and over again and I feel like an absolute looser. This is why it was so hard to sit down and write, I don’t FEEL motivated. I feel like crap.

As  I was thinking about it this morning, I started to go over my beliefs about staying motivated, and so I figured I better put what I believe into practice. I believe staying motivated is a choice. Yes it is impacted by our feelings and circumstances, but if something is important to you, you will find a motivation to get it done. Hence I’m writing this article even though I feel like an absolute failure, because currently this blog has two followers, and one of them is me…

I also have plans to release an EP. It was originally going to happen in January this year, then I extended it to March, now I’m just hanging in there to see if it happens this year!

I have a song recorded that needs a music video made in Autumn for all the colours and the beautiful weather, but so many things have come into play to make it nigh on impossible, and I’ve started to wonder if my dreams are too big, or if I really should be dreaming at all. If I can’t record this music video, I have to wait another 12 months to try again.

I recently started busking at a local shopping centre, I borrowed a friends guitar because mine has a damaged pickup which needs repairs. I imagined earning the $75 I needed to repair it on my first night. In actual fact I made $48, of which only $20 was profit as I had bought a music stand that morning for the job. A couple of days later, with no money in our bank account I spent the whole $20 on fuel to get me to the job I hate in the hopes of paying our rent.

If staying motivated was a feeling, I think you get the idea that I ran out a couple of weeks ago.

 “Motivation is all about our internal desire to accomplish something that is important to us. This motivation (desire) makes us take action. Motivation is about an unmet need that we want to satisfy; it’s about a goal that we want to fulfill.” May 12, 2018 by ROBERT TANNER, MBA

I’m not going to dive too much into the science of how motivation works, but I do know that regardless of how I’m feeling, I can still choose to stay motivated most of the time. I don’t, but I can 😛

Here are some of the ways I try to stay motivated

Morning Routines;

I’m not very good at mornings. I wish I was and I’m trying to be better, and I guess that’s the main thing. I’ve been trying and failing for months now to establish a morning routine, but when I do achieve certain things in the morning I feel a thousand times better about my day and I usually achieve more. If I can plan out 3 to 4 things I want to achieve in a day, my motivation to achieve them is so much better. I find it challenging to limit myself on my to-do lists as I always have so much to get through! But when I give myself an enormous list and don’t leave any time for the things that are most important to me in the day, I will achieve a lot of little things and still feel crap about what I haven’t achieved. I try to give myself 1-2 important household chores, and 1-2 more meaningful jobs, like writing music, visiting someone important, or writing a blog post. Sometimes this isn’t enough to fill a day, in which case when I find I have some spare time I can think about some of the other jobs I need to do, or consider rewarding myself with some leisure time. This morning I planned out a few things to get done this week on my weekly planner, which helps me see further ahead, so I know what I can reasonably expect to achieve today.

Staying Focused;

I’m also not very good at this one. It’s important to remember why you do what you do, and why your dreams are important, and focusing on what you’re really trying to achieve. Sometimes this gets muddied in our brains by too much stress and too much activity in everyday life. Right now I’m a little confused about what I’m doing, I know what my dreams and goals are, but it’s hard not to get sidetracked by seemingly easier and shorter methods to variations of success. For example I really need to find a way to get some income flowing in, and I want to do it in a way that I enjoy. This is making me question what I should be doing and if I even studied the right degree at uni. It’s a complicated world inside a woman’s mind!

Thinking about these things can be important for staying motivated, however too much deviation from our long-term goals can cause us to lose traction and lose time, when we come back to them we find that we haven’t gotten any further, and possibly even went backwards in pursuit of something else.

Simplify Social Media;

Let’s face it, we all want a “Pinterest Worthy” life, an “#instaperfect” version of everything we do, so in order to stay motivated we spend hours scrolling through Pinterest and collecting little images of what we think we want to be, and spend precious moments trying to get the perfect photograph for Instagram to make sure that people know how excellent our lives are. One little picture with a few likes we think will keep us motivated, knowing that our image is right and people think well of us, but it’s never enough…

I’m not saying we should ditch these altogether; we live in a digital and online world it’s hard to let some of that stuff go, and Pinterest is sooooo useful! Not to mention fun and inspiring, it can also make me cry when I look at too many dog pictures… It can also make me really depressed because one picture can portray a lifestyle that is in reality so far out of reach. And since when did a photograph that makes it look like you’re living a life you’re really not, actually ever help you in staying motivated? The truth is we’re wasting time and emotional energy on a facade, and filling our heads with fantasies of a life that does not exist. Remember to keep things simple. Use Pinterest when you need to find a recipe or a hairstyle. Photograph your reality on Instagram, not specially staged photos. Let’s stay focused on our goals, and keep it simple by clearing away the clutter of creating an image, and instead let’s live the life we are living, and share it as it is, one day we’ll be living the dream and I want to be there to see it!

Hit “Follow” and sign up with your email to catch a post on getting creative with social media!

Take Some “Me” Time;

This is so important! I’m an extrovert and I need people to stay motivated and energized so it can be really hard for me to find ways to appreciate my alone time, or even to schedule it in. I’m not talking about the times when you’re home alone doing the chores and getting the house in shape before your next trip or social event or work day, I’m talking about time spent with yourself alone, doing something that you appreciate.

This can be taking a walk, reading a book, journaling, taking yourself out for a coffee (an excellent motivational tool) gardening, or simply enjoying some sunshine while you sit and breathe. These moments, away from the hustle and bustle of life, can sometimes seem like a waste of time in pursuit of your goals, but it’s here that you collect your thoughts, understand your emotions, re-evaluate your direction, and gather some mental peace that will help you for the rest of the week and help you stay focused. Without it, the busy that is your life, clutter that is your home, and stress that is your work, will all become a busy cluttered and stressed out mess of a heart and mind…not ideal for staying motivated! In fact in my experience, it’s a recipe for depression, anxiety, and becoming overly dependent on others for emotional stability and peace of mind. No one should be responsible for all of that for another person!

One of my favorite things to do is to take a bike ride, when the weather is nice, sometimes I’ll bring along a good book and ind a peaceful spot to sit and read, and soak up the sunshine.

  Give Yourself a Break;

This one can be hard, and it may sound similar to taking some ME time, but I’m actually talking about listening to your feelings. Sometimes you just aren’t feeling it and that’s ok, most of the time we need to push through and get stuff done anyway, other times it can be really important to listen to your own feelings and give yourself a break. Staying Motivated is hard work and it can be a strain on your mental health and on your emotions especially when we’re talking about staying motivated to chase your dreams. This doesn’t mean you have to go sit in a spa until you feel motivate again, or put your feet up and sip a glass of wine until the urge hits you to try again…

Truth is it’s taken me a week to write this, because I had to stop and take some breathing space for my head and heart, and I can assure you I wasn’t soaking in a spa waiting to feel motivated again! I was just busy with other things that take up less head space, like organizing my linen cupboard, and trying to find a new job, and general jobs that don’t always get done when they should.

It’s about learning your limits, knowing when to push yourself and when to give it a rest for a while. We all know the old saying “come back to it later”, well it’s true, come back later and you’ll be ready to try again!

There is so much more that could be said for staying motivated, so maybe I’ll have to do a part 2 down the track! A common theme in these tips for staying motivated, is that your mental health is of the greatest importance. Take care of it and staying motivated will come naturally. Hope this week is looking up for you!

Staying Motivated �� Chasing Dreams… It was hard for me to decide to actually sit down and write this article, I could see it on my list of things to write about "Staying Motivated", but I kept sitting at the computer and then saying, "I am the least motivated person I know, why would I write something like that?"

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Singers Health - 7 Top Tips

Singers Health – 7 Top Tips

As a singer I have come to learn that a singers health is vital to their art. After all our instrument is not something we can just put away in its case while we recover from a cold, our instrument suffers with us, and has to survive through everything we eat and drink, all our stress and emotions, and all the strain we put our bodies through with our daily activities, and even the air we breathe.

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https://artistadventurer435461844.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/the-journey-begins-how-to-be-creative-travelling-on-a-budget/

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Hire Brent Cowley!

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I could have stayed here forever…except I might have died for lack of oxygen, the view was so breathtakingly beautiful!

Also my other half was back home and I couldn’t have stayed away longer no matter how much my heart craved more of this place, it also craved the person I call my home. Thankfully I wasn’t alone, I had my gang to keep the laughs rolling, the love flowing and the music pumping!

We started our great weekend with an adventure of a different kind, we were staying in a house owned by some of the girls family and I headed up armed with a selection of food to keep us going until we made it to the shops. Once we got there it was time for lunch, so I got out some Prawn Salad I had made in advance and sat down to eat with great anticipation…

  Olivia had never eaten prawns, but she has a slightly unnatural love for all things edible and was really keen to try the salad! About halfway through she mentioned having handled prawns for fishing bait and getting a rash, and I was a little surprised she was eating them. I pointed this out, “i’ll be ok” she answered. Fast forward ten minutes and we were madly driving around to chemists and doctors to see how much anti-histamine she could take at once and eventually a doctor gave us a hand, and we waved goodbye as Olivia took a ride to Port Macquarie hospital for the evening! She was fine in the end, but had to say goodbye to eating prawns ever again!

When Olivia and Jasmine got home that night we ate pizza and watched a movie, in the morning we got on our bicycles and headed down to the beach, it was a beautiful day and we had great fun playing musical bikes as we switched between riding next to each other all the way there and back. We followed that up with leftover pizza for lunch, and a trip to Port Macquarie for some shopping, coffee and ice cream on the foreshore.

It was such an incredible time, with so much laughter and adventure, swimming at dusk, walking on the beach by starlight, and late night movies with a glass of wine we’d never tried before. By bed time we were a little over-tired and some of us a little on the grumpy side…but it was worth it!

Our final day was one of the best, and we absolutely crammed it full to make the most of our time left! Coffee and croissants got us in the mood and we headed down to the beach for some napping, climbing, swimming and songwriting;

Kim and I, being a little weird over Breakfast! Photographed by Jasmine 

It’s amazing how natural songwriting can flow one moment, and how hard a struggle it can be to get words on a page the next. Jasmine and I sat here with this view, some notepaper, and she had her guitar, I managed to get some concepts on a page but that’s about all, and she was already playing stuff out on

her guitar! We all have our good and bad moments though, times of inspiration, and times of hard work…I decided it was too nice a day to work hard so I gave up! 😛

  We moved beaches to find a spot with some shade, and then we all got wet, the water was pretty cold, but when the weather is this hot and this perfect, who cares? We dragged Kristy into getting wet by splashing her until it was hopeless to resist!

  Kristy drove us everywhere, which was brilliant, because we got everywhere in record time and had more time for fun!

Not our best look…but an accurate depiction of our characters!

The bonus was I didn’t have to worry about finding money for a fine if we got booked 😛

We had to pack up and clean the house before we left, so we were keen to get moving for lunch so we would have enough time to drive up to the lookout to eat and take in the view. Hot chips, friends sunshine and a view like this, it was absolutely perfect!

Good times and great people make beautiful places into more beautiful memories!

Only about our years ago, I didn’t know these girls, except my sister 😛

Now I can’t imagine doing life without them!

“A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there 

is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.” Proverbs 18:24

A Journey is Just a Road Without a Friend I could have stayed here forever...except I might have died for lack of oxygen, the view was so breathtakingly beautiful!

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