My journey to simplicity

At every job I've had, there were unhappy people. Some complain regularly about how some aspect of the job they have is somehow "defective". They don't like what they do. They don't like who they work with. They don't like a certain task. They don't like something about it. I sometimes let myself slide into that behaviour. I sometimes complain about my situation instead of doing something about it. Then I remember what I've learned throughout my years of working. Learn it. Change it. Change yourself. Move on. Learn it When I start a new job, the first thing I do is learn what it is. Depending on the complexity of the job, that's either done quickly over a few weeks or it can take longer like up to a year. Once I feel comfortable enough in my job where I can "fly on my own", that's usually when issues start creeping up. Maybe there's a certain task I don't enjoy. Maybe the salary is not worthy of the work. Maybe someone I ...

About a month ago, I went to a certain mall with my daughter because she wanted to go to a particular store that we can only find in the area at that particular mall. So we drove about 45 minutes to get to this place. The parking lot is huge! The biggest I've ever seen for a mall. Despite the size of the parking lot, finding a parking spot was difficult. I had to drive around to finally "get lucky" and take over someone's spot who had just left. " Ugh! I'm not going to enjoy this! " We get out of the car. My 15-year-old daughter is making little noises of excitement. She's been wanting to check out this store ever since she heard it was in the area. As we're walking up to one of the entrances, it felt like we were entering a protected village. Kind of like the forts we might see in movies - a big wall around a little village. That's the best way I can describe this mall to you is to call it a shopping village. An open-air mall. The stores...

I was talking to my awesome friend Christy today at work and telling her about how disappointed I was with myself for the weekend I had. Although I had prepared another essay for today's post, she suggested that I write about these feelings instead. So here it is...  *****   I put unnecessary pressure upon myself to be perfect. And this somewhat ruined an otherwise lovely weekend. Because we had gorgeous weather this past weekend, I felt like I should have taken advantage of it more. I should have gone on an adventure with my daughter. We should have gone hiking. We should have visited a museum. We should have taken a road trip. We should have taken a local boat tour of downtown Ottawa. We should have spent more time outside. We should have visited my awesome friend Christy. But we didn’t, and that got me down. It got me down because I was aware of all of this weekend’s possibilities and I didn’t do any of it. I had also told myself that I would have perfect healthy ...

I recently had a job interview. The job involved interacting with many different people, and some from a different country, a different culture, a different way of doing business. It was going to be a challenging rewarding high-pressure job. My interviewer asked me which aspects of group work I enjoyed the most, and which aspects I enjoyed the least, what I might need help with. I paused for a few seconds and answered "It would have to be the same answer to both. You can learn so much from working with many different people. The different personalities and points of view can open your eyes and enrich you. And working with many different people can be frustrating BECAUSE they have different personalities and points of views." "Good answer! I like your honesty!" she said. I truly believe this though. And not just about working in a group. I believe this about qualities and faults. My mother often says "We have the qualities of our faults". I have to agre...

Writing this blog has been a great experience for me! When I started writing, it was just for me. I wanted to keep track of what I was going through, thinking and learning. I thought maybe a few of my friends might read my blog. I really wasn't expecting to get so many readers from all over the world!! I've had readers from the United-States, Russia, France, Singapore, India, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Serbia and the United-Kingdom, just to name a few countries. Some of you have been giving me really good feedback! Thank you! As I've been developing my blog, I've been trying to come up with some sort of structure for my posts. Not only in content, but in frequency. So I've decided that I will publish a post every Friday and Monday . This way, you'll know exactly when new content will be available. I will also try to focus on one maybe two topics per post at the most.   Just to let you know   I've been having issues with comments. I know for a ...

I had a conversation with someone I've recently met. As we're getting to know each other, he asked if I travel often. "Never have unless you count Quebec City and Montreal. I don't even own a passport yet. But I'm planning on taking my first trip during Christmas break." Then we discussed summer plans. I told him about the stuff I want to do this summer. Mostly tourist type activities around town. Walking tours. Boat tours. Bus tours. Air tours. Hiking. Road trips. We live in such a beautiful area and I barely even know it even though I've lived here all my life! "Where do you hike? Gatineau Park?" he asked. "I haven't hiked in years, but yes, that's where I'm planning to go. See, you've caught me at an exciting time for me. I'm finally going through with many of my fantasy plans. No more waiting for things to happen. I'm making them happen!" "What pushed you to make stuff happen?" Good question! ...

Decluttering has been going great! I’m so excited! I actually do see progress. Seeing what's left neatly arranged makes me happy. The best way to organize your home is to get rid of stuff. The more I give away, the more I want to give away! When you keep only what brings you joy, you realize there's really not much you want to hold on to. My kitchen cupboards are in order. My paperwork is down to one filing container. My basement is coming along. I had way more than I thought I did. I don't really want to bring any of it with me when I move. But I will keep a few tools. I also have a few pieces of vintage furniture that need repairing. But now that everything is out of the way, I can finally take care of them. I got rid of most of my Christmas decorations. I've wanted to do that for a long time. I don't like going through all of the trouble to decorate for a couple of weeks. Moving stuff out of the way to make room for the Christmas tree and other decorations. A...

A few years ago, my dream was to own a single family home with an English garden inspired backyard, a big kitchen with tons of storage, a media room where I could watch movies and listen to music, one or two guest rooms and a library/study with hundreds maybe even thousands of books. I used to watch all of the home themed TV shows. Renovations. Buying. Decorating. I was into all of them. They fueled my dreams. Now even though I had those "dreams of ownership", once in a while I'd start to feel the desire to get rid of everything and start fresh. I had once seen a movie on Mother Theresa's life and I thought her simple room that had just a bed, a nightstand, a lamp, a crucifix and a bible seemed just lovely. I don't think I'll go to that extreme, but I'm finally giving myself permission to go with that feeling and it's the first time I feel this right about a decision.  Today, if I happen upon one of those shows that I used to watch almost relig...

I've found a new motivation for working out. I've been watching Departures on Netflix. Canadians Scott Wilson and Justin Lukach travel the world with their camera man André Dupuis. These guys are young (28 in 2008) and fit. I can see how that is a great asset for travel. Especially the way they do it. They don't go to just see the regular tourist areas. They immerse themselves into the country where the natives live. They go into deserts, walk through forests, climb mountains, hand glide, visit ruins, climb trees and bathe in waterfalls. I can definitely appreciate how being fit really helps with stamina and being able to go where they go. Not that I necessarily want to do what they've done, but being able to walk for hours, climb stairs and walk up hills would be great. Like I've mentioned before , recently I've been having this fantasy where once my daughter graduates high school we would travel the world together for a year. If I want to be able to do tha...

Forced rest can be frustrating. I hurt my lower back this last Thursday at my last workout. Now I have difficulty walking. I hoped that I could finally tackle the basement this weekend. But that wasn't possible. To keep the momentum going, I decided to buy a photo scanner this morning even though this was supposed to be a no-buy month. I'm okay with this decision because the scanner that I wanted to buy is currently on sale. Also, since I can't do anything physical, scanning my photos was a good compromise. It was on my To-Do list.  I'm pretty happy with the scanner I bought. I can scan multiple photos at a time and the software saves each photo individually. Saves time. I was able to scan over 250 photos this morning. I have a few more hundred to go...                                  ...

When we start getting really nice summer like weather, I start thinking about one of the guys I dated during the summer of 2013.  He was much different than any guy I’ve ever dated. But then again, I could say that about all of the men I’ve dated. Anyway, I went along with it even though he was much younger than me. I knew it was going to be a fling and I was OK with that. At that time, I didn’t really want to get into anything too serious.   He was (still is) a mechanic and part owner of the garage he worked at. He had travelled to a few different countries: the U.S., Japan, Russia , and across Europe , and he had plans for more travel. He seemed to be a hard worker, he was spontaneous  and quite cute – tall, thin but muscular.  I experienced a weekend with him that  changed me.  We had gone out on a Friday night. I don’t even remember what we did. Maybe it was a car ride through Gatineau Park because he really liked driving. He ended up sleeping ...

"You didn't fail, you chose to stop!" Paula said to me as she put her arm around me. She read my previous post about my last Whole30 attempt (actually, she's been reading all of my posts). After reading this one, she told me that I need to better choose my words. That I need to stop being negative towards myself. I do have a tendency to be a little hard on myself. Actually, from what some of my friends have been telling me, I guess I can be quite hard on myself. I feel like I should be better. Better at every aspect of my life. Smarter. Fitter. Nicer. Friendlier. Healthier. More together. More productive. More effective. Better in everything. Better than what? Better than what I have been so far. Even though getting better, growing, improving, is what I feel I need to strive for, I shouldn't beat myself up to get there. You're right Paula. Thank you for reminding me. I need to be better at this too. :)