One thing I've learned on my level up journey is that you need to be ready to work on yourself and do most of the work by yourself before you reach out to people to help you.

Levelling up is a personal journey because only you understand what you need, what you want and where you want to be in life. So when you ask someone to help you level up or become a better person, the truth is that for his or her help to be useful to you, you have to be ready for a change. You have to want the change to happen and you have to be ready to do the work and invest in yourself in order for your life to change.

I have made several attempts to change my life for the better in the past and this time I realized that I am more ready and willing to invest in myself and take the steps necessary to make that change happen. And now I'm getting more positive results.

I will talk more about how to invest in yourself for positive results in subsequent posts. This time let's talk about personal virtues that will help your life in general and career in particular.

It's sad how certain virtues are going out of style these days. We see people on social media who are being paid to have fun in five-star hotels all over the world and we think that that's where their hustle began. No honey. Their hustle began way before that. They had some personal values which helped them move to the next level of their lives. Values that we neglect a lot these days but which are still projecting people to higher heights.

These people you admire and want to be like had to humble themselves and work their way to the top just like you are doing now. They had to invest in their hustle to increase their value as a business or brand then get to the point where people saw them capable and trusted them enough to collaborate with them.

Indispensable Virtues You Need To Level Up Your Life

Here are the virtues that you need to have for success. It has helped most successful people get to where they are today.

Hard work

Like it or not the virtue of hard work never goes out of style. Nobody is born with any knowledge whatsoever. The only thing we know how to do as babies which nobody teaches us is to suckle, cry and poop.

We have to be taught everything we know today which has been hard work for our parents, our teachers and for us who have invested lots of time and energy learning something. So why will you think that hard work is no longer a virtue to apply for a successful life.

If you believe your parents did a good job with the way they raised you then their hard work paid off. It's the same with your teachers, mentors and your bosses. Trust me they went through a hard time to train you and teach you or build the company where you worked in order to help yourself.

If you think good of them it's because they worked hard to make a good impact on you which actually is a success.

I see people encouraging others to work smart instead of working hard. But I wonder how one can become smart without working hard. No one is born smart. We learn to be smart. And if you train your mind to be smart, you will be smart.

And you have to work hard to be smart. Because being smart requires learning and being good at something.

Have the virtue of hard work instilled in you. As the term signifies it's hard but that's the best way to achieve the sweetest success. Be ready to put in your best and do what you want to do well. Be ready to learn all the tricks. Because that's how you will learn. And with time you will discover that you will not require to work as hard as you did in the beginning. That's when you start to work smart. Because you already understand your work and you have all the skills and experience necessary for it.

Patience

I can't count how many times I heard the phrase "patience is a virtue" while growing up. From movies (like The Mummy 1) and so many other people, I came across. It took me a lot of time and failing at trying to go ahead of time to realize how true this phrase is.

I have felt late in life for such a long time so I know what I am talking about. At some point, all my friends seemed to have and achieve something I was lacking and this made my self-esteem issues worse. Coupled with the fact that I had set goals like getting married at 23, having my degree in three years and controlling a successful business which none happened as I planned.

I got into the greatest phase of disappointment in my life. It took a while to begin to get things right or back on track. I was forced once in a while to be patient for certain things to happen but all I wanted was to catch up on the time I had lost.

I focused so much on the fact that 'I was supposed to be further with my life and not be at this lower point where I found myself. It hurt me and killed me every day and I put in all my energy to make sure I jump at least five steps ahead to get to where I was supposed to be.

When I didn't catch up I felt even more discouraged and blamed myself for it. I compared myself with my friends and even with strangers on the internet who are younger than me. It made me think "this is where I would have been if I didn't have this or that obstacle that slowed me down".

Now I have come to realize that patience is really necessary for things to work out. Some things do take time to happen. You need to be ready when it happens and have the ability to maintain it if not you will not manage it well and you will lose it.

You need to have patience as you work hard for what you want. You will fail and meet obstacles on your way some of them will even take you back to the point where you started, but in all this, you have to apply patience to your courage to move on so that you don't go astray.

Positive attitude & Self believe

Staying positive is very important for success. It can be hard to remain positive when you don't see results but only a positive attitude can attract success.

Make efforts to believe in yourself no matter how hard it is. Your confidence may fluctuate every day, your self-esteem may not be on top every time, you may feel discouraged and sometimes nervous. Know that this is normal.

Don't focus on how low you feel, but focus on how you can boost your confidence. Most people are not always confident in themselves, everyone has done at least one thing afraid and experts still say they still feel nervous while doing what they know how to do best. So don't let your fears or lack of confidence affect you to the point that you can't do anything to make your life better.

Kindness & Selflessness

Be kind to people with your words and actions even if you disagree with them. Be respectful and help others. It's important to have a business relationship with people but shows them some extra kindness because that will make them to always remember you.

Being kind to people is a great way to build a solid network. A kind compliment or a selfless action can build trust and open up conversations which could lead to a job or an opportunity that will help you. Practice kindness.

Integrity & respect for your work ethic

For the sake of your reputation or brand, you need to have integrity and respect your work ethic. This will take you far because every action that you take will contribute to your reputation with time.

If you show more integrity and respect for your work ethic then you will build a good reputation for yourself which will guarantee more clients for you in the marketplace.

Vigilance & Prudence

Stay vigilant and prudent as you interact with people and make decisions because not everyone has an agenda that is also favourable for you.

You will meet selfish people who will ask to work with you but will only want their own desires to be met. Stay woke. Develop an eye that decerns such people. Make sure that you define and defend your own interests in every deal.

Take people the way they are and find ways to deal with them as they come for your own good. Be wise.

Talking about money is always a serious thing. No one likes to hear that they are not doing well money-wise even though they can clearly see that.

As important as it is, I don't like talking about money. I had to come to terms with the money talk recently and it has been a process for me to get to that point.

It wasn't easy for me to address the details of my financial situation. I just thought I could get a better financial situation without cross-checking and being real with my financial status. The focus for me has always been to make money and not to focus on the actual details that characterize my present financial situation. No doubt I made mistakes with managing my money.

I had a very strict upbringing when it came to money and I was thought to be content with what I had no matter how little. I developed a spirit of managing what I had as much as possible and since I was afraid of coming off to everyone as money-minded, I would not ask for money until I really needed it. I was provided with already bought items rather than the money to purchase them myself. It made the subject of money feel taboo for such a long time but as an adult, I realized that we have to talk about money at a certain point. At a certain point, we have to question our finances to find out what's wrong and right with them and what the future holds for us. This is the point where we are finally becoming financially independent because it's hard to question and look into your finances when you are still dependent.

From Dependence To Independence | How to manage he pressure

The pressure to be financially independent.

Being dependent feels normal until a time when we begin to feel that guilt to take money from our parents or live off someone else's pocket. It can make you feel depressed, stressed and pressured to want to do something to get out of that dependent situation.

Hustling and yet not independent?

This is very normal - I mean to feel that way. The feeling is worse when you try so hard to become financially independent but you fail on many attempts. Or what you make isn't enough to ensure your financial independence. This is worse because it kills you every time when you have to go back to ask for help when everyone knows that you have a hustle or a job. Everyone expects you to be doing well at this point.

At what age should I be independent?

Another factor that causes the pressure of being financially independent is age. Trust me you don't want to be getting close to thirty and still be depending entirely on your parents. It feels so stressful, especially in this era of social media where everyone seems to have their sh*t together and have accomplished a lot before thirty.

When the pressure takes you in the wrong direction.

That's not an easy thing to deal with. I remember that I had to unfollow lots of people (including my friends) on Facebook some time ago because everyone seemed to be achieving something and I felt my life was stagnant because I compared my life to theirs all the time.

That wasn't healthy at all as it made me strive to change my life so bad that I wanted a quick change to meet up with the standard. The standard that had been built in my mind was that by this or that age, I should be achieving this or that. I wanted to skip further than my legs could take me and I failed many times because I was motivated by the wrong thing.

The things I wanted were not exactly what I wanted instead, they were things that I saw that looked good on other people. I mismanaged the little I had in order to look like all was well and I was getting my sh*t together. But underneath, things were rather getting worse because I was only increasing my financial problems and making my financial situation worse.

I spent money on things I didn't really need at the moment and I didn't want to come to terms with the fact that I wasn't a fully independent babe yet. I had a struggling business that went on and off for a long time and I was tackling school, my blog and life too. It became so stressful at one time that I became so discouraged. Everything I was doing wasn't working. While I tried to portray (and fool myself at the same time) that my life was intact, I was working out ways to back it up. But it wasn't working.

Finally facing your financial situation.

Like I said earlier I don't do the money talk (not even with myself) but I was forced to do so when I realized that it's time to level up my finances and live my best life.

I had to look myself in the eye and tell the truth which is that I wasn't doing well and I needed an upgrade. Here are a few things I looked into.

Realizing the reality.

I mentioned this already but I will emphasize it because it is the start point for change. I had to accept it. It is really hard to accept a situation that you are not used to. While being dependent I lived well and alright but when I took the road to independence, things changed and my financial situation dropped.

I had more needs and less money to spend. Money was now going into my business, my blog and other things. It wasn't just food, school and monthly bills anymore. Other expenses added up. This changed my situation. I began to struggle even more to manage my money.

It took me a long while to realize that I was in a real mess and that I needed to think about reassessing my finances.

Analyzing money entries and exits.

I didn't analyze my entries and exits of money. I just lived like that. When I received money, I rushed to solve the next pressing problem without analyzing how that expenditure will affect me. And I think that was my main problem with my finances. I would have some money now and later I am already broke and sometimes in debt.

I now realize it's important to know your streams of income and how much these streams of income give you, then know how you spend it so that you don't go broke. It's also important to take into consideration the duration of each stream of income to come in. Is it a monthly, weekly or daily income? How certain is this income to come in? Some incomes are not as certain to come in on time as others are so it's risky to depend on them.

Those are a few questions to guide you analyze your financial entries and exits. Knowing how much you make or receive in a month will help you to know how to spend and invest your money without going completely broke.

Knowing the assets and liabilities in your life.

Assets and liabilities are not only meant for the accountants. It is meant to be understood by everyone who wants to manage their money well. This here is all about spending or what you are spending your money on. Are they assets or liabilities?

Assets are valuable and useful things you own that help you generate more value in the form of income or any other value. While liability is like a debt like your monthly bills and loans. I hope I defined them well without sounding too technical.

So you see that it's better to have more assets than liabilities. If you stop increasing your liabilities like health, gas, phone, internet, water and electricity bills then you can have more money to invest in assets that are good.

Also, you need to know the kind of assets to invest in. Some assets increase in value while others decrease in value over time. Assets like land or a house increase in value over time but a car will decrease in value over time.

When it comes to simple things like clothing and cosmetics, invest in pieces that will take longer to wear out so that it becomes cheaper for you over time. At least I practised this one already, especially with my clothing and accessories like my bags. I have pieces in my wardrobe which are as old as six years and are still in a good state because they are of good quality.

Making a financial plan.

After all this analysis, you need a plan. You need to use the knowledge you acquired about your financial situation to make changes that will take you to a better financial level.

The method I use is this.

Calculate how much money you need monthly for your present and future (combined) expenses, investments and savings. How much do you need to spend, invest, refund or save every month? If you already know your total expenses, then you may decide to invest a certain amount and then save a certain amount monthly.

When you know this then this will be your financial target to reach each month. When you multiply this amount by 12 months then you will know how much you need to make in a year.

If you meet your yearly income target before the year runs out then that's great. This can also help you track your expenses to see if they are increasing, decreasing or the same. If your yearly target income is increasing but your expenses are increasing as well then you are not making progress financially. Also, calculate the total amount of money you are expected to save by the end of the year and track your progress as you save.

Consider your abilities, skills and opportunities while doing your plan. Also, consider your future plans for investments and family plans as you plan your finances.

Financial independence is a TRANSITION, not a sudden change.

I want to highlight here that it takes time to become independent financially so don't expect to get on your feet with a snap of the finger.

It is a transition, an evolution, a progression and a metamorphosis from dependence to independence. It takes time. Don't be fooled by what you see on the internet of people getting financial independence right after college and all that yadda about getting financially independent by a certain age.

Don't even let that make you question your life for a minute. Keep working on yourself to get the financial freedom you seek. Hard work and patience are still such good virtues.

If you are still dependent while you work your way towards independence then I would say don't feel too comfortable but don't feel ashamed about it. If you still live with your parents or they still send you money for upkeep, don't let that make you relax your efforts and don't feel ashamed about it.

Just do what you have to do to get out of that situation because that is just a transition period. It's not meant to last forever but it can take a long time too.

I didn't warn you that this post was going to be long lol.

But I am happy to share all the details with you about levelling up your finances. This is still January. Or whatever month in which you read this post it is not too late to start making drastic changes to better your financial life.

I hope to share more real and practical tips with you on that as time goes on. I hope you enjoyed this post and don't forget that you can always share your thoughts with me in the comment section below.

If you already read my post on Where To Start Leveling Up Your Life, then you should be wondering how to go about your level up the journey. If that's true then this post is for you.

Before we dive in I want to emphasize that levelling up is a journey and is not achieved in one night. These steps I share will not transform your life only in the next few days or months. It may even take years for changes to be visible (depending on your plan). But remember that it's the determination and the hustle in the background that matters.

Everyone on earth is a work in progress. We never get to the endpoint and say ok now this is who I wanted to be so that's it. No. We keep levelling up because we have new challenges to confront. We have new comfort zones to get out of.

Levelling up is not a destination but a journey.

Please remember that.

How To Level Up Your Life

Assess your life.

Make an honest assessment of your current life. Most people know that they need an upgrade but still convince themselves to think that they will be fine when they get that job or a salary raise or some more love and attention from whosoever.

But in reality, their whole life or most of their life is a mess and they are living a lie. You may think that a job with that company is all you need to make life better meanwhile you hate working for others. You may think that the salary raise will convince you to love that job that you hate so much but it won't. You may think that all you need is more love and support from your loved ones but your real problem is that you have low esteem. Think of the actual problem you need to level up from.

Do a deep assessment to find out what things in your life need a change. Ask yourself what mistakes you are making right now and how it is affecting your life. Also write down the challenges that you face daily, monthly or yearly and how you would want to change.

This is to help you know what you want your level up to look like and what you want to level up to. This leads me to my second point.

Determine What You Really Want.

Now that you know how bad (or good) your situation is, What do you really want? What do you want to be known or seen as? What title(s) do you want to be attributed to your name? What do you want to do in your career? Do you want to make a change or addition to your life?

Know that this point is all up to you. It is based on what you really want for yourself. How you want your brand to be. What you want to invest your time and energy in for a very long time.

Think about your image and who you want to be like. Find your role models. It's easy, especially with social media.

Research, Verify & Learn.

After knowing what you want for your levelled up life, do your research and verify if what you really want is achievable. This is where you have to be a bit more realistic.

Find out if there are other people who have done what you want to do and have succeeded. Learn from those who have done so.

Learn from those who are levelling up or who have levelled up their lives. Find blogs, watch videos, and seek coaching.

Make A Plan.

You need to make a plan and set goals. Give yourself a time frame to achieve them. Elaborate on how you are going to achieve them.

Implement.

Apply what you have learned. It's not enough to read all the self-improvement books out there. You need to implement and do. You need to try out the advice given to you during your research and find out which one works for you.

Work on your plan and try to achieve your goals.

If you fail is one thing, don't be discouraged, just switch to another one or change your strategy. Be patient and work hard.

This stage involves starting a business for example if you always wanted to be an entrepreneur. It is about doing the things you need to do to level up your life.

It could be going to the gym or starting eating right to have that healthy lifestyle you always dreamt of having so that you can boost your confidence. It could also be going back to school or taking that course to get your dream job.

You need to start working on the things you planned to do in order to get the changes you desire.

Evaluate.

Do a weekly, monthly or yearly evaluation to find out how much progress you are making with your life. Are you ticking your goals?

As much as you should be a goal digger, remember that it is also normal to fail and try again. Don't beat yourself up so much when you don't win all the time no matter how late you are in life and want to catch up on life or what you have missed.

Related: How To Overcome Feeling Like you Are Late In Life

Avoid Comparison.

Don't compare yourself to your peers or those people you see on social media. I know this is hard (I make that mistake too) but when you catch yourself comparing yourself to anyone, just acknowledge it and remind yourself that you are not on the same journey and there is a reason why your life is different.

Also, stay consistent.

Consistency will take you very far. You cannot level up if you are not consistent with what you do to level up. The journey will be tough but being consistent will get you to success.

Those are my tips on how to level up your life. I hope you use them (it's what I use too) and get the best levelled up life.

Related: Where To Start Levelling Up Your Life

Ever since I took the term Level Up more seriously I have also noticed more and more people desire to level up their lives.

It's a term that is very common with game players because after each stage is complete, the gamer moves to the next level or levels up. The more he levels up the more he is considered a pro and gains more respect from his peers and fellow competitors.

Young Ladies most especially want to level up to be mature, independent, self-sufficient girls who have good taste, good looks and are also intelligent and well cultured. They want to earn respect from their peers too.

It is great to imagine yourself being all of these things but you have to know that it doesn't just come naturally. If there is any woman you admire or look up to who has these qualities then know that she invested in herself to become the woman that you now admire and dream of becoming.

It's time for you to invest too. To do so, you need to know where to start investing. And that's what we are talking about today.

Want To Level Up Your Life? Here Is Where To Begin

Your Mindset

The first place to begin levelling up is your mind and how you think about yourself. You can't level up if you think that you do not deserve it.

You need to work on your mindset first before you properly begin your level up the journey. You have to know and believe deep down in you that you deserve better and finer things and there is no problem with that even if you have never done things for yourself or have always put the needs of others first before yours.

It is important to believe in these things because that's the only way that the levelling up will make any sense to you. Levelling up requires you to work on yourself to become a better person and achieve your goals in life be it in your career or social life.

So is your mindset focused on the fact that you deserve the best or that you don't deserve anything good? Or those good things are meant only for a certain type of people? If you think that good things are meant only for those with a slim body or blond hair or lighter skin or only for those girls who are in a relationship with a millionaire or have the best grades then you need to change that.

To do so, you need to read lots of self-esteem building content and watch videos about self-love too. But know that everyone deserves a levelled up life. Even you. And no I'm not just saying it. I mean it.

Your Appearance

Appearance is not everything when it comes to levelling up but it is a key place to consider during your journey. Mind you levelling up is not only about your physical look. Once people hear about levelling up, they think it's only about the physical appearance. Working on the physical appearance is all left to the person who wants to level up to decide if they want to make certain changes or not.

But someone who is properly dressed with an overall good appearance is always more appealing to the eye. You can still maintain or keep your style and level it up by wearing better clothes which remain true to your style. For example, if you have a tomboy kind of style as a woman. You may not need to start dressing differently in order to level up your style (except it's absolutely necessary). You can simply go for better quality clothes and colours that will make you look better and upgrade your look.

This goes the same with your skin. This goes to my black women who want to level up. I know as black women, we grew up believing that being light skin means levelling up. That's such a lie. In as much as the light skin women reflect a higher status (yes because we see them with the rich guys and they are having better treatments and privileges in life), we do not need to be light skin to level up.

There are many dark skin women who are looking very boujee and levelled up every day of their lives. They don't need to bleach their skin to feel or look levelled up. I know that skin lightening is a personal choice and I respect that but please don't feel compelled to lighten your skin in order to level up your life or to feel that you have levelled up.

You may have noticed that the appearance is quite complex when it comes to levelling up. It is based on personal preference and beliefs because it is linked to self-confidence and self-worth. Coming out looking the way you want gives you more confidence than when you don't like how you look. So this makes it very sensitive.

Do what makes you comfortable but find out the risks involved in every change you want to make in your appearance. Don't satisfy a need and then create more health problems for yourself. It's not worth it, I tell you.

Your Intellect & Etiquette

It is very important to build your intellect and etiquette for your level up and boujee life. It's also necessary to be able to speak sense during conversations and know how to behave among people especially when they are not of the same cultural background as you.

You need to learn about other cultures and people. Have an idea here and there about things like fashion, art, politics and the economy. A little knowledge in these fields and help you start and keep a meaningful conversation that can create a good and solid network for you. Remember that we are levelling up as women in order to have more opportunities in work and social life. Not everyone is a fan of Beyoncé, Rihanna and Netflix. And even if they were a fan of it, they may not give it as much importance as they do things like jazz and classical music. Starting a conversation about the economy and sometimes politics sounds more intelligent than talking about Netflix.

I know that sounds boring. But if you look forward to levelling up, then you have to start learning about other people's cultures and things other people like because levelling up is not all about you but also your environment and those you interact with (your network).

You also need to know some basic etiquette in various cultures so that you can be seen as respectful and can be respected in return.

Your Skills, Career & Finances

Level up your skills and abilities. Polish your accent, learn a new language, take an e-course on something you need to learn to enhance your career.

Increase your streams of income to better your finances. Volunteer to gain more experience. Network with those who matter in your industry. Market yourself the right way to the right people.

If you want to level up and be independent, then you have to work on your ability to make some coin for yourself.

Of all the points I've mentioned so far, this can be the most difficult to achieve. How do I know? Well, I'm working on it too. And it's hard. I won't even lie. But remember that those nice things you crave to have and own one day should not only exist in your head or imagination. It has to one day become a reality. So you need to work hard with your finances in order to make it happen.

Here are the preliminaries of levelling up ladies. I think that these are the areas that you need to work on when you are levelling up your life.

Related: How To Level Up Your Life.

New Year can be exciting yet stressful when there are some serious goals to achieve. Setting new year's resolutions can put much pressure on us and the more relaxed option is to set a theme for the year. While new year resolutions are still relevant and used by a lot of people, some people are choosing themes to cut out the pressure from their lives and just enjoy life the best way they can.

Today, I share with you 10 New Year Themes to adopt this year.

You don't need to adopt all of them for the year. Just one or two themes are enough to make your year more meaningful.

My year of levelling up

Make this new year your year to level up your life in every aspect. From physical to mental and even spiritual. Upgrade your thoughts and mind by reading more, and learning from those who are experts in whatever domain you are interested in. Keep fit and dress well to enhance your physical appearance. Learn new skills and stay current on the news. Invest and make profits to live a better life this new year.

My year of living a fulfilled life

Let this new year be geared towards you living the life that makes you not only happy but fulfilled. Do things that make you genuinely happy and satisfied with yourself. Don't live a life of regret this year.

My year of self-care and wellness

Dedicate time to taking care of yourself. Invest time to care for yourself physically and mentally. Meditating, yoga, skincare, massages, travel and vacations are recommended for you to have a year of self-care and wellness.

My year of personal development, expansion and building my knowledge

This means that you are making this year one of developing your intelligence. Take a new course online or go back to school, get a mentor, start a new project, and read books, seminars and workshops will help you develop your knowledge in whatever topic(s) you're interested in all year long.

My year of being the best version of myself

Make this year a year of being the best you possible. Make your own decisions and make your own mistakes without fear because that will enable you to correct yourself and then become better. Face your fears like the fear of failure, fear of success, etc and work on them so that you can become the best version of yourself.

My year of building my network

Use the new year to build a solid network for yourself. Is it a business network you want or a social network? Visit places and go to events throughout the year that will enable you to meet people that are useful to your life and business. Nurture and keep the relationships growing throughout the year as well in order to make them solid and reliable.

My year of adding/increasing my value

Use this year to know and increase your value. Make people you work with or interact with on a daily bases see more value in you. make yourself relevant and important to them so that you earn more respect and a good reputation that will earn you good recommendations to the right people who will change your life. Don't let people use you as a doormat. Learn to say no, don't be too available, spend time working on developing yourself and invest in your growth.

My year of building my confidence

Confidence is not a skill or character that comes once and stays. It is a feeling that is implanted, developed, grown and maintained with time for it to stay with us. So make this new year a year to grow your confidence and maintain it in order to keep it. Spend time reading books about confidence, watching videos and reading blogs. Follow people who motivate and inspire you. Practice gratitude daily and spend time with those who see and bring out the best in you.

My year of financial growth

Make this new year focused on growing your finances tremendously. Find and follow finance experts one on one or on social media and get advice on how to develop your finances. Find a hustle and work hard on it to be successful.

My year of finding and being myself

Finding yourself is a journey. If you are lost in life and don't know who you are, why not make this new year a year to find yourself. If you feel like you have been somebody else for most of your life and want to be you, then use the new year to be yourself. Take personality tests for clarity on what personality you are. I personally recommend this personality test created by Rachel & Kristen of Clarity on Fire. It's the best personality test I have come across and used. You can take the test by clicking here.

10 New Year Themes To Adopt This New Year

I hope you found your new year's theme from this post. And if you have more ideas of themes as you read this post please share them in the comment section to help others have more options to choose from. Also, remember to share this post with your friends and family to help them find their theme for the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

I'm so glad that we made it into the new year. There's a lot to share and I am so excited.

While you are already making your first steps toward keeping your New Year's Resolutions, you should consider reading this post I made last year about 5 New Year's Resolutions Worth Sticking To. It is a list of evergreen resolutions you should consider taking every new year. Click here to read.

I noticed that some people are resolution oriented while others are theme-oriented this new year. There are still a lot of people who make resolutions but more people are choosing to go with themes now.
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I personally think this is because resolutions come with a lot of pressure and people are trying to cut out the extra pressure from their lives by choosing themes that take tiny actions put together to achieve.

For example, some people may just want to level up their lives this year 2019. That's a good theme. Or they may just want to live a more fulfilled life this year. That's also another great theme for the new year. I did a post on 10 Best New Year Themes To Adopt This New Year which you can check out to see more examples of themes you can choose to make your year more meaningful.

new year quotes, 2019, resolutions, themes

I'm not making new goals or resolutions this new year because I am still working on those I made one year ago. Somethings are just not achievable in one year - I realized. Some goals are long-term - one year is a long time but some things take longer than one year to be realized.

So I am not blaming myself for not achieving the things I didn't achieve last year nor will I let myself feel like a failure. I am simply moving on by still working towards achieving those goals I made one year ago.

But I have a theme which is to keep levelling up in everything and aspect of my life. I started the level up journey last year and I'm going on with it this year. I levelled up a lot of things about myself last year and this year I am extending the level up theme to this year by sharing my tips right here on my blog so stay tuned by subscribing in order not to miss any post.

My advice to you this year is to continue working on your goals or resolutions which you made last year as long as they are still useful to you. If you want a fresh start without pressure then choose a theme that works for you and make the necessary efforts to make it work. Remember that only the numbers have changed, every other thing in your life is still the same so you have to continue working hard to change your life to what you want it to be.

Wishing you a Happy New Year once more.

Have you had a dream and you believe in it so hard but those around you don't? Tell me how frustrating that is.

It affects you to the extent of losing faith in your dream. When your relatives and friends all think you are crazy for pursuing the path that you are taking or when society thinks 'this is what a real job or career looks like' then it may begin to affect how you feel about your dream.

I've wanted to abandon blogging several times ever since I started. I sometimes feel discouraged or just fed up because the growth is not enough or not up to the amount of work or energy put into it.

At this point, all the fears that other people expressed concerning my blogging career started to become my reality.

I begin to think to myself that they are right after all. I can't make a living out of blogging. But then I wonder how Linda Ikeji made millions from blogging.

She is my role model in the blogging domain. In my most crazy moments, I imagine myself as the next Linda Ikeji of Africa. I'm not even shy to share this. Strange.

Anyway, that's just to let you know how far I want to go as a blogger. I know every blogger will love that too.

Even with success as evident as hers in the blogging world, I still sometimes feel like I'm doing wrong by blogging. It's like I am wasting my time on this path that I have chosen. That one day I will regret this because it won't work out. And it might just be too late.

Blogging || Stop This Hobby and Get A Real Job!

I sometimes feel like blogging is not a real job.

The typical employee or entrepreneur wakes up every morning and goes to work. He/she returns home after putting in long hours of work and everyone sees that he or she is working. Everyone understands what he/she does or at least can understand when explained to them.

But when it comes to blogging, it doesn't happen like that. You work from home most of the time and no one sees you leave your house to work or any place like that every day. Probably no one even sees you working. No one even understands why you should be paid for sitting down to write articles all day. In fact, you are seen as a lazy youth or adult who wants to make easy money or use people's clicks to become rich.

It is tough to fight this mindset every day as a blogger and this makes me feel that I need a real job. One where everyone can see me working and applaud my efforts.

But I hate working for people. And I love blogging. I'll rather be working for my own dream than to work for someone else's.

What makes matters worse is that there is no income coming yet from blogging. And that's when everyone is right to ask you why you are still blogging. Some will bluntly tell you to go and get a real job. After all, blogging is not working out.

This post is not meant to show how difficult and time-consuming blogging is nor it is meant to justify how much blogging is a job. I just want to share my experience.

There are other career paths which suffer the same thing like art, comedy, YouTubing and the entertainment industry in general where your passion is never considered a job until you 'blow' or you have made it or received your first paycheck.

And honestly, they are right to think so because if it is a job then you have to be paid for it. So where is the money?

Will-I-Am of the former group Black Eyes Peas said during an interview that he used to tell people when he just started out in music that he was an artist who hasn't been paid yet and it was just a matter of time.

I am putting up the same attitude with my career but I must say it's hard. It's hard to not ask yourself if I am doing the right thing because there is no paycheck yet. It's not all about the paycheck. I just also want to make a living from my passion.

I even feel like it may never come. But I'm staying positive. Others have been successful with blogging and so will I. It's a matter of time.

The essential thing is to stay positive and work hard while dealing with the feeling that you are 'not doing anything for a living' meanwhile you are really working your a** off something you love.

There are a few pieces of blogging advice we see a lot and honestly, it's easy to believe. But in reality, the only thing it does is kill your blogging spirit and confidence.

I remember when I just started blogging and felt so motivated until I came across people and fellow bloggers who told me these three things that really killed my motivation and drive. I limited myself because of certain tips I read from other bloggers.

Blogging || 3 Advice That Slow Down Your Blogging Career

Here they are:

Buy a domain name.
Have a niche.
Blog for your readers.

I realized that what is necessary for you to have a successful blog is blog traffic. And getting a domain name, having a niche or blogging for your readers doesn't bring lots of traffic to your blog automatically.

People who buy a domain name still struggle to bring traffic to their blogs every day. Those who have a niche don't automatically appear on search engines either. We all seek attention in the same ways.

If you want to start a blog, my advice is to start with a free domain like Blogger or WordPress to see if you really like blogging. Many people buy domain names only to realize later that blogging is not for them. While some of us let this advice make us feel less like bloggers for such a long time.

The only thing that changes is the appearance of the name of the blog. The content and all the rest remain the same unless you decide to change it as well. Not all blogs with domain names are successful. And there are bloggers on free platforms who are very professional and make money from their blogs.

So if you have the talent of blogging, don't limit yourself or feel you are not a professional blogger because you don't have a domain name (yet). Do it like you had one already.

When it comes to finding a niche and blogging for your readers, I will say that there are no rules. There are lots of nicheless blogs which are successful.

On the other hand, if a blogger doesn't like the content s/he is putting out there then that blog may not progress.

How you want to blog s totally up to you. Try your idea and make it work! the world needs innovation, diversity and people who make a difference in every aspect including blogging. people are looking for fresh content.

All beauty blogs have the same pattern, content and style. How different will your own beauty blog be? Won't you run out of content soon? Won't your readers get bored?

But if you decide to be yourself on your blog. And add a little of life, and other things related (or unrelated) to your topic you may be the beauty blogger with a difference. You will be easily recognized by your readers because of the extra knowledge you bring to the table.

If you want to blog about your life then go ahead. Those who are interested in reading will follow. If you make it interesting and fun your readers will come back for more.

Don't let these three tips make you not feel good enough and slow down your blogging journey. Keep getting better at what you do and let your intuition and experience direct your blogging. You may start with a nicheless blog but soon realise that you are actually interested in just one niche. That's alright. But just give yourself time to make the transition so that you know what works for you. Just like you may start blogging on a free domain to be certain you love blogging before you buy a domain name.

Also, you should blog about the topics that you love to talk about. It is important to blog for your readers as well but you need to love your content to give them the best. You will suck at blogging on a topic you don't love and even if that's the content readers want to see they won't be coming back to see the bad content you wrote for them.

You can start and build a good blogging career with what you have; your computer/phone, internet and your content on a free domain till you feel ripe to get one. Start with the topics you love and progress from there. Linda Ikeji built a fortune from a free domain blog on Blogger before she ever bought a domain name. Anything is possible in the blogosphere if you dare to make a difference. Don't limit yourself

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