This month, I decided to participate in a writing challenge to strengthen my writing skills and practice the habit of creation. Each day, I will receive a writing prompt from @letsfindyourvoice and then take 30-40 minutes to write and respond. This month will be full of many short response blogs and I would love to hear your thoughts and responses to the prompts!
To kick off the year, day one's question: In a year, what's one way you hope to be different? What a loaded question, phew. Often times, I have a running list of ways I need to improve myself and change my habits - picking just one feels too hard. After all, it's my blog, so I'll share what I want, hah.
Professionally:
This year, I hope to be creating more and promoting my work. Often times, I feel unsure of how to promote my own work. But this year, I want to be consistently producing images, essays, and posts that reflect my interests. I would love for this consistency to lead to more expertise and recognition. As you know, this blog is focused on Turkish food gastronomy, my life as an ex-pat in Turkey and the celebration of Turkish culture. Sometimes, this focus feels like such a specific niche and I often wonder who will actually be interested. But truly I am so energized to research and write about these topics. Therefore, I will continue to press on and dive deeper into writing about Turkish culture - simply because it "sparks joy" for me.
Personally:
Similarly, I hope to have more consistent habits in my weekly routine - less screentime and more health.
Watch less. Three years ago, I couldn't understand how people could spend hours of their day on youtube. I miss those days. Now, I find myself primarily entertained by this black hole of a website. Pasta Grannies, The View, The Daily Show, and Bon Appetit...I love youtube. While these shows are not inherently bad, my relationship to them needs to change. The same goes for Instagram - I don't even think it's worth explaining - we all know what that app is doing to us.
Move more. I recently listened to the Goop podcast called, "Unexpected Upside of Movement." It was a fascinating podcast that emphasized the joy movement for movement's sake. Instead of being motivated by weight loss, enjoy the process and connection to your body. I hope that my relationship to exercise can also become an expression of this joy.
Read more. I want to become a better writer so therefore I must become a better reader. I would like to be reading two books per month - and yes, audible counts.
Play more. I find that I have a bit of an "achiever" character that can trap me in the pressure to be busy. I want to be more intentional about turning my brain off, working on a puzzle with my husband, continuing to play the guitar, working on a craft, cooking a new recipe and letting my brain wander.
These are just a few goals from my list of 2020 intentions - may you feel encouraged and excited to have a fresh start. See you tomorrow!