#LevelUpShaula And About Investing In Ourselves

I came across this particular Aida Azlin's instastory a few days ago. Anyway, if you haven't followed and subscribed for Aida's Tuesday Love Letter, go check out her website here because believe me, you won't regret it. Now back to the story, I'm not sure if I have mentioned in this blog, at the beginning of the year I usually create some challenges for myself and I've been doing so since 2 or 3 years ago. Even though I didn't make it for most of the challenges but hey, at least this girl is trying :p

Some of the challenges are:

1. Reading Challenge.

This one is pretty much inspired by Goodreads Reading Challenge where people set how many books to be read throughout the year. On 2017 I only succeed 2 books out of 20 and for 2018 result can be read here. I might be only able to finish 5 books in a year but actually, I was reading more than 5 books but they didn't make up until the end.

The reading challenge actually tells me a lot about myself. I didn't know by tracking my reading can be turned into a self-discovery. By tracking how many books I successfully finished until the last page shows me what really caught my interest; the metro pop and romance novel really bores me while self-help and biography books giving me life. 

      2. 10 New Knowledge & First Experiences.

All I can remember for 2017 right now is I came to a makeup class by Wardah at the end of 2017 to tick my 10 lists. On 2018 I went to a beach camp for the first time, learned floral drawing on youtube, MC-ing for office sports competition, started Journaling, made special Raya pockets, met Allyssa Hawadi and Liah Yoo in person, joined a cooking class trial and others. This challenges me to always open for new experiences, to learn new knowledge and to never ever limit myself. In my opinion, in the end, life is about experiences and while we have the chance, we should go for it.

      3. Savings Challenge.

The hardest of them all. LOL. Fellexandro Ruby (of Thirty Days of Lunch Podcast) gave an idea in one of his sharing to give a birthday gift in a form of a challenge, and one example of them is by completing an emergency fund! Considering how important for us to have an emergency fund, I've successfully tracked my expenses but to stick to a budget is really hard. Well, I'm on my way, guys. I'm on my way.

This challenges I created for myself is pretty much related to Aida Azlin's story that I shared in the beginning. Aida Azlin is one of the young women I look up to and inspires me a lot with what she has done with her community, along with other girls that would be too long if I mention it here. One thing I learned from these girls is that they never stop learning and really invest in their personal development and being a woman, wife, a mother, stay at home mother or a career woman, these title/position didn't hold their hunger for new knowledge. Maasha Allah.

An article on medium that is related to self-investment says,

"An investment in yourself is a great example of self-love, and may very well be the most profitable investment you will ever make.

The worst thing you can do that will self-sabotage the ‘future’ you is continuing to do the same thing and assuming that you will automatically improve and advance to where you wish to be. That is definitely wishful thinking.

No improvement in our lives will happen automatically without us working on them. If we want to get better then we have to work on it.

And no one is exempt from this fact."

In my views, investing in ourselves benefit us in: 

1. Reaching out our full potential.
2. Enrich ourselves with knowledge.
3. Preparing us to adapt for future advancement.

Hence, through this new series called #LevelUpShaula, I will share my own journey on personal development in this blog. It could be a review of classes that I took or a talk that I went to, to a summary of webinar or podcast that I listened to, so that you can be in the journey of learning with me. Stay tuned!

Quoting from a tweet I found on twitter,

"You are always one decision away from a totally different life."