Paying it forward

I must admit that I had to Google the Liebster Award when I received a nomination from my good friend and fellow blogger, Nicola Judkins, recently. Nicola had been nominated herself (you can read her own post here) and was paying it forward, which is the very purpose of the Liebster Award.

The award is given by bloggers to other bloggers as a way to support blogs with smaller audiences. I think it is a wonderful way to discover new writers and make connections, so thank you so much for nominating me Nicola!

Here are my answers to Nicola’s questions:

How long have you been writing online and how has your blogging journey evolved over time?

With the encouragement of my partner, I started my website in October 2014 as a way to share my personal health and wellness journey in order to inspire others. A big part of my inspiration to be active was our family’s beautiful Dalmatian, Cindy, who featured regularly in my social photos and posts. Cindy is no longer with us but she continues to motivate me to keep writing.

With my background in accounting, I came to realise that I had the ability to do more with Gorgeous Presence by not only sharing my wellness journey, but also educating women about finance and business. I share personal stories and provide practical advice on areas that I know women struggle with, such as busyness, budgeting and tax. I have even featured on Lorna Jane’s website, my favourite brand!

I continue to use Gorgeous Presence as a platform to write about my life, including health goals, pregnancy, book reviews, home organisation and personal finance goals. I also love to interview women who run their own small businesses or blogs. Supporting women is my goal and I feel privileged that I can give them a (small!) platform to learn and connect with each other.

What is your favourite part of being a blogger?

It would have to be the wonderful friendships I have made over the past few years. By undertaking blogging courses and engaging in social media communities, I have met women whom I would never have come across IRL (in real life). In fact, my friendship with Nicola is the perfect example! These women are my biggest supporters and inspire me to keep going on my blogging journey.

What are you obsessed with right now?

De-cluttering and overcoming busyness! I am on maternity leave with my first baby so I spend a lot of time at home in our small apartment surrounded by stuff. It came to the point where I was feeling overwhelmed by the clutter and frustrated with my inability to save money. I came to realise how much I mindlessly purchase things I don’t need. No matter how much money I earned, I never seemed to save more.

A couple of months ago I committed to an impulse-shopping ban (you can read about it here). Needless to say I have saved a heap of money and learned to be grateful for the many possessions I already own. Reducing my belongings and using what I already have is going a long way to reducing overwhelm and stress in my life. I am looking forward to sharing my insights as I continue on my journey.

If you weren’t doing the work you do now, what else would you have loved to do?  

That’s a tough question because I am multi-passionate! I love photography, health, travel and design, so a job in any of these areas would have been really interesting. However I can still do these things for fun because my professional work gives me the financial capacity to pursue my passions on the side. I also love organising people and things so possibly a teaching role could work for me. Again, I have managed to incorporate teaching and training into my current role. I guess what I am saying is that I am grateful for my current work!

What do you think we should be talking about less, and what do you think we should be talking about more?

I think we should stop talking about what we think we are lacking in our lives – money, possessions, weightloss, a partner, good friends, a 6-figure laptop business, lavish holidays, etc. We only think we need these things to be happy because social media tells us so. We are so focussed on striving for more that we never take stock of what we already have.

We should be talking more about what we can do to make a contribution to this world, be it big or small. We all have unique talents and voices that can help others. The constant push to consume more in order to self-improve is becoming unproductive and wasteful. It’s time we stopped following social media influencers and have confidence that we already are what it takes.

If the animal kingdom ruled the earth which animal do you think would be president and why?

I found this question really hard to answer! I had to firstly determine the style of leadership. Assuming it was a democracy, the animal that came to mind is the horse. I love horses and feel like they have a good combination of strength, loyalty, calmness and the ability to work together to get things done. They aren’t carnivores like lions (my first idea), so I think they would get along well with all animals (including humans). Now my brain is in overdrive thinking about animals ruling the world. Haha thanks Nicola!!

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I hope my answers helped you to get to know me better! Now it’s my turn to pay it forward.  

The ‘rules’ of the Liebster Award are:

• Thank the other blogger that nominated you and link back to their blog.
• Answer their questions in your own blog post.
• Pay it forward by nominating bloggers who you would like to support.
• Provide questions that you’d like them to answer.

Here are the bloggers I would like to nominate for the Liebster Award 2018:

• Kris Franken
• Jarka Kunova from Designed by Life
• Jodie Matthews from http://jodieleanne.com and https://iamstillborn.com
• Erin Williams from Natural Mums and Bubs

The questions I’d love them to answer are:

• Do you write for pleasure, business or both?
• What motivates you to keep blogging?
• What do you think the future holds for blogging and social media?
• Where do you go for inspiration?
• What is your favourite thing to do offline?

I hope you enjoy answering my questions. I can’t wait to share your work so please share the link with me or add it to the comments below!