Super Mom - Inspired Living SA

What Motivates Me

One of my loyal readers who comments often, yes it does feel good to get comments, left a comment on this post, which I wrote quite some time ago!(13th of October 2011 to be exact) It was great as I said, to receive the comment but the best part was reading the post again 🙂 It made me realise that I still struggle with things like acceptance or fear of failure, whether in real life or in the bloggersphere! Reading this post again was rather sobering and also made me realise that you constantly need to reaffirm what you are doing and why, to avoid losing your way completely!

So with that in mind I thought I would share it again!

Please Like Me!

This is all most of us would like, for people just to like us! Well, thanks to modern technology and the popularity of social networking, gone are the days that liking someone in real life, is enough!

After chatting to friends recently about my blog, I had a bit of a reality check about what exactly my motivation for starting Super Mom was. For me it was always about finding something that I could do – just for me, something I enjoy and that stimulates me both intellectually and creatively. Exploring the things that inspire me and using them to engage with the world out there, was always my main aim for Super Mom.

What I have found however is that most of the blogger- sphere is very focused on ratings, traffic, how many followers you have etc. I am not going to lie and say that I don’t care about these things but you can so easily lose focus of why you are doing something and what motivates you to do it.

So what to do? I guess, go back to basics and the reason I started Super Mom in the first place, to inspire and motivate others out there, especially mothers! Which I hope that I am doing! In saying that I hope people realise that I am not in fact a “Super Mom” but I am the best darn mom I can be! I may not be a professional photographer or a master chef but I love doing all these things and sharing them with the world.

I love doing what I do and that is the most important thing. Yes – I want you to like me and follow me but not at the cost of my integrity. Anyway -life is too short to feel like everything you do is a competition.

So – the things I write about may not be world changing or life altering but they are my way of inspiring and motivating – myself and others. Thank you for being a loyal and cherished reader! 😉

Be Inspired, Blogging, Lifestyle, Super Mom

Inspired Living

As you may have realised by now the name of my website has changed! The change to Inspired Living was not an overnight decision but rather one which has been mulled over for months, if not longer! The one thing I have realised in life, is that I need to trust my instincts and that is exactly what I have done 🙂

Change as they say is as good as a holiday but not always the most comfortable thing to do. The motivation for this name change, stems from a need to better reflect exactly what my website represents and what message I am trying to convey, which is how I arrived at the new name Inspired Living! Essentially my website was created to be inspirational and inspire others to do the things they always wanted and dreamed of doing, especially moms!

My passions are many and this has inspired me to create this space on the web to share my passions with you, which will hopefully in turn inspire you to explore your passions. The main thing about blogging or writing is to remain true to what you love and enjoy doing because this will reflect in all that you publish.

I chose to use a dandelion flower to represent the new name because this is what I would like to achieve – “sow seeds of inspiration” to readers and help motivate and inspire them to follow their dreams and aspirations. I chose the colour pink for the logo because as you know it is one of my favourite colours and has been a common design thread throughout my blogging history.

The Name: “Inspired Living SA”

The Mission: “To sow seeds of Inspiration”

The Action: “be inspired”

So thank you for being such loyal readers and welcome to my new home on the web! I hope you love the name and logo design as much as I do and value any comments or feedback you may have 🙂

Be Inspired, FAR Photography, Lifestyle, Quotes, Super Mom

Is Blogging Really Right For Me?

Have you ever felt that you are not sure if what you are doing at a particular moment in your life is the right thing for you? Well I have been questioning a great deal of what is going on in my life at present! One question which keeps plaguing – Is Blogging Really Right For Me? It could have something to do with the fact that I will be turning forty at the beginning of next year and I feel that along with this comes a need to be sure that I have my priorities straight!

Is Blogging Really For Me?

Why you may ask? Well I guess that for me forty is one of those milestones in life that brings with it a need to truly grow up. Yes, up to now I have not really worried too much about where I am in life, what I have achieved or what I would like to achieve. The exact reason why, I am not too sure about but it may have something to do with focusing most of my attention on my children but somehow forty looming seems to have bought about a mind shift!

So why now, what is the difference in turning 40 as opposed to all the other major milestones? I think it may have something to do with the fact that I have almost reached middle age, as my life expectancy is probably around 80! Wow that is a rather sobering thought – I have almost been alive for forty years, I use to think that forty-year-olds were really old! Do I feel really old? Not really but in the back of my mind I am thinking maybe I should start paying attention!

This brings me to the ever important question that is constantly in the back of my mind – Why I am blogging and is blogging what I should be doing with my life? Well I suppose I need to reflect back to why I started blogging in the first place. Essentially it was to do something for “me” – to have an outlet for my thoughts and a platform to share my creativity. Almost 2 years later I am not entirely sure if I have indeed remained true to what I set out to achieve.

If I have to be completely honest with myself, I feel as if I have lost my way and allowed the commercial aspect of the blogger-sphere to get the better of me. I know that a vast majority of people view blogging as a just a hobby or something bored housewives do but if you have a look at what has happened in the blogging world in the USA you can see this is not the case. In South Africa however, as with most aspects of technology we are somewhat behind the curve. Where does this leave me? Well as I mentioned earlier, questioning my motivation for where I am destined to be in the blogging world.

As with most things I do I am fiercely competitive and being a complete perfectionist nothing less than success will do… but at what cost? So this has brought me to a few realisations I need to address going forward, if I do indeed continue blogging I need to remain true to myself and not allow numbers and stats to be my motivation for doing what I do. I need to do the things that make me happy, the things I am passionate about and follow where these things lead me!

So in conclusion I have decided that for the immediate future I will no longer be concentrating on the commercial aspects of my blog but rather the inspirational side of it. I have also decided to start a second website, well I have actually started it already, which will focus primarily on my passions which are photography, fashion, beauty and leisure, in time I hope to develop this into an online Lifestyle Magazine. For what are we if we have no dreams?….or more importantly, do not pursue the ones we do have with every ounce of passion we can muster and give life our best shot!!!!!!

[quote style=”1″]If your dreams don’t scare you, they are NOT BIG ENOUGH![/quote]

4 Things..., Lifestyle, Super Mom

4 Things I Want To Do Before I Die

I could call this a bucket list but that has been written to death (pardon the pun) – so it is, what it is, a list of things I would like to do before I die!

Eat pizza in Italy, well not only pizza, pretty much anything Italian would do –washed down with plenty of Italian red wine. A tad like an “Eat Pray Love” experience – with mostly eating.

Learn how to surf, although with all the sharks lurking around our African shores at the moment, possibly not a good idea – maybe this needs to be at the bottom of my list.

Write a book and publish it, not sure what type of book, it could be a recipe book or a photo journal – I am not too fussy, as long as it has my name on it! ( I guess my blog is a good start)

Own a sports car, preferably a cabriolet – I have always wanted a Porsche but let’s face it I will not be too picky as long as it’s fast, furious and makes me look cool! 😎 [pullquote align=”right”](For some reason I cannot get the lyrics from “Daisy Daisy” out of my head – “I can’t afford a carriage. But you’ll look sweet, upon the seat, of a bicycle made for two.” – I guess if I can’t get the cab this will have to do!)[/pullquote]

Images: Pinterest