Journaling in July Challenge Day 1

My blogging friend Sue from SizzlingTowards 60 & Beyond has put out the challenge to bloggers to join in her Journaling in July Challenge. Sue is not a genealogy or family history blogger. Her blog focuses on lifestyle issues as they relate to the midlife experience.  I mainly follow lifestyle bloggers on my other blog Next Phase In Fitness & Life .

However I plan to join Sue in the July Challenge on this blog, as I feel their prompts will help to build up a story about myself that will be useful in creating my family story. As I look at the prompts, and how they apply to me and to my life, I can see that some will be short posts and others much longer, some posts may even be just bullet points. I’d love you to take a look at Sue’s post for further information about the challenge.

Here in Central Victoria, July is usually one of the coldest months of winter, so as I will probably be spending more time indoors than usual, I plan to spend extra hours on my blogs. This challenge fits in perfectly with that plan.

Message from Sue: Here is the list of topics and I do hope that you will have some fun and enjoy this ‘challenge’ for July. Remember NO PRESSURE, some days you may find inspiration from the prompt and want to write and other days you won’t. I would also love to hear your feedback and perhaps you have some topics you could add to the list going forward.

 

DAY 1. WHAT MAKES ME SPECIAL

When I first read this prompt, I very quickly decided that I would skip day 1, as the thought of writing about what makes me special does press my buttons a little. I don’t usually write about myself in relation to my qualities or my thoughts.

On my fitness & life blog, I’m happy to write about my achievements and struggles in fitness, but I really don’t delve too deeply into my inner self or my inner thoughts.  I really don’t think that I’m any more special than the next person. We are all special in our different ways, as we try to live our lives in the best way we can. For me, I do try to be the best that I can be, and I’m always striving to be the best version of myself that is possible. Not that I’m always succeeding. It is a never ending struggle really, but one that I plan to continue.

After giving this topic some thought, I have decided to write a few lines about one of my qualities which does make me feel quite proud. I know that I have resilience. There have been a few challenges that have been thrown at me during my life that could have crushed me. Fortunately, my reslience, (and probably stubbornness) enabled me to rise above the problems and continue on to have a great life.

When I stop and think about it, I realise that resilience shows up often in my life. It’s just there and I rarely think about it, but it enables me to face a problem head on, solve it in the best way I can and continue on without dwelling on the problem and without feeling continuing upset.

Resilience: 1. The capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness

 

I have posted previously about a few of my challenges I have faced. Here are the links if you are interested to read more

House Fire

The death of my son, Craig

The Luckiest Day of my Life

The Day I Walked 100 Kilometres

Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage Walk – 1000k

I attribute being able to show resistance and cope with all of the above to the DNA that has been passed to me from my ancestors, most of whom definitely did need to have very strong qualities of resilience in order to start their new lives in a new country and against all odds. I do feel very strongly that the DNA that they passed down to me, has given me strength and resilience.

If you feel that this challenge is something that would be useful to your family history, do join me.  Please leave me a comment if you intend to join so that I don’t miss any of your posts.

Have you ever thought about what makes you special? I’d love to hear what you think and promise to reply to all comments.