“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” or ”  千里之行，始於足下 “

 This is a common saying that originated from a famous Chinese proverb. The quotation is from Chapter 64 of the Tao Te Ching ascribed to Laozi (though it is commonly attributed to Confucius).

I am going to start by saying that this first blog post took way more mental energy to write than I expected. Starting new habits/quests/hobbies in life is hard. This blog post took me a week of saying to myself that I could do this. I could take that single step of writing a first blog post. For me, this is how getting started on new tasks always has been. I know I am not alone in this.

Now these first few words have provided me with the motivation and drive to keep going. I plan to write “a thousand miles” of my journey over the next few years. I want to post this blog here (rather than writing a private diary) for accountability, connection and affirmation. I want to know that others are out there, expecting a blog post to appear at a certain frequency to provide extra motivation to keep up this habit of writing, which I wish to maintain and use to order my thoughts and feelings. I want to be able to connect with others, through language, shared philosophies, and shared experiences. I want to feel validated in my writing ability and in myself, knowing that my experiences and ideas are just valid as those of another person.

In this blog I plan to write about my physical and psychological journeys over the next few years. I plan to cover topics such as travel journeys (i.e. travel blogging), personal growth, psychology, linguistics, and mental health, as these are all topics that are near and dear to my heart.

I hope to connect with many people from different walks of life, particularly fellow philosophers, solo female travellers, digital nomads and anyone who feels a particular connection to my writing.

“He aha te mea nui o te ao. He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata”

“What is the most important thing in the world? It is people, it is people, it is people.”

A traditional Māori proverb.

I hope to support others through reassuring them that though we are all unique individuals, we share many common experiences. I hope that others who read my.blog understand that they are important and that they are not alone in the world. Our connection to other people makes us powerful, because each of us has the ability to make a difference, both within ourselves, and towards others. We must use this power wisely.

As for my goals regarding this blog, I will start with a disclaimer, which is going to sound awfully like an excuse because it is. I digress. Consistency and reliability are not skills that come naturally to me. Maintaining routine is difficult with the aforementioned struggle to start that first challenging step, so in creating this blog I am setting a challenge for myself, to create a new habit. In doing this, I also aim to increase my own mindfulness, and improve the fluidity/coherence of my thought processes.

And to the goals themselves, I plan to post a blog post at minimum once a week, but perhaps more, especially when I am travelling, or when my mind is particularly swarming with ideas. Some weeks, I am predicting that I will feel exhausted by the heaviness, and busy-ness of life, and on those days, I may well simply write a short post, or perhaps post a quote. On other weeks, I may feel particularly impassioned with a concept, idea or experience, which I wish to share at length with others, through writing. On those weeks, I may write a few pages, thousands of words maybe, or maybe 3 blog posts in a week. But for the sake of accountability I will not be promising the stars to you everyday, if on some days I can only reach the moon.

” 猿も木から落ちる”
” Even monkeys fall from trees”

A traditional Japanese proverb or, 諺, ことわざ kotowaza. Romanji: Saru mo ki kara ochiru.
Less Literal Meaning: Anyone can make a mistake.

I know I will make mistakes in my life. I may make some bad decisions, or choose the wrong person to be mentored by. Even more certain to me, is the truth of my own self bringing doubt before my eyes, and trying to convince me of my own inability. I plan to move past both these challenges with bravery and humility, because we all make mistakes. Better to learn from them, and move on, than to carry them as a burden, weighing down our future actions.

And on that note I believe I have reached a sufficient conclusion for this first intro blog post. The only thing left to add is a final quote which I look to every day for inspiration.

“You don’t have to be great to start. But you do have to start to be great”

Zig Ziglar