I'm a 19-year-old Brit who loves to read books and blogs. I enjoy photography as well as a fair bit of YouTube and I mainly blog about books I've read or topics that have inspired me :)
Hey guys! I hope that you're very well indeed!
So today, I got drawn into watching even more Soul Pancake videos, particularly this one entitled 'What is Love?' which I absolutely loved. What I love about this kind of video by Soul Pancake is that they don't ever script their videos, or that's the impression you get, but they ask people of many races and cultures and ages and genders and it makes all the difference. It makes it feel so authentic and if you get the time, I would highly recommend you watch the video! What is Love?
For today though, I'd like to explore some of the answers that the people gave in the video when asked the question 'What is Love?'
When watching the video, the one that stood out for me as the one I resonated the most with was
'I've been married 55 years and our main job is to look after each other and see to it that we are our best selves, so to speak.... To me, that's love!'
This really spoke to me and what I believe in because like what some of the other people said, love is also about accepting the other person for who they are, it's a two way street, it's about doing things that you wouldn't normally do because you want the other person to be happy. But it's not just about accepting another person, for me it's what the man said, it's all about helping each other up and being a mirror for the other person to show them their beauty and their flaws but to help them improve and become even better.
A man even gave a definition where he said; 'The condition or the state where the happiness of another is essential to one's own' and that too spoke to me.
Quite often, we, like the people in the video talk about love and loving other people but we don't always explore what that means for us. We don't talk about what it means if we truly love someone and how that affects how we act and how we feel. We don't always realise the meaning behind our words and the weight of the concepts of which we speak. It's not something easy to do but with reflection, we can achieve so much more.
On a final note, another idea I loved from this video was, if you consider anyone like you're family, like your own flesh and blood and as close to you as that, that's love. In many ways I love this because it means accepting someone as like you and as part of you and your story and your world. You can't choose your family but in this sense, you can. You can choose who makes up the fabric of your world and who you would stretch yourself for to make sure that they're happy. You have that choice.
I hope that you guys find this video as inspiring and thought provoking as I have! It's less than five minutes long, I'd definitely encourage you to watch it!
Have a wonderful time doing what you're doing and I'll speak to you very soon indeed!
Hey guys! I hope that you're doing as well as can be! :D
Today, I've been inspired by both an awesome friend and also an awesome video from a speech by Jim Rohn entitled 'Why Not You?'
Let's start off with the video. Jim challenges us as the viewer to go home today and to ask ourselves 4 questions.
First of all, why? Why go so far and learn so much and put yourself out there more and more than ever? Why try and earn and share as much as you can, meet as many people and touch them both physically and with your actions as much as possible? Why become the best version of yourself as is humanly possible? Why try and do it all and see it all? Why take on so much responsibility? Why give that much away?
This then leads onto the second question; why not? Why not see how much you can learn, how much you an earn? Why not see how many skills you can develop and what kind of person you can become? Why not see what kind of influence you can have and how many people you can motivate and inspire? Why not?
Jim challenges us to take this personally - we're here until it's our time to go, so seriously, why not?
And from that comes question number three: why not you?
You've got the brains, you can make decisions, you can change your life, you can make your dream come true, you can become anything you want to.
And then the last question: why not now? There never was a better time.
Take the time now to not let your dream die and to constantly fuel it, constantly give it life, kindle it and watch it grow into a blazing fire. Breath your spirit into it until it becomes a fire that burns everywhere around the world.
Now I want to take the motivation and the truth behind that video and combine it with the idea of resistance that we often have against what is. We resist things that put us into discomfort that are disliked by our ego because it's hard and not easy and the ego doesn't want to have to be in that position. But you have to remember from that speech is it's only possible if you're willing to go as far as you can go, to do more than what you've done before, to not be afraid of discomfort and of failure.
It's so much harder said than done, believe me I know but what would happen if you accepted the discomfort and accepted the challenge? What would happen if you went into your work towards your dream, expecting hard work but being fully committed to doing it and completing it and achieving that goal? Where could you end up? Anywhere you want. Anywhere.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this post and could relate to it! For me, the ideas of both being the driving force of change in my life is coupled with the fact that I'm personally often so afraid and unwilling to put hard work in. You know you have to but you resist it and resist it and it creates so much stress. But imagine if you weren't afraid of putting in the work and getting a bit tired and worn but seeing the results? I'm incredibly excited to try it out and see where it leads me!
Just before I go, this channel here does a beautiful compilation of numerous both motivational and thought provoking speeches with mind blowing graphics which is where this speech was from so I'd definitely recommend checking it out! There are others too but we'll get to those some other day.
I hope that you're all doing well and I hope to speak to you very soon indeed!
A number of different interwebular discussions and VEDA videos got me thinking about how important it is to do what you want to do regardless of what anyone else thinks.
There are a number of reasons for this opinion.
For example, a big reason why we often don't try new things is because we fear looking ridiculous and that's a whole load of nope. If you want to try something, you're bound to start off bad before you get better and if beginners were experts that fast, wouldn't more people be doing it? :)
Also, we fear the opinion of other people and that shouldn't count at all because what makes their opinion more important than the excitement and the drive that you have for that thing? If they don't want to support you doing something you love, should you really be giving value to what they're saying, especially if it's unconstructive? No! If you let other people dictate what you do in life, the only person who's losing out is you. They'll move on with their lives but you'll be left with regret and that's not really something you should let hang around, especially if you can do something about it!
Finally, something I got from this video was the fact that you, my friend, are an awesome human being, in your entirety. Of course, there isn't really anyone at all who's perfect but you, you're special and you should know that. Everywhere you go, you create something, you can create goodness and be a big part of someone's day, someone's story and you could even inspire someone when you feel like you're at your lowest. Being is wonderful, you reach so many places without even realising.
The other videos that inspired this was this one from Paul and this one from Taylor because heck is she also an awesome human being for doing something I wish I had the courage to do!
I hope that you all have a wonderful day and I shall speak to you, very, very soon indeed! :D
For me, as my sister put so very nicely, finding new YouTubers is like how other people find new TV shows and this week, thanks to this article, I think I've found a real gem - Connor Manning.
From the article, I wanted to watch this guy because he was described as mature and that's honestly something I value in the YouTubers I watch. I can't always stand comedy but I love inspirational videos that give me more reasons to move forward with my life and keep striving forward to become a better person and find the thing I want to do.
Connor's videos really put things into perspective and they're very good explanations and daily inspirations so I would highly recommend that you watch his videos. One of my favourite videos of his that I've seen so far is this one called 'Finding Your Passion' and it just reverberates what you know is true but you need articulating. I'm going to write a more detailed post on why I love this video so much on my daily inspirations blog so check that out but yeah, enjoy him! In hindsight after watching another one of his videos and thinking this all over, I realised I love his videos because I think a lot like him and have gone through a lot of things like him and that just makes his videos all the more meaningful because I can relate to them and I hope you can too.
In a way, I'm glad that this is a shorter blog post but thank you for reading it anyway and I hope that you guys have sources of inspiration in your lives too! If you have any that you'd like to share, leave them in the comments! I do try and write some things that have inspired me on my side blog so if you use tumblr or Bloglovin', go follow it and perhaps we can become inspired together!
Have a wonderful week and a belated Happy New Year to you all! I hope this year is the year that's the best of our lives so far :D
This was something that just made me so happy and so I thought I would share it with you.
One of my favourite YouTubers and inspirations, Louis Cole (aka FunForLouis) and his friends, also great inspirations of mine Ben Brown, Steve Booker (Blog and YouTube), Will Darbyshire and Nick and Ang Miller are all in NYC at the moment and just the talent that they all have and the beauty of the shots that they're capturing at the moment there are absolutely stunning. Ever since Louis got his new camera, the slow mo shots have been absolutely brilliant! Here are some of them and the videos/links to where you can see all of them :D
They also went to go and see Casey Neistat and his studio which are absolutely insane (the vlog is here). His camera collection is well and truly mind-blowing and incredible and to see some of the film-makers that I adore like Jack Harries asking him about the quality of the camera was amazing. It's always great to see who inspires your inspirations and that was just amazing.
Some more screen caps of the vlog just to give you an insight - absolutely amazing:
Casey's punch bag which he uses as a distraction
Ben and Casey take to the rings!
An awesome set up
A giant screen which you can use to see yourself - Ben's funny faces :D
So yeah, this has been something that has inspired me beyond belief this week and just to see all of them getting awesome shots and working together to produce awesome content has made me incredibly happy :D If you guys do have an hour or so to spare, go to Louis' channel and check them out! They're absolutely brilliant and always make my day, especially when he has his friends goofing around too :D
I hope that this has inspired you too! As always, leave your thoughts below, I love to hear them and I hope to speak to you soon!
Today, I'd like to talk to you about my boss, Fairy, who's second on my inspirational people list to talk to you about.
The reason I find her so inspirational is because she's incredibly motivated. For you guys who don't know, I work in a dry cleaners in my town and she's the one who opened the shop and got it started from scratch. Despite the fact that she's not had much business experience herself, she's motivated and believes in what she's selling because she knows it's top notch quality (believe me, it really is) and she's not afraid to let people know that her service is better than many others.
She's also one of the most kind hearted and warm people and she's just that way with her customers which means that they feel like they're being treated personally and fairly and that she genuinely cares (which she does) about her customers and the quality of the service that they receive. She's the kind of person who goes out of her way to make sure that she can help her customer like being able to do cleaning and alterations at short notice and going to collect them herself as well as not being afraid to give people discounts if she can really see that they're going to struggle to pay for the service.
She's also very, very fair and a rational thinker. She's not the kind of person to explode for no reason and she really cares about how she's affecting you with what she does. If you make a mistake, she makes sure to let you know that you're not to worry and if you've made a big mistake, then she'll do everything in her power to make sure that it doesn't happen again.
On top of all of this, she's not a very well person and still motivates herself to keep going and to keep smiling and to keep doing everything she can, including giving sweets to her customers to make sure that she can keep them happy and make their day happier when they come into her shop. It's brilliant and I don't think I've personally seen anyone who spends that much time being warm and friendly and asking about the health of people ever in my life. It's truly inspirational and admirable.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! As always, please feel free to empty your thoughts into the comments below and I hope to speak to you soon! :)
So randomly enough, one day I was getting something for my dad from the back of his car and I realised that he had this wonderful red mug with words on it just sitting there in bubble wrap. Just being me and my dad out of our family who don't have our own mugs, rather just the conventional ones that are more generic than the others, I was intrigued and having unwrapped it in all its goodness, I've found it a source of daily inspiration!
In spite of the fact it's actually an advert for what accountants from a certain company are like, I find the adjectives used to describe them rather inspiring and they motivate me to become better and to feel better because of the way that they are phrased and just the kind of words that they are.
As you can see, these sorts of things are the qualities that all of us, wherever we want to go in life, want to be. We all want to be dedicated and professional in what we do, we want to become the best that we can. We want to have the courage to go forward, be as fearless as we can and being bold and through that, even if we don't succeed, we can motivate and inspire others to try something new. You can see how this works and how having something as simple as a mug can really help anyone really on a day-to-day basis to feel better about themselves and to give them goals to work towards, qualities that they want to have within themselves as they develop.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this little burst of inspiration today! If you did like it or dislike it, as always, feel free to empty your thoughts into the comments below and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I'll speak to you soon!
p.s. I went away this week and if you're lucky, some pictures'll be on your way some time soon! I'm so excited! Also, please do let me know what you think of my photography, I'm an amateur! :)
Hey guys, I do hope that you're all well and ready for an awesome weekend ahead!
I wanted to start this series in my blog because I feel like I have a lot of people who directly and indirectly inspire me in my life and I wanted to share that inspiration with you. Yes, many of those people are YouTubers but the beauty about YouTubers is that they're just average human beings and I generally only watch vloggers so I am inspired by their everyday lives, some of which run much like my life, or yours.
So, let's get started! Today I'd like to talk to you about Jackson and Finn Harries.
Jack has been a ginormous inspiration in my life ever since I started watching his videos with his brother Finn last summer. Their channel was originally meant to document Jack on his gap year but when he didn't get the right grades and had to spend another year in school retaking, it meant that his videos became a bit more personal.
Jack inspires me because he got up and kept going and managed to share all of the fun stuff along the way. Him and his brother have done a few amazing projects and have travelled to many awesome places such as Ibiza, New York, South Africa, Thailand, Orlando, California, Rome just to name a few! The fact that they both have such similar and yet different personalities makes their videos really cool to watch.
Another type of video that they do is just crazy wacky more England based stuff. To name a few, they made a ball pit out of their bedroom, Jack and Sam Pepper went unicycling in shopping centres, Jack went street surfing where you basically almost water surf but imagine the boat is a car and the surfboard is in fact, a skate board. They're just hilarious to watch!
Another reason I am inspired by Jack is the way he puts his videos together. One of my favourites has to be his video 'Alone in an Office' which I just love, it's so much fun and just the amount of their friends they get involved really makes everything so much bigger and so much more enjoyable. They recently organised a trip to Ibiza with many of their friends to celebrate their 21st Birthday and it just makes you so happy knowing that someone out there can make other people happy too.
That leads me onto a final point about the Rickshaw Run which Jack and Finn did with a few other people, some who've featured on this blog before, others not. If they have somewhere they can be checked out, their links will be included! So it was, Louis Cole (aka FunForLouis), Will Darbyshire, Ben Brown, Harry Crowder and Max Cantellow. They trekked right across the width of India in three Rickshaws and raised over $170,000 for the Teenage Cancer Trust. That is just amazing and it shows that you should always try and do things for good reasons and plus, the experience! The link to watch their Rickshaw Adventure is here and the link to watch Louis' daily vlogging of their adventure is here. It was amazing how it was both an adventure and something that was really contributing to a worthy cause and that was amazing.
On top of all of this stuff, they run an awesome blog here which you might love to read now and then, the articles are pretty phenomenal and on a variety of awesome and arty subjects!
I hope that you guys like this style of post! If you do or don't, leave your thoughts as always in the comments below and I hope to speak to you soon!
One of the things that has fascinated me for ages is to see how people work and why they do what they do. I was thinking about studying Psychology next year, I'll admit it aha (I didn't because the exams sounded pretty damn hard!) but it definitely is something that interests me for a few reasons.
a) I've always loved or taken an interest in analysing myself. This would help me because it would help me to spot things that got me worked up or annoyed and a few people have mentioned it being useful because it means that you can notice changes in yourself better and what causes you to get stressed or worked up and that means that you can help control yourself and how you're feeling, much better! This is definitely a reason why I was interested in Psychology before just because it feels so much more intimate when it's your own feelings that you're dealing with and it means that you can feel a bit less like an-out-of-control hormonal-teenager when you react adversely to something. I hope that made sense, moving on!
b) Of course, to understand other people and why they do the things that they do. This seems pretty obvious but I myself want to become a more understanding, compassionate and empathetic person and you can't really do that unless you understand how the person is feeling and why they may react to something the way that they do. I used to be able to do this a little too well and I must say I don't know anyone else irl who can do the same thing and really connect with a person. I have come across Carrie Hope Fletcher who goes way beyond me and actually connects that deeply to story-book characters to the point that she feels their worries and anxieties along with her own on a daily basis (link here to her channel) but yeah, understanding other people can really build your character and help you not to get angry at other people or saddened because when you can understand why something's happened, it doesn't make it as confusing anymore.
I hope that you guys liked this post! Please feel free to empty your thoughts into the comments below and I'll speak to you guys soon! I hope your weeks are going well!<3
Hey guys! I hope that you're all as well as can be!
At the moment I'm making my way through a classic book called 'Heidi' and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. It was one of my favourite films as a child and it startles me that I hadn't yet read the book before now :)
(Here's the link to the film I loved)
This book really inspired me and made me thankful for where I've grown up and how easily available education is to us here. Heidi in the book struggles with how to read until she finds a new resolve to learn how to learn. It really reminded me just how lucky we all are to be able to read because, as it says in the book, it opens up a whole new universe of knowledge and excitement for us to experience and enjoy.
It hit me how lucky I am to have access to this portal of knowledge because umpteens of people around the world aren't as lucky.
This also reminds me of Jack Harries' recent trip to Nairobi and another town in Tanzania recently. In his blog post here, he tells of a charity called 'The School Fund' that brings school to the kids who wouldn't have otherwise have had a shot at education and he explores how we in the West even resent having to go to school and often forget just how lucky we really are to be in the position where education can be taken for granted. I personally found the post a really good burst of reality for myself and you can go check it out if you like :)
I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! As always, please feel free to empty your thoughts into the comments below and I'll speak to y'all soon! :) Also, have an awesome week ahead and don't get brought down by Mondays! :) x
This post was inspired by a few things.
a) the fact that I have technically finished High School, having finished my GCSE's and will
b) be going into Sixth Form to do my A-Levels in September.
c) Also this video by thisbedottie who is Patty Walters' girl friend :)
On Tuesday and Wednesday last week, I have my two day induction into Sixth Form which for many of the people my age is something that's quite an experience for a number of reasons! For one, you experience an A-Level lesson for each of the 4 subjects that you have chosen to take next year. This can be quite nerve racking because you sometimes have to go to a different school for some of your lessons which can then lead to you not knowing whether you're going to settle well or even like the subject anymore. Not knowing anyone in a new school can really lead you to hate a subject that you once loved and despite the fact I'm 'lucky' enough to not have any lessons based in another school, I've friends who both love and hate the new experience.
For me, it was an awesome yet slightly daunting experience. I found out that two of the subjects for which I was anticipating tiny classes actually turned out to be quite big classes, one being French which turned out to be full of people I don't know. However, the other lessons were pretty gosh dang awesome and I'm really looking forward to taking them next year. I did enjoy French (just to clear that up) and I'm also taking Biology, Chemistry, History and Maths. Those of you who are calculating people will realise that yes, that means I am anticipating taking not four but five AS Levels next year. Hence the anticipation. And the nerves. And the what-on-earth-have-I-got-myself-in-for-four-is-hard-enough feeling.
Before I go onto the second part of what I wanted to say, I wanted to say that Sixth Form is awesome otherwise. I'm so looking forward to meeting the new people in my classes and making new friends as well as enjoying the new responsibilities and liberties that being in Year 12 gives you as a student.
Here comes the second part to which the video links to. I am incredibly afraid that I'm not going to be able to cope and to do well in the subjects I have taken. Many a knowledgeable person has informed me that in order to fulfill my dreams of becoming a Doctor, Maths is unfortunately probably my best bet but when I was told this, I already had my heart set on doing History and French too, hence five was born. The video really helped me to see how other people see their worries and it made me think about how I want to change myself and to improve the way that I work to make sure that I can cope with what I want to do and what that'll mean for me and the way things have worked with me thus far.
So, in conclusion, I am determined to survive the next year, come what may, and it's always a relief to know that you're not the only one to have doubts about yourself and your abilities. This video by Bertie Gilbert also explores how you can change negativity in your mind into something positive (like his awesome new short film 'Tick Where it Hurts')
I just wanted to talk about another amazing upside to being a fan of YouTube.
My first YouTuber, Damon Fizzy has a forum website and I found that becoming a part of it really gave me a lot of confidence in feeling good about how I talked to people and how I could actually help people despite the fact I'd never gone through much myself. I've been rather lucky I think in that regard, I've just been so lucky and I've felt that I've been giving back to the world through helping other people.
I've also made a couple of good friends over forums and I wanted to say, it's not wrong to make friends over the internet at all, just be careful aha, just don't underestimate those friendships either!
It has made me wonder if they're as genuine in real life though, as in if I met my internet friends in real life, would we have become as good friends? I genuinely don't feel like I'm as socially apt in real life and having the safety of a screen and keyboard and time between yourself and your friends means that you can really choose exactly how you want to respond. It makes you wonder how different you actually are to your accidentally created internet persona.
I also love the JacksGap website because of the fact the twins and some of their close friends share such awesome things and honestly, I wouldn't have heard as much about things if it hadn't been for them. They really took forum to another level and if you ever want to read about something interesting, do take a look here. It's just awesome, so many things that you might want to see, all in one place. Their posts are varied and eye-opening as well as completely and utterly just awesome.
I hope that you guys liked this post! The point I wanted to make was the fact that forum websites are awesome for a host of different reasons and you can both make a difference to other people as well as be affected yourself :)
If you guys haven't heard of Zach Sobiech before then I would strongly suggest that you watch the following two videos because I can almost fully guarantee that you'll cry.
Go on, please, even if you're not one for 'inspirational' videos, it'll still be something to watch :)
If you don't have the time to watch the videos, here's a written version of parts of the video I loved and what I learned from it :) Zach is a 17-year-old boy who was diagnosed with a rare type of bone cancer during his late teens. He was told that he'd either have life saving surgery that would take out his left leg and part of half of his pelvis which, would mean he'd not be able to sit up, or he would die within 6 months to a year. He chose to live his last few months to the best of his ability and these videos just explore how much he touched the lives of everyone around him.
A friend of his at school said 'He's just a person that you can trust will be smiling.' Some of his other friends said that he helped them put their problems and complaints into perspective, that a bad day wasn't really as bad as they thought :) This is just one part of how he touched other people's lives. For me this little snippet is so good because it's not great spending more time feeling down because of your day rather than enjoying it and having someone who can remind you of that is just amazing and I wish I could do that for my friends :)
He was a best friend to his younger sister and he was just a person that would make you feel better just by being in his presence.
He was just a joy to his parents and made them proud with all that he did and he was really kind and compassionate. He inspired his class mates and made them feel good about themselves. He would never put other people down and in the first video his Mum talks about how they went to watch a basketball game together. She made a comment about how one of the players was running funny and he replied with a list of things that the same player had done well. That in itself is really inspirational, to not be satisfied with putting someone down but making sure that they are praised where it's due. His mum said 'He's always been very empathetic and compassionate.' It really shows that we shouldn't be happy at the expense of someone else's dignity, that we should celebrate them and through celebrating each other, be happy :)
He was described by his eldest sister as 'happy, always smiling.' and I think we all need to spread the joy, we hear it all the time but there's so much we can do and all we've got to do is take that step :)
His eldest sister also said: 'Zach is a testament to the fact that everything's okay when you believe in something greater.' I don't know whether it's easier or harder to be in Zach's situation and to have or not have faith in something greater though with me personally I would definitely say something greater because it would help you realise that everyone goes through something different and because Zach was such an amazing person, he had a harder test. God wanted to be reunited with him :)
His youngest sister said: 'Well, I've got to live life, like well as if Zach's going to die tomorrow.' The odd thing is, it's the same for most of us because we don't know when we're going to die and I guess for them it was easier to have that reminder in front of them but if we live with that mentality, maybe we can experience the same richness that the Sobiechs experienced knowing that time was precious. It made beauty so much more beautiful and moments just that much more precious.
His brother said: 'It's imperative that we stick together as a family because we've got to make it through, as a family.' It just shows how much support is important, whether you be going through something as life changing as the Sobiechs or just the normal flow of life, you've got to stick it out for your family because you can't choose your family :)
His girlfriend said: 'He's shown me that it's not all about the grades you get or how cool you are in high school, it's about doing what makes you happy and no matter when you're going to go but to live your life to the fullest, every day of your life.'
I also loved these videos because it proves what you can do for another person - Zach got into cars and found out that the Nissan GTR was the car that was the least expensive with the highest performance and his family organised for him to be able to drive it for a week. When he found out he described the sensation as being 'like you've been dumped in cold water and you can't breathe, but in a really good way.' I think it just proves to us that it's never late or the wrong time to do something for someone else.
It just feels like, watching those videos, that Zach just left an enormous impression on everyone that had the pleasure to meet him and being able to hit people, not just with is words and actions but with his music meant that he understood that it would be hard for those people who were close to him once he was gone. He created songs to help his family with closure. He didn't stop dreaming big because he was dying and that was awesome - he didn't give up and I think a lot of us who aren't limited with time and capability would dream a lot smaller than Zach.
Here are some of the Zach quotes from the first video that I just love :)
'It's kinda like you're sitting in the dark. You can either choose to be freaking out in the dark and thinking okay what's out there or you can just relax and fall asleep and just be happy and content with everything.'
'I want everyone to know that you don't have to find out you're dying, to start living.'
'What makes you happy, is seeing someone smile and knowing that you put it there. That's what's so awesome about living in this world.'
'You can either sit in your basement and wait, or you can get out there and do some crazy stuff.'
'Mum and Dad, I wish I could have kids and raise them like you raised me because you've done a hell of a job.'
'It's really simple actually, it's just try and make people happy. Maybe you have to learn it with time, or maybe you have to learn it the hard way, but as long as you learn it, you're going to make the world a better place.'
'I want to be remembered as the kid who went down fighting and didn't really lose.'
Thank you so much for reading. I'm sorry but not sorry that this is such a long post but I really think Zach deserves as much for being such a ginormous inspiration. I've not even really scratched the surface with the amount we can take from Zach but I hope it inspired you! The first video was released on the 3rd of May in 2013 which was Zach's 18th Birthday. He died on the 20th of the same month and if there's one grave I would love to visit in my life, that'd be one.
Please leave your thoughts in the comments and I will speak to you soon!
I know that I've done a post on this before but I've had another boost of inspiration from a different source than last time and it honestly hit right home.
Nick Miller is my favourite youtuber up to date I think, because he's so honest and completely says things how they are. No sugar coating but no loss of inspiration either. If you ever want a video to inspire you or give you a way to go about things, Nick is the one to turn to for sure :)
Anyway, his video 'Valuetine's Day' really struck home because he talked about how we shouldn't have to have someone else in our lives to make us value ourselves or to show us our value because we should already appreciate our value without needing someone else. He made the brilliant point that we're not of a person without a partner, the truly amazing thing about an amazing relationship is the path that the couple embark on together and forge together - it's clear that if you have a bad relationship it can end up destroying both people - clearly put by the simple mathematical point that 0.5 x 0.5 = 0.25 - less than you started off with and therefore, you're not half a person without a partner.
It was brilliant because it was just an amazing bout of perspective on the culture that we live in that constantly tells us that we are better and 'more whole' human beings if we are in a relationship, but that's not necessarily true because you are who you make yourself and how you choose to react to whatever you come into contact with on your journey.
I hope that you guys enjoyed this post! If you'd like to check out Nick, his channel is here and 'Valuetine's Day' is here
It's quite easy to believe, for the many of us, that dreams are quite often quite stretched and for many of us nigh on unattainable. We hear it every single day, 'Don't give up on your dreams', 'Nothing is ever impossible' but that doesn't really stop us from feeling like it is. It's always hard because if you want to become a singer, there's always going to be someone better than you, if you want to write, it takes time and success isn't guaranteed and it takes time. If you, like me, crazily enough want to become a doctor, that's a hell of a long time in university and requires the brain size of a very, very clever person.
Point being, there will always be someone who's better than you, someone who's better suited, someone who's cleverer, someone who's somehow got the upper hand. But that doesn't delete your existence and the fact that if you put yourself out there and look for things that are going to help push you out there and develop your skills, why ever should you not get success of some degree? You may write and get 1,000 people to read your book, yes it may not be the New York Times' Best Seller but hell, 1,000 whole entire people wanted and enjoyed to read your work! Your work.
This is a little message for all of us youngsters who are trying to get out and make something of ourselves.
Hell, a lot of us don't yet know who we are and what we can do but the stats say that the majority of people change their career path throughout their lives. We're constantly evolving and changing to become different people but until we pick a place to start, when will we ever begin our journey? :)
This post was inspired by these two pictures :)
The one on the left inspired me because fear can stop you from trying new things on a daily basis. Soon enough, that daily sticking to the comfort zone can really stop you from becoming the amazing person that you can become in the future. It's really important to push yourself small steps every single day because if you don't start making a change, when will it ever happen?
The one on the right inspired me because if we don't live as happy human beings, we won't feel comfortable enough in our own skin to push against the boundaries and just be happy with messing up or things not going to plan. Optimism can really help you through life and is one of the keys to success because if you're not willing to get up after you've fallen down, where are you going to end up? Simply, on the floor.
Thank you so much for reading! It just felt like I needed to get that positivity out there because the world does feel like quite a scary place to step into, especially as a person with very little experience and very little knowledge or ideas of where they want to go and how far they're capable of going.
So these past few days I feel like I've been bombarded on the internet by beautiful film makers from YouTube, which is of course one of the easiest places that you can be exposed to awesome stuff on the internet.
Specifically, I would like to touch on a couple of specific examples of awesome things that have struck me from this platform. So today, I was browsing through my subscriptions, as per usual, when I came across a new Sawyer Hartman 'Thru My Eyes' video set in a beautiful place called Kauai. For all of you guys who don't know Sawyer that well, he does a mix of videos, from your average tag videos with some awesome people that are genuinely hilarious, to short films like his new one called 'Welcome to Tokyo' which you can check out here. On top of that awesome content, he also does these videos called 'Thru My Eyes' videos which are set in absolutely beautiful places and they're basically a montage of shots, the majority of them slow motion, and they're absolutely stunning. The way that they've developed through the changes in equipment that he's been able to play around with over time has just made his work that much more exciting to watch and experience. The playlist of all of them is linked here. Just to put it in perspective, here's a snap of where his recent Thru My Eyes was filmed:
Sawyer's just one of those people whose work never fails to amaze and I would thoroughly recommend clicking on those links and taking a look for yourself, they're absolutely phenomenal.
Second of all, of course he's not the only one who's done short films and a small YouTuber I follow called RadHaggis also released his first short film which was pretty darned awesome for a first! Despite the fact for the many people who feel that people like Sawyer are unreachable in their awesomeness in film-making, Ewan just goes to prove that until you try, you'll never know. You can check out that video here.
Finally, to top off the short films list for today, I haven't actually gotten around to watching Bertie Gilbert's short films though the trailers I've watched look absolutely phenomenal, which was another video I had the utmost pleasure of watching today, which you can experience here.
All in all, whether these YouTubers be big or small, or even medium sized, it just proves that if you try, you can really make some awesome content. I'm not a big artsy person myself though I'm sure, like any of us, if I really pushed myself to try something out, I could possibly end up with something I'm happy with - who knows?! :D
These really inspired me today and I'm sorry it's so, so long but I hope that you got the same enjoyment from watching these videos as I did - short films are brilliant.
As the title suggests, unrequited kindness is something that's been playing on my mind of late.
There are many times and many people to whom we don't give what they deserve, whether that be members of our family, typically our parents, or whether that be our close friends and even more so the kind stranger who you may never ever speak to again.
It can sometimes be a case of karma and therefore, by showing love and kindness to other people without the promise of them doing something in return, perhaps we can get some more goodness circulating around society :) Sometimes it does feel like there is an awful lot of hate in the world that can sometimes drown out the small kindnesses that people to do to us on a daily basis and I personally feel uncomfortable with that fact.
One person who clearly demonstrated to me something that you can do to someone kindly, was Carrie Hope Fletcher who makes YouTube videos, for all of those of you who aren't familiar with Carrie. That isn't her primary profession as she's also a Broadway singer and is currently playing Eponine in Les Mis which is absolutely phenomenal and a dream come true for her. Little biography over, she suggested to her viewers a wonderful idea called the Hopeful Notes. These would involve writing a kind word on a piece of paper, a post-it note if you liked, and just leaving it in a public place for someone to find. It was wonderful because it was a simple idea and yet you could completely change someone's outlook on the day by doing so.
Despite the fact the idea may not be for many of us, it just goes to show that though there is a lot of bad in the world, good still has it's rightful place and small kindnesses can still go a long way, even if it feels insignificant at the time.
For those of you who'd like to find out more about Carrie, her blog is here (x) and her YouTube channel is here (x) :)
Thank you ever so much for reading and I hope that you have a wonderful day! :)
