Category: Achievement

Proud!

I am very proud of myself and so I thought I’d share mainly because as Brits we aren’t very good at sharing what we’ve done. We almost think it is a huge sin to say we are proud of what we’ve done. We think being humble and meek is saying we’re not really good at the things we do well.

This summer I’ve got lots I’m proud of for my own achievements – of self-publishing the booklet on my reflections on Psalm 23 – which you can find on Amazon if you wish; hubby and I went Raku glazing at the edge of Snowdonia and I came back with a couple of really cool pots; co-ordianted a Messy Church event in our local group of churches and didn’t come away thinking I had to do more than; ran dragon themed writing workshops in my town; and made this amazing sourdough loaf.

But also whilst doing the sourdough loaf, especially, I learned about me and how I learn.

So I’ve tried sourdough many times and never know quite how to get it to look good. When I was with my friends helping to declutter their loft my friend made a sourdough loaf and I watched right from the start where she started feeding the “mother”. As she did each step I thought “I can do that”. So when I got home and looked at the recipe I could see her doing each step and so was able to produce this amazing loaf.

I need to watch someone so I can learn. Tell me or showing me on YouTube or reading it from a book doesn’t work for me. I need to watch someone else do that. It explains why, no matter how many times I read a book about crochet or watch a YouTube video I still get my hands muddled and nothing happens. This doesn’t mean I’m not going to be any good at crochet but it means I need to watch someone doing it.

Also with regard to the recipe, I am not a recipe follower. To me a recipe is a guideline to give me a bit of a form of reference to see what goes with what. I skim read it and then just go for it. I change ingredients, change amounts and make it up as I go along. I can open the fridge and work out what to cook from what I see there. This of course explains too why i wouldn’t be good at making sourdough because I could potentially skip steps. But because I’ve been shown how to make it I won’t skip the steps.

Though this guidelines stuff is what does make me an awesome cook. It is also what makes my writing workshops fun – because I give myself a rough plan and then make it up as I go along. This week, in the morning of the workshop, one of the group told me it was National Welsh Rarebit day so I just reshaped the session around that – because I’m not set in stone on these things.

Flexible is good at times but with other things, like making the sourdough loaf it isn’t. But this doesn’t make me a good or bad person or for those who are the opposite doesn’t make them good or bad either.

Talking of good/bad – I hung out all yesterday afternoon with a lovely friend who says her natural resting mode is “troll” whereas I would say mine is “Tinkerbell fairy”. We are total opposites and yet we encourage and motivate and adore being together.

So I do think we should accept what we aren’t good at and be honest about it, but also, and more importantly, we should celebrate our strengths, boast loudly about what we can do. Show off a bit. After all the God who Created the Whole Universe thinks we’re amazing so what right have we to judge. So I’ll still be flexible on many things but learn that with others I need to watch those who know and then follow their example whether with sourdough or with crochet .

Tags Achievement, crochet, folllowing instrutions, learning styles, sourdough, success, tinkerbell, troll

accepting Achievement

Share One’s Achievements

Bronze bell jar from Science museum group collection — https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co129140

I wrote a poem a while ago about the above object. I sent it off hoping but not expecting to win anything. But I have! Out of hunderds of poems of a high quality, so many that it took them a week longer to decide which seven poems to publish for National Poetry day, mine was one of those picked.

Check out https://www.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/blog/celebrating-national-poetry-day/ to read mine and the other six.

I had planned to do a blog post today [my hope is that I do at least one post a week regularly, but promise nothing – even to myself 🙂 ] So thought I could share my poem here. My plan was to just share it in a blog post and leave it at that, hoping that people would see it. But then something in me whispered “share it with everyone” and as I am trying to ‘listen to my heart/inner self’ I thought I’d go for it. So it has been shared on Facebook, with those in my writing group, via email to various friends and on to WhatsApp. I might have even shared further but don’t have any other way of sharing.

Yes it has been lovely getting the messages back that say how good the poem is and congratulating me, but what it has also got me thinking is about how often we share our successes.

I think it is more a British thing than an American thing but we too often work on the “don’t be too proud”, “don’t show off”, “be humble”, etc. And then, I don’t know about anyone else, but I get upset when others don’t notice what I’ve done. But then how will they notice what I’ve done if I don’t share it. Yes the email that said ‘Congratulations’ will know that they are some anonymous person who I might never meet. I want/need/expect my friends and family to be proud of me, to be pleased for me, but if I don’t tell them how will they know.

Being one who, a few years ago decided that I’d do New Year Resolutions all throughout the year, I have decided that my 7th October Resolution is to be more open about sharing what I achieve, sharing my success. And my hope from it is that I will start a revolution where we all stop being so self-effacing and to be proud of what we achieve, what we do and most importantly be proud of who we are whether we win competitions, whatever success criteria we base our lives out. Instead let us be proud of who we are, what we can do and get on a be.

I suppose this is a blog that continues from What Have I Achieved? and is now looking at ‘What Am I Achieving Now” and taking it onwards and forwards.

I will finish with a photo of me with Abergele’s mayor and mayoress outside The Gift Shop, Abergele. Alan, the mayor, who is a huge encourager of people, suggested I get in touch with Tracey who runs The Gift Shop to promote my book, The Little Yellow Boat. But not only did he encourage me to do that he then was the first person to come and buy a copy of the book to get it out on Facebook for advertising for this Saturday’s event when I will be in the shop for two hours signing books. He not only encourage but supported too. And I do think that if I am going to go forward with shouting about my achievements I need to also get behind others to shout their achievements, to encourage them and to help us all take a step forward into realising what amazing people we all are and what an amazing world we live in.

Photo of Mayor, Alan Hunter, Mayoress Cheryl Hunter, author Diane Woodrow, her dog Renly, outside The Gift Shop, Abergele promoting Diane's signing of her book on Saturday 9th October 12-2pm — Also found on https://www.facebook.com/LittleYellowBoatBook /

Tags acceptance, Bronze Bell Jar, celebrating achievements, national poetry day, passing it onwards, poem, won a competition

acceptance Achievement Contentment

What Have I Achieved?

Picture of a broken wall and pebbled beach looking across water to a town and island. Taken by Diane Woodrow — Abergwyngren coastal path looking towards Beaumaris taken by myself – Aug 2021

I woke up feeling low this morning. Low and old. Bemoaning that I only had a handful of years left to live and what had achieved with it. So I sat on my yoga mat with my cat and pondered. Because I’m also following Christine Sine’s example of deep gratitude I did my best to move into that place.

Well to begin with I have two amazing children who are doing great in the world. I have published a book [and trying not to beat myself up over the fact that it is my only one so far. I will go back and read my last post if I get issues there]. I encourage lots of people with my writing groups, with the youthshedz project [more on that in another post]

But it is too easy to look back and think of all the things I haven’t done – not had a great career, not entered politics, not invented something that would change the world, not some recognised person in the media.

But what really is achievement? What does it really mean? As a Christian I have come to believe that it means knowing God deeper and myself as well so that I can love others.

Doing the work with the Youthshedz young people I realise like them that I am luck to be alive. At 25 I didn’t like myself but now, 35 years on I can say that I like myself. I trust myself, and I have noticed the more I trust myself the more I trust God and also other people.

There is a verse about “judging as you will be judged” [Matthew 7:1] and I think that when one is striving to “achieve” something noteworthy one is too often looking at others, judging what they are doing, rating them as better or worse than oneself – generally better than – rather than just getting on and doing the stuff.

So I may not change the world and neither may my children or the young people I encourage, but you know I think if I make my world a more contented place by being more contented myself – by creating that energy around me of acceptance and contentment – then I have achieved enough.

Like the harbour wall in this picture one day all will be gone and I will be forgotten and you know that is ok.

Tags acceptance, Achievement, celebrating achievements, God, GodspaceLight, gratitude, peace, shared blog