Tanya McGinnity

To both counter the last post which seemed to be a bit negative and maintain the interest of remaining balanced, I wanted to write a post all about ‘What I love about me’.This post is inspired by a nod on Kirtsy to a site called Operation Nice (which is now a new favourite of mine).

Operation Nice was developed by Melissa Morris Ivone  whose “goal in life is to be as nice as she can possibly be.’ Melissa admits that in writing her own ‘love list’, she found it hard to do (I can so relate as I work on mine!).

I think it’s an important exercise for us to do on a monthly basis. Take some time to reflect on all the good that we’ve done and how truly awesome we are. It’s not about being Gandhi or Mother Teresa. It’s about the little things we’re doing on a daily basis that sometimes are seem so small to us that they seem so insignificant. It’s easy to see all the rockstars that surround us and feel that we’re not doing enough or that our contributions are so tiny, but their impact can be huge to those around us.

Now, my love list:
I love that I’m compassionate and caring to both humans and animals. I love that I have a strong yet silent character and weigh my words before misspeaking. I love that I’m not an arsehole. I love that I root for the underdog – those unpopular and often misunderstood folks. I love that I’ve gone through some hard times but didn’t let them harden me. I love my fiance who is the soul mate I never though possible as the term soul mate always sounded too ‘hokey’ to me. I love my furkid, Bob who shows me how to live in the moment and to not take myself too seriously. I love that I’m confident enough to let myself be the quirky, offbeat geek that I am and encourage others to let their ‘geek flag fly’. I love that I’m not too confident to be uncomfortable to be around. I’m a smart girl with many interests, a curious mind and a heart of gold. I’m cute but would hit a bully with a skateboard if they were to say mean things about you or your mom. Oh, and I always have great haircuts.

Now to work on yours. Please share it with me. I’d love to read more about you.

As per Melissa’s post, here are the directions for this Operation Nice assignment

Today’s Assignment: Make a Love List about Yourself
What do you love about yourself? It could be something about your appearance or personality, your strengths or talents, whatever you’d like! Post it on your blog or post it here in the comments. Or do both! Either way, really focus on what you love about yourself and I guarantee you’ll feel happier afterwards.

Oh and Melissa, thanks so much for your energy, creativity and for such a wonderful blog with such an important mission. You are right in that I do feel happier after working on this love list!

I do love me... I really do

As I write this blog title, I cautiously reflect on how this post could go if I allow it to take a different path.

I carefully examine how many times in my memory I’ve asked the question ‘Why are you saying what you are saying?”

There is the obvious times we make this statement such as during an argument with a loved one (or those not so loved!) but how often are we asking this question of ourselves online? How many of us are pausing to reflect on what we are putting out into the digital realm?

What are you saying? Why are you saying it? Is your life passion in what you are writing about or are you looking for ego-satisfaction, money, validation, job security, more clients? All of this is OK, we’re human…  but it’s important to be transparent to others with who you are and what you are seeking to gain.

Many of us are proclaiming to be ‘social media experts’, ‘thought leaders’ or ‘subject matter specialists but the truth is that now more than ever we are all experts, leaders and experts. The playing field is level and it couldn’t be more exciting than this.

Why am I saying this? Because it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to be a social media rockstar with a zillion ‘friends’ on Twitter, Facebook et al. It’s easy to feel that we don’t measure up in that our blog posts are boring, dumb or navel-gazing chatter.

I’ve been there…

The advice I give to myself is to not to get caught up in it all. Life is way to short and my epitaph isn’t going to be a digital feed of my past Twits/Facebook statuses or a recap of the number of friends I had on the various social networks. This isn’t the legacy we leave behind to our friends and family.