Inspiration – Put Pen to Paper

 Inspiration – Put Pen to Paper

By Nikki Viljoen of Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd - August 2009 

Even before I started my business in 2003 (yes I am a statistic – a good statistic), a friend at the time, kept telling me that I should write.  “Write it down, it will become your affirmation . . .” she kept telling me and I promise you, I really resisted – hard!

I resisted like you wouldn’t believe – you see, for many years, while working in the corporate sector, I wrote procedures – hundreds and hundreds of procedures and I felt stifled by the thought of having to write.  The mere thought of writing anything made my heart sink and my mind rebelled – so I resisted.  Silly me!

Several years ago I got really interested in blogs.  It seemed like everywhere I went, I heard about blogs and so began my research.  At some level, even if it was subconsciously, I understood that although the electronic age is upon us and many people don’t even know how to manually write anymore, information is critical and in order to share that information with people, other than one person at a time it is necessary to write.

And so my blog was born.  In view of the fact that I was so anti writing at this point, it was pretty limited to a networking tip, once a week.  The rest of my posts usually comprised of some or other interesting titbit which I then reproduced on the blog and made comment on.

As my reluctance to write dissipated, I found that I had more to say on issues relating to small business and more importantly I found that I was actually pretty good at writing and then horror of horrors, I found that I actually rather enjoyed writing and I allowed myself to expand my writing to several other topics.  Topics like Inspiration and Business Tips as well as Sales and Marketing, HR and of course my passion about Networking.  Hell, I even started writing new procedures again.

So what has this got to do with writing down affirmations?  Well, you see as I write and document my thoughts, I often find that I not only write about what I have researched or what my observations are, in terms of what the issues are that face small business owners, but I also seem to write down what I most need to hear.  The words do not only pertain to the facts and the figures, but also to the emotions and feelings that I happen to be experiencing at that moment in time and of course, don’t forget they also reflect my particular brand of humour.  

These feelings somehow appear on the page and they are in fact, my feelings, my hopes, my fears, my joys, my expectations and therefore my aspirations – but they are also often things that I need to hear or be told – ironically I am the doing the telling!  How cool (and a bit weird) is that?

Writing has now become a part of my life and I can now, no longer even imagine a day going by without me putting pen to paper.

Much of my writing does not appear on my blogs or in the newspaper or in magazines – much is for my own pleasure and most of it is written by hand with my 40+ year-old fountain pen.  Much of what I have written has been very painful and much has brought about tears of laughter as I remember things, ideas, dreams and moments in time.  That said, ALL of it has helped me to see things more clearly, to grow both in my business and also within myself.

All of it has challenged me and stretched my mind and all of it has been beneficial to me as a person.

So let me be “my” friend to you – write down your aspirations, write them down daily or even twice a day or more.  Write them down and see how much more clearly you look at the world around you, look at how much you grow and how much easier you find it is to achieve your goals.

Just write it down . . . 

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za