Have I Told You This Secret?

It's day 147 of documenting 2025.

Happy Children's day! 🎉
Whatever your age, I hope today is as playful and fun for you as when you were a kid.
Adults need play too...😏

It's easy to get so serious with life...
Sometimes avoiding any form of fun for the meantime is important to achieving your goals.
But today, give yourself some slack.
And by slack, I mean...

Watch those cartoons you used to as a kid...even if it's for 25 minutes.
If you can't do that, just think back to your childhood memories...and laugh at how silly you were then.
If there's a chance, spend some time playing with a kid you know...or don't. Make them smile.
Your inner child will thank you.

Inner child?
What's Duon talking about again? 🙄
My friend, you may understand the concept of an 'inner child' or you may not.
Think of it this way: you never really grow up.
What? 🤨
Your body ages...sure.
But the spirit you had as a child is still a child.

Why do you still fold your arms and sulk when you can't get something?
Why do you sometimes stick out your tongue to your friend or to a mean person?
Why do dance in your room and laugh at your dance moves when no one's looking?
Tell me.

The desire for "maturity" has made most of us too serious with life.
No friends to joke with.
No silly moments.
No laughter.
It's all work. And work. Then more work.
How does someone live like that?
I'm just wondering 🤔

The famous people we know have their play time.
Believe it or not.
And play may not just mean jumping on your bed and screaming,
"Ice cream...you scream...we all scream...Ice cream!".
It may mean listening to your favourite tunes, drawing or doodling....maybe even singing out loud like you're in a concert.

So, I say again,
Whatever your age, I hope today is as playful and fun for you as when you were a kid.
It's your choice to make it that way...or not.

That's all for my Children's day babble.
As for me, I'm at home....still got tons of work to do.
Laundry, content work, and lesson plans to draft out.
Will I take my own advice and give myself some slack?
Probably.
Let's see how it goes 🙂

Anyhoo....
Before I started typing this post, I took out 10 minutes to read sections of two books.
First one is the usual read, from which I share Highlights.
Second is another book written by the same author of the usual read.

Oops! 😐
I just realized...
You may be new here.
Well, the second book is called The Ultimate Focus Strategy by Martin Meadows.
And the first is 365 Days With Self-discipline...also by the same author.
Now ya know!

Well, I started the next chapter of The Ultimate Focus Strategy.
And the section I read talks about falling in love and staying facsinated with your goal.
A particular paragraph stood out to me. I quote:

"If you’re wondering why you can’t seem to achieve your goal despite having a powerful reason why and a solid strategy to follow, the reason might be that you’re not fascinated by the process.
While you don’t necessarily have to love everything about working on your goals, it is vital to have a passion for the process, and that comes from making it a deeply-rooted part of your life."

Something that's already a deep-rooted part of my life is writing.
On this blog.
It gets frustrating, sometimes.
But I'm already love the process and it's easy to stick to it.
I've said it once...and I'll say it again.

My secret to staying consistent with this blog?
I just have to hit "publish" once.
And my day is set.
If I do nothing else for the day, I'm good.
I can't imagine not writing, formatting and publishing one post for that day.
Even if I don't feel like it, I always find a way.

Now, you know my secret...
Shh 🤫
Don't tell, okay?
The enemy may use this secret against me.
(Trying so hard to hold my laughter)
How silly!
I'm the only person that can stop me from writing.
Enemy....oh please! 😅

Alright...alright.
Jokes apart.
Let's get down to the actual reason you decided to visit today...
Highlights.
(Am I right? 😏)

365 Days With Self-discipline
📌 On Walking By A Mistake

"Far too often we let little things slide.
But just turn on the news and listen
as the anchors lament an auto-part defect leading to deaths and multibillion-dollar recalls or a small leak in a gas pipeline causing an explosion that endangers wildlife. Recognizing when something is wrong, big or small, and holding people accountable can save industries billions and citizens their lives. Sergeant Bowen instilled in me instantly that if you do walk by a mistake, then you just set a new, lower standard."

Quote by Ann Dunwoody.

I watched the Titanic movie once.
The largest ship to have sailed the seas split in half and drowned because they wanted to go "faster".
And they ignored the iceberg warning.
What's my point?
The Titanic may still exist if they hadn't walked by some mistakes.

My opinion tho...
Don't judge or come at me in the comments 😄
And if you haven't, I encourage you to watch the movie.
It's a good one.

"When you make an unimportant mistake, there’s a temptation to let it go and ignore it.
After all, it isn’t a big deal, so why bother?
If your dishes aren’t pristinely clean, it won’t change much in the grand scheme of things, and most certainly won’t hurt anybody."

"The problem is that walking by your mistakes sets a precedent of tolerating small errors.
You’re also missing out on a valuable exercise in self-control: making sure that all that you do is done with the utmost care".

"However, whenever you can, try to exercise a little bit of self-control and correct a little thing that you consider unimportant.
It can be a small tweak in your posture, making sure that you sit properly in front of the computer.
It can be making an effort to speak more clearly and improve your articulation.
It can be ensuring that your bed is made properly or slicing a loaf of bread with more precision."

Note the phrase, "It can be..."
The actions mentioned are not rules to follow.
You know some little things you consider unimportant...that you can correct now.
So, go do that, okay?

Now, let's move on to the next section for today.
A recently introduced section.
It's a trip down memory lane for me...to the early days of this blog.
I'm talking day 1 to day 50.
I call it....

Blast From The Past
📌 Can You Look Fear In The Eye?

What a mashup of ideas!
I admit, my writing wasn't so structured as it now.
It was just all over the place.
But I kept writing.
Here we are, my friend ☺️

I also shared the reason why I decided to share my story using a blog.
I could have done it on social media...
If you want to know what reason is, read the post here.
And it's not a very long post.
Took me less than 3 minutes to read through.

I want to remind myself (and hopefully you...) of something I shared in that post.
This was from my notes to the screen, so I can safely say I quoted myself.

✍️ Why people experience pain yet fail to change? They haven't hit emotional threshold, a level of pain they weren't willing to settle for anymore.
✍️ The magical moment when pain becomes our friend: Those times in our lives when we've said, "I've had it! never again; this must change now".
The moment that drives us to take new action and produce new results.
✍️ Each day, our lives are filled with psychic negotiations, making decisions based on the pain or pleasure an activity brings to us.

I've hit my emotional threshold.
I'm learning to embrace pain by taking actions that make me uncomfortable.
Do you believe I was the MC at the children's day celebration in the school I teach?
I held the microphone and addressed the crowd.

Funny enough, there was nothing scary about it.
But I'm sure 15-year-old me wouldn't be able to do that.
She would be frozen on the spot.
Hands trembling, voice shaking...and all that.
It's different now.

If I didn't decide to take up the job, I wouldn't have the chance to do that.
I know there will be bigger crowds in the future...and something of absolute value to share with them.
Now, I'm just preparing myself to become future me.
I hope you are too.

That's all for today's post, my friend.
Thanks for reading 🎀
I hope you enjoy your day...and not be so serious all the time.
To start, you can read more of my unusual content.
Just visit the main site, Documenting 2025.
I'll see you there 😉

I'm Duon Ada.
I'm documenting 2025.
And I'll see you tomorrow.
Ciao 💕