Rooting Out The Fear

It's day 322 of documenting 2025.

43 days to 2026.

So, this Tuesday ended on a wonderful note.

But fear almost ruined it.

And I thank God I rooted out that fear.

Okay, before I dive into the full story, I'll start from the morning.

I got to the lecture hall early and we eventually had our first lecture by 12pm!

See how long I had to wait?

Well, I took the opportunity to work on some tasks for my online job, and then completed my former notes...so it wasn't too bad. Then we had the 12pm class, which ended by 2pm.

God knows I was already tired 🥱

Then we started the 2pm class.

I couldn't even take down any notes, as I was totally dozing off 😐

But I listened.

I also made a mental note to make up my own note, later on. The lecturer also gave us an assignment.

That, I won't skip.

Anyways, I got home very tired...

And I proceeded to wash my shirt first because I would still use it tomorrow.

Then a scene occurred.

Apparently, the new vice chancellor of our university came to visit and there was noise everywhere.

The vice chancellor addressed the girls and then promised to do something about our power problem.

A girl was asked about the state of her bathroom and she was like, 

"Very bad!!"

Everyone laughed because of the emotion she showed and the fact that it was actually true.

After announcing more promises, the man and his entourage left the hostel, in a coaster bus and several other vehicles.

I just continued with my life 😌

Fast forward to the night, they put on the generator that gave us light for just two hours.

Anyways....

That's not the main gist.

The main gist is the fact that I faced my fear of revealing my relationship with God to a friend I just met, because I was afraid of what she would think about me.

Now that I think about it, the fear wasn't rational at all. I read my Bible and felt an internal to "root out" that fear.

Then I made up my mind...that whatever happens, I won't have to live with the regret that I didn't open up to her.

I went downstairs to where she was and told her that I wanted to tell her something.

But I listened to her first as she talked about her difficulties with a friend she met recently. Apparently, she turned him down when he asked her out and then he was acting weird.

I listened until she was done talking and then I started with what I wanted to say.

I told her about everything, from scratch.

The prayer meeting I had with my fellowship sisters, the Bible verse I read and the nudge I felt.

After listening, she said that she doesn't mind if I have a relationship with God.

She also revealed some of her personal issues to me and I finally understood why God led me to talk to her.

I finally realized something.

That she doesn't have a relationship with God and I told her that I was going to help her. After our discussion, we hugged and then took turns to pray.

It was wonderful 🥰

Alright...let me share the highlights for today and then I'll share a few thoughts.

365 Days With Self-discipline

📌 On Subtraction 

"We survive on too little sleep, wolf down fast foods on the run, fuel up with

coffee and cool down with alcohol and sleeping pills.

Faced with relentless demands at work, we become short-tempered and easily distracted. 

We return home from long days at work feeling exhausted and often experience our families not as a source of joy and

renewal, but as one more demand in an already overburdened life."

Quote by Jim Loehr

It makes me exhausted just to read this quote, let alone imagine that it’s possible to achieve any kind of positive results while living such a life.

If you’re overburdened and feel like you have no control over your life, it’s time to change your life philosophy from the philosophy of addition to the

philosophy of subtraction.

Let me explain…

The philosophy of addition is thinking that more is better. 

It means that you’re afraid to miss out on opportunities and that you say yes to everything, worried that saying no will make you unpopular or that you’ll appear selfish or lazy.

You constantly add and add, thinking that it’s through adding that your life gets better.  Of course, in a certain way it does. The more you learn, the better you are. 

Generally speaking, the more money you have, the easier your life is.

However, this doesn’t apply to obligations and your calendar. 

The more tasks you have in your schedule and the more duties you need to attend to, the more difficult it is to stop, reflect, and decide what deserves your attention and

what doesn’t.

For this reason, I suggest adopting the philosophy of subtraction. You believe that less is more. You think twice before you accept any new responsibilities. You constantly seek to simplify your life and free up your calendar instead of stacking one task on top of another. 

You feel proud of having leisure time instead of feeling guilty about it. As an exercise for today, think of just one regular task in your schedule that you could eliminate, in order to make your life less of a burden.

Perhaps you can hire a maid to save time spent keeping the house clean.

Maybe you already have enough money, but not enough time, and it would make sense to reduce the number of hours spent at work and accept the trade-off for the sake of your well-being.

Maybe you can move closer to your workplace, or the opposite: start

working at home.

Perhaps it would be a good investment to use the services of a home meal

delivery company and save the time spent on cooking and grocery shopping.

Subtract the unessential from your life to increase your focus on what is essential, but doesn’t get enough attention because of all the other, less-important obligations.

Hmm 🤔

I think I key into this mentality.

The need to subtract what doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things, so you can focus on what matters.

That's how I see it.

Anyways, I don't think there's any other thought I would like to share.

Main reason is because this post is already overdue.

What I'll say is that I'm still adjusting to the way of life in the hostel...and I really want to build a good foundation.

But if I don't make the tough choices and have the difficult conversations, it might not work.

I think that would be all for today's documentation.

Thanks for reading 🎀

You can always catch up on former posts by visiting the main website, Documenting 2025.

See you in the next post 💜