I haven't posted in a while but (don't worry we have a line up of fantastic bloggers for next year who will be posting a lot more regularly than I have...I thought it would be good to wait till the new year to introduce them to you ;)) I decided I would end the year by sharing something that I think a lot of people over look and that's how to change your thoughts to actions. At the beginning of 2016 I had a feeling that I should start something that had to do with communicating with girls around me. I could see so much insecurity, a lot of discouragement and I just wasn't seeing as many strong female role models as often as I would like. I also had a dream where I felt G-d was telling me I should speak to girls and so I took that as confirmation that I was on the right path. The next step from having these thoughts was finding a way to bring them out into the world. The same sort of story line goes for #thisischristmas. I had an idea in August that when Christmas came around it would be awesome to make sure some of the children in the orphanages around Harare would feel special by giving them some really great gifts. The only problem was I had no money and I wanted to give more than just my second hand stuff. 

I'm sure you've probably been in a similar situation and honestly its pretty intimidating because most of our lives we're taught you can only do stuff once you have the proper training or enough experience or money or whatever, but that's just not true! I genuinely believe that if you have an idea that can bring value, light and love to the world, the entire universe conspires for it to happen (*just a side note, I read the Alchemist this year and loved it. If you'd like to read more on this sort of thinking, find it and read it! The Bible also follows the same train of thought so I'd recommend that too ;)) Even if you have all the divine backing possible you still need to actually do something to get the ball rolling. I've come up with 3 practical things that I hope can help you do this...Lets jump right in :D

1. Speak Out and Collaborate

The first thing I think you need to do when you have a good idea is to talk about it. This is a bit tricky because sometimes when you talk to the wrong people this can turn into a negative thing. It's really important to find people who you know or have a good feeling about that you can talk these things over with. Look for people who have a similar passion to you or someone you know who you can trust not to shoot you down. The really awesome thing about this is that most times when you have an idea the people around you are the one's that give you the ability to actually put it into action. For me with the blog, I spoke with my brother and my friends Noni and Chichi and they all built a part of Purple Lipstick that I for sure could not have, on my own. For #thisischristmas I reached out to some of the service groups made of young people that I knew had similar passions. With their help we were able to come up with some practical first steps towards making the end goal happen. Collaboration is one of the greatest things you can possibly do! No one can do everything on their own so please next time you have an idea share it with someone!

2. Newton's 1st Law 

This second part is probably the hardest. Once you've talked about what you want to do and maybe collected ideas from people, you need to make it practical. Most people I think end up falling in love with the warm feeling that the idea gives you and don't actually start putting pen to paper. Some people maybe get scared and think it will take too much energy (I've been in both these situations so I'm just speaking out from what I've felt.) The best thing to do when you feel like this is to start with something small. Write the objectives of your idea down on paper, research on google for what other people have done to get similar projects off the ground, look on Facebook and inbox or email people who are doing what you want to do. The important thing is to start moving, to start planning. Like I said earlier somehow if its supposed to happen you'll find a way around obstacles and end up walking down the right path. I have been so amazed by how many things have happened this year because I just sent an email to someone who I thought could help or I went to place where I thought I could get inspiration and ended up meeting people who've changed my life. Newton's first law states that "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion...(the rest paraphrased says unless something literally comes in its way/ something crazy happens haha)" The main point I want to derive from that is that once you start moving the law is that you somehow keep moving! START, START, START!

3. Keep Your Word and Follow Through

The final step is to make sure that no matter how tired or frustrated you are you need to keep going until the end. I remember crying in my mom's car a few weeks ago because I was so stressed. As many of you know we'd planned to have a movie night under the skies to raise funds to buy the christmas gifts for #thisischristmas. The day of the movie night it started raining at around 4:30pm and the movie was supposed to start at 5:30pm. People were calling me to find out if the movie was still on or what my plan was in case it kept raining and I legit didn't know what to do! The only thing I knew was that we had put a lot of effort into planning the night out and that we had to follow through till the end. With some encouragement from my mom (haha) I tried to reassure everyone that it was ok and that we would still have the movie night. I'm so glad that we did because the weather calmed down and people still came out even though it was freezing. We managed to raise even more than what we needed and bought every single child a brand new gift! The point of that example is to show you that even if things get tough stick it through till the end and even if it doesn't go completely according to plan you'll have a great story to tell ;)

As we enter into 2017, I'd like to encourage you to try to come up with an idea that can help your community or someone you love. Try to take that idea and bring it out into reality. If you need help shoot me a message and I'll see if I can do anything, but please just do it! I hope that if each of us tries our best to spread as much love as we possibly can this coming year our city will look completely different. Thank you for your support this year and I hope you stay with us again in the new one :D 

In love Always,

Marly