You will come across a person at some stage of your life and think to yourself “What is it about them? There is something so good about them, I want to be like that.” I have already met a person like this, in fact, a couple now that I have my eye out for it, but no more than a couple. I call it the shine. It is a little ray of light that shines out of that person every time you see them and all that light is pure goodness. These people aren’t nasty, don’t have a sharp tongue (which is rife in my industry), appreciate and understand life, give without expecting to receive back and are very good listeners.

I kind of feel like I am on a bumpy road to achieving my shine, I found that when I stopped talking about others as a pass time (as any normal girl would do) I started to have a lighter load on my shoulders. You know when you talk about someone and then you quickly check your phone to see if you have accidentally dialled their number incase you are busted gossiping about them? Well, I don’t have those moments anymore (phew!) Try making a conscious effort next time a friend wants to gossip, to not get involved and steer that conversation to something else, I would love to know how that went for you.

I have also learnt the art of listening, I often call myself ‘socially awkward’ when in fact I am actually ‘conversation awkward’ because I was never really taught how to strike up a conversation when I was younger, you know, kids just sit at the kids table whilst the adults talk? I told this to someone once and they told me that a simple trick to be good at a conversation is to listen and ask questions. Voila!

As I work on my shine, I hope that I have inspired you in some way to choose the lighter, good way instead of the nasty, burden provoking way.