Have Courage And Be Kind

Now if you follow even just one blogger on Twitter I'm sure you will have heard about all of the drama within the community recently. With some announcing that they were going to 'out' those, or those who they suspected, had been using bots and buying followers to grow their accounts, Twitter turned into a virtual version of Mean Girls with Social Blade as their virtual burn book. Now I'm not going to go into the rights and wrongs of all of this drama (for my personal opinion on fake Instagram followings you can read this post that I wrote a few weeks back) but people got hurt. I saw new sides to girls that I thought were all sweetness and light. Friends were exposed as frenemies.

With challenges like this facing us, I still like to believe that there is still some heart left within the community and that the support and kindness that I first felt when I started blogging, never in fact left. But more importantly I want to do everything I can to make sure it stays.

It's a pretty well known fact that we brits are awful when it comes to taking and receiving compliments. We've nailed queuing, apologising and small talk about the weather but there is something about compliments that just gets us all in a fluster. It is this awkwardness around receiving compliments that I think also holds us back from giving them, not to mention we want to avoid coming across too keen. 

But the funny thing is, if I ever receive a compliment, I don't often think that the person giving the compliment is weird or a bit keen. In fact when someone goes out of their way to compliment me, especially in relation to my blog, it means so much more to me than I could ever describe. 

What I'm Wearing | New Look Hat, Boohoo Dress, Coach Bag, Office Boots

Sometimes finding the motivation to blog can be hard and occasionally I find myself questioning why I do it. But every time I find myself questioning why I continue blogging, someone comes along and gives me that boost that I need. For example only a few weeks ago I was invited to a job interview and despite declining to attend, the recruiter for the company still messaged me saying that they thought my blog was excellent and they wished me all the best. Or even less than a week ago when a fellow blogger regrammed one of my Instagram posts saying that I inspired her and many others also commented similarly lovely things. 

These things and other acts of kindness I have received over the years may seem like small gestures but they mean the world to me. They make me feel proud, inspired and honestly a bit emotional in so many different ways. They remind me of the powerful impact that a simple act of kindness can have upon a person. So if I can make someone feel like that by giving them a compliment or by providing support, kindness and friendship, then I will strive to do so in anyway that I can. It may feel awkward at first but hopefully the more kindness we spread the more it will become a natural part of our generations culture.

Eleanor xx