I have had my fair share of highlights (lots of them, actually) so far this year. Well, this month so far might be that month to even it out on the other side of the spectrum.
Recently, I went through a self-doubt phase while working towards a cause I am passionate about. It was as if the charisma in me didn’t match the passion I had.
I've never been the guy who enjoys being in the spotlight. I just want to be behind a screen, writing or scheming, which is not possible in the context of the fact that I am a co-convener of a conference coming up soon. For someone of that personality, it can be quite uncomfortable to realize you have to bear the reality of being in the spotlight.
Well, I faced that reality practically recently. I spent the productive part of my day curating content in lieu of the conference, and it kinda drained me. I thought it should be easy to do, but I realized it was a different ballgame compared to public speaking.
Public speaking which used to be a challenge for me in the past is something I am getting better at now, but when it comes to content creation, you are not getting a feedback loop, which can have an impact on your confidence level.
Anyway, that's just me ranting. Vulnerability has always been one of my values and I also needed to clear my head. Well, I do hope you didn’t read through it.
Good days, Bad days come and go, but you know what stays: your documentation of it. So let me do what I do best: share my thoughts, typed out with my hands with my face staring at the screen.
Documentation
By now, I hope you agree with me on the importance of making memories. Check this out if you aren’t convinced yet. I am not here to convince you further; it's a two-part series, so allow me to move on lol.
I could remember my first time facilitating a break-out space at an AIESEC conference. It was on the topic of documentation in a professional context, which ultimately few people opted to hear even when I had spent the whole night prior working on the slides, adding cool transitions and all.
Now that I have this whole space to myself with the delusion that so many people will read this, let me indulge you further (without the transitions, of course).
By the way, the definition still applies regardless of the context.
It is basically "a means of storing information".
Our lives are the culmination of experiences and moments, and while I have already established the importance of not looking at life as a race or destination, it is the journey that counts. But how best do you remember the journey? Documenting.
I am someone who is always big on storing things down. When I started out in 2020, I was obsessed with capturing the realities around me at that time in either video or voice forms. At that time, it just felt fun to do, not knowing it was something that would stick with me to this day.
And when I look at videos from those times, one thing always stands out: I’ve grown a lot. It may not be physically reflected, but trust me, a lot has changed for me. The first and obvious takeaway for you reading this, especially if you are starting your growth journey, is to learn how to document stuff.
You know that words of affirmation, "I may not be where I want to get to, but I know I am far from where I started." Well, documentation gives you solid evidence to measure your progress.
I recently finished a movie documentary called “The Office” which I have been watching since 2021. I know right, I am pretty bad at seeing movies, especially series.
For the record, I wept. I'd love to attach a proof, but I don’t wanna risk my steeze.
Getting to the end of the movie got me teary for three likely reasons. Maybe it was the fact that it ended so well or that I had just broken through a milestone I had been longing to overcome.
Maybe I saw the lessons the movies were telling me. I'd been watching each series like a movie, but at the finale episode, I realized it was more than a movie.
It occurred to me that this movie, even though it might have been scripted, reflected the natural, ordinary lives of people who were then captured to be made into a documentary. They had the camera guys record and document the boring, simple, silly, fun, and memorable scenes.
At the end of the movie, the documentary was shown to them, and one of the characters made a profound statement, which I would like to share here: ‘I worked for a paper company for nine years, and I never wrote anything down’.
‘I worked for a paper company for nine years and I never wrote anything down’
That’s just the irony of life. Life gets busier for us at the cost of making memories or documenting. It makes us forget the fundamental things we should purchase and lets us get embroiled in chasing the less fundamental things (like money, productivity, etc).
“Society is structured to distract people from the decisions that have a huge impact on happiness in order to focus attention on the decisions that have a marginal impact on happiness.”
David Brooks, political and cultural commentator
As much as the purpose of my blog is to share you value from my introspection, reflection and all, I am also documenting about my life subtlely: the achievements, the GCPs I have been implementing, the new ones I am just starting to implement, my thoughts as expressively as possible, the new things I have been up to, what I am struggling with etc.
Life is a journey, and the moments you collect along the way are the true treasures.
That's also why you'll always find me in anything that will be a source of memories - events, conferences, pictures of any kind, as long as they can give the ‘future me’ the reference he needs in retrospect about his past. I then painstakingly document those moments.
There are various ways to document: video forms, audio forms, and written forms. It just depends on the form that is available to you. But more often than not, I would recommend writing it down.
“If it's not written, it never happened. If it is written, it doesn't matter what happened.”
― Sercan Leylek
I've literally tried them all. For a fact, I have a journal where I write significant things down that happened each month, I record myself once every three months saying everything that needs to be said, etc
I am literally obsessed with documentation. That’s one reason why the things I don’t pray to lose aside from family and friends are my journal, my G-Photos app, my phone, and my laptop.
So yes, documentation is important, even across spheres. Learn to incorporate it into your personal life too. You may get to remember those moments or not (don’t rate your brain that much), but documentation won’t fail you.
In retrospect, going through those documentations, you'd realize your fault, how you’ve grown, and what you used to struggle with. People would learn from it and connect with it if you decided to make it public.
I am living my life in a way that I am not totally after people remembering me but that if anyone comes across my lifestyle, he/she will be inspired. That being the goal, what better medium than to document in public here?
Regardless if you want to inspire or not, personally it is just an amazing gift that only you can give your future self.
You may not be interested in checking the series out but here is me ending this piece in the words of Pam: "Be strong, love yourself, trust yourself, conquer your fears, go after what you want and act fast because life is not that long".
In the words of Halpart, “Imagine going back and watching a tape of your life. You could see yourself change, make mistakes and grow up, You could watch yourself do and be many things” 🗣️
So stay documenting ✍️
Thanks for reading this far 🤗
Cheers 🍻
This is so true, Have learnt that I should learn to incorporate the habit of Documenting and creating memories of important things in my Life. It's could be through writing, making a video or audio.Thank you Nezzar. I'm inspired.