Self-development Archives - Page 2 of 2

Personal Post: Revealing the Mystery behind this Lifestyle Blogger

Ironically, as I sit to write this post at a cafe in the JBR Walk, at a table nearby sits a family from my country. They remind me of the life that i had left behind in the summer of 2009…a decision that I take pride in making – despite all the challenges, confusions and compromises that came with it.

Today’s post is a sequel to my previous personal post about my lonely single life…it is also the first in a series of personal posts that I aim to publish on a weekly basis as part of my new blogging schedule. I would like to start by thanking everyone who commented on that post and expressed their concern by sharing their views and opinions from personal experiences. Your care and support is highly appreciated and I’m truly blessed to have loyal and genuine fans and friends.

Publishing that post actually helped me greatly in understanding some of the reasons behind my single status at this age (check my About page for a clue). The answers came from my supportive followers, and they clarified a lot of the confusion surrounding this topic. Basically, the comments and discussions brought to my attention a very important point; the fact that I need to sort out my own life before I can be ready for any commitment. What this means is that prior to thinking about being in a serious relationship with anyone, I need to achieve some personal career goals and reach more advanced levels in the personal, career and financial areas of my life.

This is not to say that I have been lounging around the house (or city in my case) for the past couple of years. I simply chose to change careers into a not so easy field – journalism – at a not so great time – world recession. Add to that, my illusions and high expectations of thinking that I had super powers and would be able to reach that goal without going back to school!

Fast forward four years later and endless trails and errors, I enroll at University to take an undergraduate course in journalism.

A decision that I am proud to take.

Now how is getting a degree in journalism and becoming successful relate to my single status? Simply said, getting a degree from an International University and then aiming to become successful career wise and financially should inevitably attract the right kind of men my way. Plus, when I’m more happy and comfortable in my own skin, I will undoubtedly emit positive vibes that will attract decent and successful men, not push them away…

So for now, focusing on my education and blog seem to be the right thing to do, for various reasons.

Not that I had been doing anything different really…I just wanted to write this post as a justification for my obsessive compulsive blogging behavior and to provide a clear explanation for my followers and friends!

The next time you find me preoccupied with my next blog post, or glued to my i-phone updating my blog’s Facebook Page, you’ll understand that I now have legitimate reasons for my compulsive blogging habits. And you will realize the long-term vision and reasoning behind my eternally “busy” state of mind!

Another enlightening conversation that I recently had with my American friend who labels me as “blog crazy” confirmed the comments from my followers on the subject…while in the Arab and Eastern culture generally, it’s agreed on that the man’s role in the relationship is to provide for the family, this is definitely not the case in the Western social system. My friend summed it up as: “what can you bring to the relationship?”. And that is exactly the missing element in my story. Since I come from a Middle-eastern background, I was always accustomed to having my father support me throughout the different stages of my life. Yes, I was working at some point when I was living in Saudi, and at that time I was capable of supporting myself. But once I have decided to change careers, things have taken a different turn.

Many people have told me to take it easy and to “not blog too much” or “work too hard”, but without knowing the main goals behind my commitment, they can’t be blamed, can they?

Apart from finding a partner and realizing my career goals, becoming financially independent will help me detach from my family. Which is one of the main goals of my life. Why would I want to do that, you may ask…I think we can leave that for another post 🙂

Will I progress from being a somewhat pampered and spoiled GCC born and raised brat to the successful and financially independent journalist and blogger that I aspire to be?

At least when I finally reach my goal and realize my dream, I can proudly and firmly say that I did it all by myself…and most importantly; that along the process, I managed to live two widely and extremely diverse lives…

Thank you to Pink Pepper Photography for the fabulous images!

Personal Makeup Artist Course at The Annex Institute Dubai

I don’t want to sound like a drama queen, but when I was growing up, I always tended to do things at a later stage than my friends. Starting and learning how to put on makeup was no exception! I guess my mind was always preoccupied with other life-changing decisions…like mapping out and working on my next plan to get more personal space and freedom. For example, in the summer before I left Saudi to go study in London, I was busy communicating with London College of Fashion to enroll at a course there, preparing and sending my documents, taking the IELTS test, deciding on accommodation options and other legal matters.

Makeup was always something in the back of my head. I had the basic products and I knew how to use them at beginner level I would say. I had no idea how to do an evening look or blend different eye shadow colors to make a cool effect. My personal concept of makeup began and ended with mascara and a tinted lip balm 🙂

If you were following my blog lately, you might have read my post on the Annex Institute; a brand new creative school based in Downtown Dubai. The school offers various creative courses covering hair, Makeup, film and photography.

I was lucky to attend a ‘Personal Makeup Artist‘ course at the school. Where I finally got the opportunity to make use of my Smokey Eyes kit that I had bought over the summer and never got a chance to test out since I have no clue as to how to achieve the look!

During the day course, Chief Creative Officer and Makeup Artist Aqeel Al Nasser used me as a model for a highly elegant and sultry brown Smokey Eyes look. While applying the makeup, Aqeel explained every step that he did with high precision and detail. I must admit that I learned so many makeup tricks that I wasn’t previously aware of like:

The correct way to apply and blend eye shadow and blusher powder.
How to avoid the smudged mascara look (that I’m famous for sporting).
Essential contouring and highlighting techniques.
The correct way to apply eye liner.
The types of brushes to use for each product.
As much as I hate to admit this, but I was introduced to gel liner for the first time 😀

Aqeel even went on to explain to us the right way to clean our makeup brushes, which after trying out myself, I couldn’t imagine how increasingly efficient and effective it was! It makes your life so much easier, that you wonder how you would previously spend hours washing brushes in the sink with liquid soap and water! Or maybe that was just me being lost in my own world of life-changing missions and not knowing about this basic tip 🙂

Whether you are an expert in makeup application and evening looks or are a basic makeup user like me (who only owns a total of 4 brushes), the super friendly team at the Annex Institute will help you progress to the next level of your learning curve…their courses are certified by Internationally acclaimed organizations and institutions. With their many hair and makeup courses, they can accommodate to all levels and skills. Just drop them a line and they will offer you a course based on your requirements and interests.

Being the tom boyish girl that I am, I am now looking forward to taking my next course at the Annex: Creative Business Course. It’s a three-day Introductory business course to help you start your own creative business.

But before that, I must finish reading my Blog Inc. book…and I need to make time for the course once my University term ends or at the beginning of my next semester 🙂

Yes, despite being a Diva, I also have a very masculine and career-oriented side to me that you can’t ever hide 🙂

Now that I know how to put my own makeup in a professional way, it’s your turn to learn the essential tips and tricks of makeup and beauty. Check out the Annex Institute’s web site and follow them on Facebook!

Web Site: http://www.annex.ae/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/annexdxb

P.S. Do follow the Annex’s Facebook Page, as they regularly post useful and interesting hair and makeup tips on a daily basis! I’m a fan and I can say that I’ve learned a good number of tricks from that page 🙂

Dubai Creative School Recommendation: The Annex Institute

Being a creative professional, I always found it so challenging to learn the right skills and tricks to make it in the creative world. Growing up and living in Saudi for most of my life hasn’t helped much either. Since there aren’t many opportunities to work in a creative industry or explore your creative potential and flair. That’s why I had to move all the way to London to take a course in a creative field.

Today though, you can find a highly professional and high-standard school for all your creative passions right here in Dubai! The Annex Institute is a new inspiring school in the heart of Dubai that trains creative individuals on beauty, hair, makeup, photography and film!

All of The Annex Institute‘s courses are certified by the KHDA and are vocational courses that will help you gain all the knowledge and skills that you need to start the creative career of your choice.

The Annex is the only creative school in Dubai that offers essential Basic Health and Safety courses for salons and salon professionals.

Me Checking out the school on the Girls' Day In Event! — Me Checking out the school on the Girls’ Day In Event!

Head of Hair Education at The Annex Institute; Yessenia Cano

Professional Hair Educator Yessenia Cano

Head of Hair Education and LA native Yessenia Cano has worked with Hollywood celebrities as a hair stylist as part of her extensive and unique portfolio! Someone with Beverly Hills experience in Dubai? Only at The Annex!

The Annex use the most professional hair and beauty products

Stay tuned to the blog for my next exciting post about The Annex! Where I get to take a Personal Makeup Artist course at the school with the highly talented Chief Creative Officer and Makeup Artist – Aqeel Al Nasser and flaunt a glamorous and contemporary brown smokey eyes look!

In the meantime, check out the school’s web site and Facebook Page and get inspired with the coolest creative school in town!

Career Life: Barajeel Bloggers Lounge Meetup :)

Let me start by giving you a short history about my meetup.com story. Before living in Dubai, I didn’t know what meetup was. A few friends that I met in Dubai told me about it and were suggesting that I join the site to meet new people and make new friends. But since I was and still am on a journey of changing careers and trying to become financially independent, meeting new people and making new friends wasn’t exactly at the top of my priority list. Thankfully, I find it easy to meet new people and make friends without needing to join a social networking site for that.

Then, I read about The Dubai Writers’ meetup group in a magazine and decided to join them and attend their meetups! You can read about that here. My meetups with that group didn’t last for long though. And since then, I haven’t joined or attended another meetup.

That changed today when my dear friend from the blog What I Just Love told me about the Barajeel Bloggers Lounge meetup group. Which is a newly launched group created to bring together bloggers from the city of Dubai in an effort to exchange ideas and discuss blogging tips and tools.

It was my first meetup with the group. And I must say that we had a very interesting and engaging discussion. We all had different ideas to share, and everyone was happy to contribute and talk about their personal blogging experience. Meetups are always a great opportunity to meet like-minded people who share your passions, interests, goals and aspirations.

Honestly, I look forward to our next meetup and I would recommend this meetup to any bloggers in the area who are interested in sharing and discussing ideas.

I must admit, that although It may have taken me a while to learn the right way to do things in an international city like Dubai, I’m glad that I have found the path eventually. I’m also greatly thankful to the Universe and GOD for bringing the events and people that are relevant to my goal closer to me. And for constantly reminding me that I’m not alone in this challenging, yet fun and exciting ride.

If you are a blogger who is interested in joining this meetup group, go to the following link and join us!

http://www.meetup.com/Barajeel-Bloggers-Lounge/

Taking a Short Break.

Dear blog readers and followers,

As you may have noticed, I haven’t written any new posts for a while. It’s not that I haven’t done anything interesting in the past week or so, or am suffering from writer’s mind blockage or apathy or anything like that. Mainly, I haven’t been feeling too well for the past few weeks. That was due to the weather change and to me doing too many things and not getting enough rest. That’s why I decided to take a short break from blogging and the whole rat race (as people call it). Mind you, I still managed to check out a newly opened cafe in my area (to maybe write a review about it), and I had to keep checking and responding to my e-mails, and of course my Facebook page. I also continued to post stuff on that page in an effort to keep things going. Even when I wasn’t feeling too good myself.

But I believe that something good comes out from everything that happens to us in our lives…Taking a short break helped me reflect on my priorities in life and maybe add some balance into other areas of my life. For the past couple of years, due to personal circumstances, I have been focusing mostly on my career. And since that hasn’t been going too well for me, I think it’s time to re-arrange my priorities in life. I’m not saying that I will write less blog posts or put in less effort into my career path (because I’m not even sure I can do that after all this time and effort that I’ve invested in that area), I just plan to put in more effort into other places that I might have neglected all those years in my search for financial and personal freedom and independence.

What are those other areas you might ask? well, I will leave that for you to figure out. I think it’s easy to know what they are once you read my about page and find out some simple facts about me and my personal life.

One main positive thing that came out from this short break and the connection with other blogger friends was to realize that we should not loose ourselves in our chase for material or success-related goals. We should always be reminded that life is a game and we should have fun while playing it. We should stay grounded and stay true to our selves. We should keep our sense of self-integrity and keep our standards high no matter how bad the going gets tough.

Most importantly, we should try to always help others along the way when we can.

Finally, I would like to mention that a few things need to be revised in my blog. Mostly concerning the topics that I write about. I have driven myself into extreme stress and exhaustion by trying to cover as many interesting topics as I could. And the time has come for that to end.

That’s why I need your thoughts and ideas on what you would like to read more about in this blog?

Here are some options to get you thinking, but any other ideas or views are welcome too.

About me and my perspective on life and things from a Saudi woman’s point of view (note: I live in Dubai, UAE)
A review of various events taking place in Dubai (you can specify the types of events you like to know about most)
A review of restaurants or cafes that I go to
Topics/events related to my job search and trying to make it in Dubai (mainly publishing/blogging/journalism)
Would you like to learn more about Saudi/Middle Eastern culture (as that’s where I’m from and where I grew up and lived most of my life)
Daily life stories and rants
Simple stories or deep thoughts and ideas

Or would you like me to keep the blog as it is and keep doing what I was doing earlier, which was basically a combination of all the above points?

Do let me know by commenting on this post what you would find most entertaining to read about in this blog. I will keep this discussion open, so please feel free to comment any time you read this. There is no deadline for your thoughts and ideas.

Thanks a lot for passing by and following my blog, and I hope that I will continue to offer interesting and helpful posts to my readers and followers. If you think otherwise, do let me know as well!

Love,

Nada (The Rebellious Saudi Diva)

Pay it Forward with Jack Canfield :)

I will be honest and say that I got introduced to Jack Canfield a couple of months ago by my neighbor at the time, in an effort to motivate me into working harder and becoming successful. I am sure I have heard of the motivational speaker and author’s best-seller book series: Chicken Soup for the Soul. But I didn’t get the chance to read anything by him until my neighbor presented his book: “How to get from where you are to where you want to be – the 25 principles of success” to me. I found the tips and advice in the book very useful and simple to follow. As you read through the principles, you will feel more confident and motivated to work harder and ask for things you might previously have fears towards them. The author’s words make you believe that anything is possible and that you are capable of achieving your dreams as long as you believe in yourself and are willing to put in the hard work and effort required to reach them.

Actually, I had won an invite to the social dinner with Jack after submitting my own success story 🙂 I basically explained how I managed to successfully change careers from a very rigid field (IT Support) into a much more creative one (lifestyle journalism). And although I still need to work on making profit from what I do, I believe that I am on the right track to making it happen.

There was a full-day workshop for the success principles, which I unfortunately didn’t win a ticket for! And after the workshop had ended, we had a Q&A session with the author. Jack answered each question in a highly informative and elaborate way. And made sure that the person found his answer helpful afterwards. I was so glad that my career specific question had been answered without me having to ask it! Actually, another guest had asked a similar question and I was happy to get a positive and definite answer. To help you understand more, the person had asked Jack about the challenge of not being an expert in a specific field and knowing that there are others who are far more knowledgeable than you. How do you overcome such a situation in your career? that question exactly describes my dilemma! I have been trying to get a role in publishing in Dubai for the past three years! I have taken a related course in London, have done internships, and most recently have started this blog to add to my credibility. But until now, I have not been able to secure a role or to get paid for doing what I love to do most: writing.

This was Jack’s answer: whenever you set a goal, three things come up:

Fears
Considerations: thoughts about why it’s not possible.
Road blocks: things that actually exist and prevent you from reaching your goal.

The fact that you are not an expert in the field is just a consideration. Don’t listen to it. It’s part of the process. Don’t let the consideration be a stop sign. Let it be a yield sign. He then went on to say that it takes 10,000 hours to become a master at anything. Which is equivalent to seven years of intense work. However, it can be less if you work with a master. You need to give yourself permission to be a learner. Plus, you may already be two years ahead of other people, if you had been working towards your goal for the past two years. That means that I can proudly say that I am over three years into my learning process 😀

Another important point that Jack discussed was that when you set a goal, it’s not so much to achieve it. What matters is developing your consciousness and mastering. If you can release the fear and overcome the road blocks, you become a master. The more you challenge yourself, the more mastering you will do. So the main outcome that you need to achieve is: the more you can master yourself and your life.

Some other insightful tips that Jack mentioned and I would like to share with you are:

Impatience with achieving your goals leads to focusing on not having the goal. That’s why low attachment to deadlines is better.
You don’t have to do big things. Do small things with love. ~ Mother Teresa
The secret of zen: just be yourself.
Allow yourself to follow what makes you feel alive and good. Joy is your internal guiding system.

And the most insightful advise that Jack had given was that when we are gone from this world, all we can take is our consciousness. That’s why your main purpose should be developing your consciousness, as opposed to growing rich and becoming extremely wealthy.

Honestly, I loved Jack’s words of wisdom and advice. I felt that I had learned so many things in those two hours or less that I spent listening to him answer the audience’s questions. His answers helped bring perspective to things that I was wondering about and didn’t have answers to.

I highly recommend Jack’s books and learning materials to everyone looking to become more successful in anything in their life. Whether it’s career, relationships, finances, Jack’s books can greatly help you achieve better in all areas of your life.

There was a debate going on about the spiritual teachings of people like Eckhart Tolle and how it contradicts with the ideas of being wealthy and attaining material things. Jack answered that question clearly as well. And I will not get into the answer, but I will share with you my personal experience on this. I had read Eckhart Tolle’s books before starting my career change journey, and his books inspired me and gave me the power and strength to make big decisions in my life. However, I have been unemployed and being supported by my father financially ever since I read his books! I even joked about this with a lady from the seminar at the end of our evening. So since I only recently read Jack’s book and have started following his advise, I might start to get results in the near future 🙂

I believe that balance in everything in life is essential. And as long as we can learn how to keep a balance in everything that we do, then we should be alright.

I will end this post by explaining to you the title that I chose for it. Since my neighbor at the time had given me Jack’s book, and since it took me ages to finish reading it, I have written a dedication to my friend who lives on the same floor as me, and intended to give him the book. But luckily I won a ticket to attend the social dinner with Jack and so I got a chance to get Jack’s signature on the same book before giving it to my friend to read it. So now the book has three different dedications by three successful individuals 🙂 Yes, that’s my success story and I’m sticking to it whether I become financially independent or not 😉