Alina Ali

Blog

  • My 3 Goals for 2023

    woman in black jacket sitting beside woman in gray sweater
    Photo by RODNAE Productions on Pexels.com

    Finding your goals are an important part of personal and professional growth. It is more proactive and practical than creating another New Year’s resolution, which would be forgotten about once the first week of January has passed. In this blog, I share my 3 goals for 2023 (and beyond).

    Learn to simplify responsibilities

    Simplifying responsibilities allows for work-based tasks to be easier and more convenient than piling more of them to boost productivity or overload my time with too many unnecessary tasks unrelated to my goals. I have learned that in order to simplify, it is looking for what matters to me most, what I want to gain from completing a certain task and how to say no when I have too much on my plate. The end result that I would like to achieve is a healthy sense of pace and allowing some time to take breaks when needed.

    Spending more time with nature

    Tying with the first point, it’s also important to incorporate some time with nature. Whether going to your local park or exploring the forest, nature is a great way to see new sites and help bring some calm and comfort during tough times. We can very easily spend time indoors, mostly with screens, whether for work or casual browsing. The great outdoors is called great for a good reason, especially during the new year when looking to turn a new leaf, it’s nice to see a landscape for the new year and beyond.

    Find the Silver Lining

    Find happiness in any situation by finding the silver lining. You can decide to be happy because of the good you find. You must choose to look at the good. People often think about the bad first, and they dwell on it. It’s human nature, but if you can look for the good or the silver lining, you will be happier for it. We can learn from any situation or use any situation to better ourselves or humanity. Take that, and we will overcome it all.

  • Why I don’t watch Netflix

    black laptop computer on brown wooden table
    Photo by Antoni Shkraba on Pexels.com

    Whether you are hanging out with your friends or having a water cooler chat with your teammates, there is always that question which revolves around a popular Netflix show. Maybe it’s a hot topic that the show is covering or a particular scene which is emotional. I always feel that there is a tone of monotony that can get quite boring after a while. In this blog, I cover three reasons why I choose not to watch Netflix.

    Losing a sense of focus

    Many people would think that the cost of Netflix would be much more, especially during a cost of living crisis. Entertainment in mass abundance can have its downsides, as you choose comfort over hard work, which would make your problems harder in the future. We also end up watching more than we should, leading to a lack of exercise and tired sense after a marathon of binge-watching shows.

    Depressing content

    You may notice shows with dark lighting, muted visuals, and a sense of sadness. Most content doesn’t offer any value, especially if you’ve had a rough day. This is harmful to those who may not have many networks outside work or school and negatively shapes the worldview. Sadly, it’s the same within our general media, regardless of streaming services or mediums.

    It is addictive

    This ties to the binge-watching nature of the platform, as to see your favourite show in bulk, you would spend four or five hours watching it. Sometimes you may miss a task, and other times you may be in a state of being hooked. There is a certain sense of binge, watching the show at rapid speeds and being the first to do so, as it’s quite addicting and harmful to other aspects of your life. Some of it might be related to social isolation or physical inactivity, which are not good for our health.

  • Why did I become a mentor?

    woman wearing red top holding silver macbook
    Photo by Christina Morillo on Pexels.com

    I believe that mentoring is an excellent way for many professionals to learn more about the world and themselves in a holistic light. Ever since I was assigned my first mentor at my college, the experience has been enlightening and empowering, as I have learned many skills such as communication, creativity and organisation. I have applied many of these skills to my personal and professional life. Here are my three reasons why I chose to be a mentor.

    Empower your mentee

    When you first meet your mentee, you try to understand their pain points, and you’re getting to understand them both as a professional and as a person. At times, you may not feel that you have much to offer to your mentee, but engaging with them during every step of their journey is fascinating. You get an opportunity to see them grow and thrive with the efforts you have provided them with and the knowledge you can pass on to them. It’s the most rewarding aspect of the process when you see them achieve their life goals or they are a step closer to their dream career.

    Practice your leadership skills

    Leadership is a valuable skill within both personal and professional environments. Mentoring is a great way to practice these skills in action. The ability to help others learn and progress will be a crucial skill in your career. You also get an opportunity to build your communication skills and adapt your communication skills to different people in different settings. You also discover your leadership style, which works best for your mentee or your team.

    Learn to see things differently

    It is always important to broaden your horizons both professionally and within your personal life. For instance, your career will see you working with a wide range of people, and it is important that you are able to relate and engage with your teammates. Mentoring is a great way to allow you to engage with people from different age groups and backgrounds who may see personal goals and professional achievements very differently from yourself.

  • Finding Your Authentic Style

    a pretty woman in blue blazer posing
    Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

    Most of us like to find our unique style to represent the best of us, even if we are not stylists or part of the fashion industry. Finding your individual style is dependent on many factors such as climate or function. Other factors such as colours and fabrics also play a role in our style. In this blog, I talk about two steps to finding your authentic style.

    Climate

    Climate plays a massive role in the types of items we choose to wear. For example, in colder climates, many of us would spend more on coats, scarves or gloves. Climate also influences the fabrics we would like to wear in our everyday clothing. Many would think that climate would limit your choices. However, I believe you can use the limitations by experimenting with different colours and styles. The approach I take when it comes to finding a unique style is finding a piece which would last and also is a colour you like to wear for everyday use. I believe that fashion is an experiment for trial and error. See what you can find and when it resonates with you, that is when you know that you have found your perfect piece.

    Function

    Function plays a significant role in our style. This would depend on your work situation; whether you require more formal pieces or if you are working from home, more casual pieces would work best. I believe that function represents the locations which you would like to attend and the type of workforce you work for. For instance, if you have an office-based job with hybrid working patterns, you may alternate between T-shirts and jeans or sweatshirts and jogging bottoms. Function forms a central part of finding your style, seeing which pieces you use the most, and experimenting with them by adding more colours or different fabrics. Remember, the style playground is yours. You can use style magazines as a base template and build on it as you go along.

    Good luck!

  • Why our nostalgia obsession needs to go?

    man in crew neck shirt
    Photo by Athena on Pexels.com

    We all think about the good old days when things used to be simpler and times used to be more memorable. This might be a period during a time where you may have achieved more success or where you had fewer responsibilities. However, relying on nostalgia has become an exhausting practice in many facets of our lives, including within the tv and music we consume, which also partially influences our broader beliefs about the current world. In this blog, I talk about three reasons why I think our obsession with nostalgia needs to go.

    Overlooks present achievements

    This is quite a tragic blind spot to have when you are riding the nostalgic wave. It can be easy to ignore the current achievements we might be making within the fields of science, music or a business model. The accomplishments of our present help us to prepare for the successes of our future as well as rectify previous failures to help build a new future. It also creates a diminished approach and a diminished sense of celebration towards the current milestones we have achieved.

    Provides a regressive vision of the world

    I think about it this way, in the past, if we were glued to nostalgia regularly, would we be able to develop and build today’s world. Most likely, the answer would be no. Nostalgia keeps people behind and focuses on the replication of the past era rather than embracing new ideas and preparing for the challenges of the future. How are we going to be able to build a successful, robust future for ourselves when we are looking behind constantly. Because of this, we become focused on building an archaic model that no longer fits our current society.

    It is addictive

    Strangely, an emotional experience can be addictive. But nostalgia is everywhere. Every facet needs to have a nostalgic style, whether through movies, music or culture in general. During rough times, nostalgia can provide us with positive emotions and a sense of optimism and comfort. However, it does leave an aftertaste as you realise that a particular era is no longer the present. It’s also an idealised fantasy of the past. This leads to the nostalgic feelings becoming more and more powerful during times of stress caused by watching a news clip, reading a news article or finding a tragic event.