6 Ways To Avoid Blogging Burnout And Stay Inspired

Posted on 11 October 2018 by Mabel Kwong

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Blogging burnout happens. It is real and common among many bloggers.

You could be a regular blogger, blogging consistently with a lot of passion. Then one day blogging burnout hits you. You feel a lack of motivation and unfocused each time you sit down to blog.

You wonder where something will take you. The Killers, Melbourne 2018.

You can’t find inspiration to blog.

You feel drained engaging with your blogging community and tired of marketing your content. Blogging less and less creeps up on you.

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Differences Between Work-Life Balance In Eastern And Western Cultures

Posted on 16 November 2017 by Mabel Kwong

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When it comes to work-life balance, Asian and Western cultures usually have different ways of discovering it.

For many years in Australia, I’ve juggled working a day job, chasing a writing career and making time for things on the personal and home front. Sometimes it feels like I’ve got too many things work and play-wise to do.

Work to play or play to work. Or both | Weekly Photo Challenge: Experimental.

Finding a work-life balance is arguably about juggling needs and wants. According to Safework SA, work life balance is ‘the relationship between your work and the commitments in the rest of your life, and how they impact on one another’. Finding a work-life balance often means organising time for things you want to do, and have to do whether you like it or not because it may impact the former and vice-versa – and trying to discover that ever elusive feeling called satisfaction all round.

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5 Valuable Lessons I Learned From 5 Years Of Blogging

Posted on 12 October 2017 by Mabel Kwong

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It’s been five years since I started this blog. Five years of blogging about multiculturalism and cultural habits.

The path of art and passion isn’t always the easiest. | Weekly Photo Challenge: Scale.

This blog started out as a place to put up articles I’ve written, articles knocked back by dozens of publications I pitched to. Today this blog is a space helping many around the world understand cultural differences.

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Art vs. Science: Why I Don’t Regret Choosing Writing Over A Career In Numbers

Posted on 8 June 2017 by Mabel Kwong

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Art or science? That’s a choice we might have to make at some point in our lives, maybe when we’re deciding what to study. Or choosing our career. Or deciding on which passion path to take.

Art is commonly thought of as abstract work, work that doesn’t always follow particular patterns, work open to interpretation. Think the fields of writing, music, painting, photography. On the other hand, science is commonly associated with logic and grounded in rational thinking, Think the fields of astronomy, accounting, law, medicine.

Choose what you love. Do What you love Lindsey Stirling, Melbourne, Australia 2017. | Weekly Photo Challenge: Order.

I was good at both in school. But it wasn’t until much later in life that I decided to focus on becoming a non-fiction writer.

Art or science? What we want in life often plays a part in which we choose, and it’s a choice that shapes who we are.

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5 Challenges Of Being A Non-Fiction Writer, Blogger And Published Book Author

Posted on 23 February 2017 by Mabel Kwong

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Writing non-fiction isn’t easy. Like any craft, it’s never short of challenges. But with non-fiction writing, there’s constantly the challenge to actually keep doing it and achieve something with it.

Recently I published a chapter in a compilation self-help book (more on this at the end of the post). The timing of it comes on the back of my fifth year as a non-fiction, multicultural blogger.

The challenges as an artist are endless. So are the possibilities.

Non-fiction writing involves telling stories about the real world, telling true stories. The narratives provide commentary on everyday events, the everyday experiences we see, feel and go through. Sharing and educating others on the finesses of the world, to enlighten about reality, is what many non-fiction writers aim to do.

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How To Shatter And Challenge Cultural Stereotypes In The Creative Sense

Posted on 10 December 2015 by Mabel Kwong

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There are times when cultural stereotypes hold us back from going after our dreams and creative passions. As an Asian Australian of Chinese descent, I’ve often felt this way. But then there are also times when we somehow find the strength and spark of courage to challenge expectations that we have of ourselves, and the expectations others have of us.

For a long time, I struggled to call myself a writer. My migrant Malaysian parents encouraged me to pay more attention to maths and science subjects at school – and I did and was much better at them than English. Today, I have written a blog.

I see someone out there. Florence and the Machine, Melbourne 10 November 2015 | Weekly Photo Challenge: Eye Spy.

Culture needn’t be a barrier towards what we can achieve if we have self-belief. Finding that self-belief, however, usually means standing up to what we’ve always believed in.

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