If you read my most recent post on Facebook, you probably know that my blog's recently been flagged as spam by the company for some mysterious reason. And in all honestly, I wasn't feeling great the first day after I found out, if not pretty much freaked out.
As clueless as I was, my insecurities started spiraling through me: What did I do wrong? Did I say something that I wasn't "supposed to"? Until after I did thorough research on Facebook's Community Standards and came to a realization: Wait a minute, this makes no sense, there's nothing about my blog that is against "community standards". What if the problem doesn't come from me but from the algorithm itself?
It is wild how powerful the algorithms of technology are – on the one hand, they are built to protect us and our community and improve our lives, but on the other hand, they have also formed our perception of the truth, even our truth. After a lot of readings, I found out that this bug/error actually happens to a lot of people, especially self-starters and small businesses (recently even to big legitimate news companies like Vox). There are countless events in life that will show up to create doubts in us about our abilities and values. Don't ever let the obstacles and the trembles define you. Own who you are, and know that you are the only one who can write your truest story.
I believe that the most critical skill we need to master in life is to master the art of asking ourselves the right questions, starting with "What do I live for?" It is the one question that I always go back to reflect on and seek clarity in my actions, emotions, and thoughts. When I changed my questions to this, I then realized that my purpose in starting my blog from the start was not so that I could share it on Facebook. It is the tool, but it is not the purpose. My purpose is to help improve the lives of others, and I will do anything that I can with the tools that I have to make it happen. No matter where I am, what I do, or what I am going through, I know I will always strive for it, and I will find the way.
I'm also a massive believer that everything happens for a reason. When this happened, I looked inward to understand what it meant for my personal growth, which I found to be developing my higher sense of empathy with people who are going through the same situation, and whose voices might not have been heard. It also happened as if it almost wanted to shout at my face: "Hey! You fool, look at your long-ass URL. You can’t even type it once without making any mistakes! Jeez."
So... I registered a new URL for my blog and changed it to www.thecqo.com. Turned out, that not only does it bring me so much joy because my website is not blocked anymore, but also because it's a much better URL lol. Had my original URL never been blocked I might never stop to even think of changing it!
I believe that many of us want to make a positive impact in the world, but oftentimes we are also quickly discouraged by our feeling of not being able to "move the needle," because we measure our impact based on instant validation and instant massive-scale results. However, little do we know how massive our true influence is. When we make a positive impact on someone's life, and that person is inspired to make a positive impact on someone else's life, then this person, whom you may never know but is widely well-connected, makes a positive impact on many, many people's lives. Positivity is contagious. Everyone can influence someone. Personally, I like to start with my immediate community – my family, my friends, people whom I work with – because I understand if I transfer my positivity to my dad, for example, he will carry on and positively influence everyone in his company, and they will continue bringing this positivity back to their own family.
It's hard to get bored when we live with a purpose. It will take time for us to figure out what our true purpose in this life is, though, but we will know when we pay close attention to the patterns of our feelings – whether it is a cause that we've been supporting, an idea, or even just the seed of a thought that gives us goosebumps but at the same time gives us tremendous joy.
You will constantly find yourself getting hit by a wall, and most of the time, it is going to be painful. You may even laugh at yourself how on earth you let yourself get hit (if you're like me). But what matters is that you pick yourself up, you see this wall right in front of you, but you choose to look to understand why it is there instead of blaming it. What is it there to teach you? Then you learn, grow, and keep marching forward. Stronger.
And you'll never know that the person who's influenced by that one well-connected person you're not even connected with inspires you directly somehow along the way.
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Thank you guys so much for your endless encouragement and support, especially those of you who were so kind to try to help me resolve my URL-blocking issue. Until Facebook unblocks my old URL, you can still read my blog at www.thecqo.com.
Even though it has been crazy busy to the minute the past weeks, I always make sure that I set aside the time to write. If I can inspire you and help make your life any better, it truly inspires me in return to become better, think deeper, learn more, practice more, and continue sharing what I learn for myself with you guys.
Starting next week, I will also start sharing my recommendations on what I have learned and what I find to be inspiring for myself during quarantine on my IG stories @thecqo – so make sure you check them out! Drop me a note here, like, share, or comment so I know that you’re reading it. I would absolutely love to hear your feedback :)
Also, if your website is ever blocked by Facebook, check out this link:
Hope everyone enjoys the weekend X