The silver lining of having my Instagram account hacked...

So as many of you will be aware (as I seem to keep going on about it!)...I was hacked! (roll eyes emoji)

My Instagram account was overtaken by a bitcoin bullsh#!*er, using my name, photos and contacts to start private conversations with my family and friends promoting bitcoin and the lifestyle that I had apparently gained through it!

Interestingly though, the lifestyle did look tempting and is not far from the future I've been working on manifesting for myself (although I think I'd be more likely to buy a luxury campervan than a house!)

At first I saw this as an annoyance, another thing that needed my time and attention and to sort out! And the timing felt just perfect of course (insert sarcastic tone), just as I had finished my website and had been waiting to launch INJOYU Coaching and unleash a barrage of posts and photos and updates onto social media after being silent for so long...my main social media source was suddenly not available to me.

Now, I know I probably could have contacted a few people, paid some money and recovered the account eventually.  I also could have stayed in that initial urgh! feeling of annoyance and allowed it to grow into frustration, anger and further bitterness.  Ruminating about why these people do such things and how unfair it is, and basically let it ruin my day or even my week.

However, when I sat with it and reflected and let the initial reaction of annoyance subside rather than feeding it, I was able to respond. Allowing this meant I was able to look at the situation with more clarity, for what it was and what I could do about it, and furthermore understand what I actually wanted to do about it.

And you know what...there was the realisation that it was probably the best thing that could have happened!

And here peeps, was the silver lining...

What seemed like complete wrong timing, was in fact the perfect timing! (and I swear it's moments like this that makes me believe that the universe is listening & working on our side)

Who was I kidding...I hadn't posted on Instagram in over a year.  I had every single one of those photos saved, so what had I really lost?

My website had been ready for a few months and I had been procrastinating like crazy in launching it, getting started on business plans and marketing and basically getting myself out there and walking the walk. But to be kind to myself, I had had a fair amount of distractions...packing up my life of over 6 years in Turkey into 2 suitcases and moving to a new country and culture altogether that I had never been to, in the midst of saying goodbye to friends there, saying hello to friends and family in UK in between countries, to only say goodbye again there also. It was all quite a whirlwind and a huge distraction away from the big plans I had business wise.  It's fair to say anyone probably would have found it difficult to do all of that as well as progress forward with a business launch at the same time, so I did give myself space and time also to settle into things in Vietnam. (Maybe I will blog about this another time...how to transition through big life changes, moving countries etc.)

HOWEVER...I knew deep down once I had got here that I was avoiding taking the steps I needed to take to get things moving.  What was a perfectly logical and understandable excuse was no longer feeling valid.  One could say that I was being hard on myself given the circumstances (and thank you to those close to me who listened and validated me in that space), but I knew deep down that I was avoiding taking those steps forward that I needed to make to get things moving.  A part of me was afraid to put it out there, to get things rolling...but why? It's something that I want, it's something I have been working towards, dreaming of in fact. So why delay?

(Well, I did actually come to my conclusion about that after some deep reflection, soul searching and research into procrastination and the true meaning behind it...but maybe that's another blog post!)

What being hacked did for me is it gave me a jolt, a slap or a kick up the bum as you may say.  

In my unorganised, half-arsed plans for marketing up until that point I had been tussling with whether to start a new Instagram account altogether for the business or somehow transition my current account into the business one that I wanted/needed.  But I never came to a conclusion, I just kept putting it off of course!

So

Silver lining number one...

My account being hacked made that decision for me! I no longer had that account, and I thought, if I hadn't used it for so long and was thinking of starting a new one anyway, why would I go to all that trouble and pay to have it recovered? I could start afresh, just like I have in my life.

Silver lining number two...

It forced me to break out of my 'no social media comfort zone' as I had to post on Facebook to warn people that I had been hacked and to not take the bait of the Bitcoin Bullsh!#*ers.  It made me actively go onto social media in the attempts to get my account taken down.

Silver lining number 3...

I started to connect with people again on social media and realised it wasn't such a scary place after all, actually I was grateful for people's support in helping me report the problem and realised how much support I have out there. So this thing that was holding me back, didn't seem so daunting anymore.

So I just needed to act right?

And I did....eventually.  

It still took me some time as I wanted to make sure I was ready to take it all on...so in the true nature of procrastination I felt I needed to get Christmas and New Year out of the way first , as of course it would have been far too much to set up a new Instagram account in that time (there's the sarcasm again!).  

It would appear that I waited until the new year on purpose to launch the website etc.  That it was all planned that way, you know with the New Year New Me or New Start phase.  But in all honesty, that was never my intention.  

I had such a good day on New Year's day that I decided to wake up the next day and not do my usual slow morning routine.  I decided to get up and leave the house early at the same time my partner leaves for work and go to work from a coffee shop.  It was there that I was inspired to Write the 'New Year New You?' blog.

And it was the responses I got from sharing that blog that spurred me on to set up the Facebook business account and a new Instagram account that very day.

So firstly, thank you to those who are reading this blog and to those who read and responded to my last one.  For those who read my posts and checked out my website (I could not believe how many people did from just that one post!).  Thank you all for your kind words, support and feedback. You were that last ignition to turn that initial spark into the fire that I needed to take action on a desire that has been burning away underneath for me for a while.

It has all made me wonder why I hadn't done this sooner...but really deep down I do know why, but I am grateful for the here and now and how things have turned out.

And I could say thank you to the Bitcoin Bullsh#!*ers for starting this whole thing in motion...but really it's not them I need to be grateful for.  It is my ability to find a silver lining in any given personal crises (something that can be learned, cultivated and practiced).  It's always there if you look for it, but you have to choose to look for it, actively make a choice to do so and not succumb to emotional based reaction and take a breath to respond with more clarity.  You can take action to make necessary changes wherever needed, for a more joyful life.

Every cloud has a silver lining as they say....

*Photo taken by myself from a moving Jeep at Kruger National Park, South Africa.