#❝ we’ll get along beautifully just don’t touch my things ❞ — promo.

[flavorednarry]

who do you think the album is about then ? his ex secret girlfriend ? 😂

well…. tbh, i’ve never really spared much thought on “which mysterious girl” must’ve influenced those lyrics cuz, i kinda find them relatable to my own breakup.. so for me, it has always been like- hmm.. yeah.. i get it Niall.. thank you for sharing.. hope you get to move on asap cuz you deserve so much better than this.. love you. i guess i personally dont wanna give any importance to the ‘ex’.. what’s more important is the lessons you learn from your experience and how you turn them into your strengths..

but since you’ve followed up with this ask in my inbox, i pondered over it quiet a lot.. and here’s how it went *bear with me*:

to begin with, lets rewind back to when nolo was being concieved.. niall was 22, free from the hectic 1D schedule for the first time in 5 years.. aka the first time he got a real opportunity to reflect back upon his life since that xfactor audition kicked off..

try to place yourself in his shoes and think.. you’re most likely to relish in your achievements for the first few weeks.. then you come down from your high and the reality of a normal life routine hits you.. you try to cope with it for few weeks but get extremely bored.. so you plan a long getaway trip with your friends.. you get to look at the world from a different perspective.. you enjoy it.. maybe you spot honeymooners among fellow tourists.. and wonder.. these locations are indeed so scenic.. wish i too had someone to romance with :) but, YOU DON’T have anyone! oh the woes of being single! anyways.. so here you are having a personal moment, feeling inspired and so you pen down some lyrical notes in your leather-bound book..

you try to look back into your past and think about the time when you had an active lovelife.. NOW, if i think about the known bits of his love-life, only Holly and Celine come to my mind.. sure, there were others who were rumored to be his girlfriends at various points of his 1D (aka mostly teenage) life.. but, hear me out-

CELINE is certainly not the inspiration for Flicker cuz she arrived in June 2016 and Niall started writing songs in March 2016 viz. soon after he came home from his south-east-asia trip.. and according to Niall, he was in a good song-writing phase at that time.. he wrote This Town, Flicker, Too Much To Ask during this phase..

so, let’s think about these lyrics.. he says This Town is obviously inspired by his hometown Mullingar.. and the lyrics have a duality in a sense that you can relate them to the literal town itself or to your ex/first-love.. in Niall’s case, it could easily be Holly.. their relationship was out in the open, all over the internet when they were 16 and he had just hit enormous popularity on txf as a contestant.. if you look further, you’ll find Niall himself stating on television that they mutually broke-up because they didnt wanna endure the pain that came with the long-distance relationship on account of his success at txf..

CUT TO 2016! he’s gone through and lived his popstar life for six years and is now back home, being the same down-to-earth local irish lad but without Holly this time.. the reason they decided to break-up doesnt exist anymore.. and yet, he cant have her back cuz, she’s moved on.. and graciously! he is genuinely happy for her.. they are still in touch with each other through mutual school friends, he spots her every now an then whenever he’s in Mullingar or Dublin.. and why wont he? after all, they used to hangout in the same pubs with same friends back in the day.. and there are- what? 26 pubs within one mile radius in Mullingar? *gasp* you dont say!

so yeah.. imagine him longing for that selfless-innocent love-life.. its only natural for Niall to cookup an au where he can have the same Holly back as his gf..

My heart is hopingYou’ll walk right in tonightAnd tell me there are things that you regret‘Cause if I’m being honest I ain’t over you yetThat’s all I’m askingIs it too much to ask?

He also said

Too Much To Ask

is actually what happened after

Flicker

When you lay there and you’re sleepingHear the patterns of your breathingAnd I tell you things you’ve never heard beforeAsking questions to the ceilingNever knowing what you’re thinkingI’m afraid that what we had is goneThen I think of the startAnd it echoes a sparkAnd I remember the magic electricityThen I look in my heartThere’s a light in the darkStill a flicker of hope that you first gave to meThat I wanna keepPlease don’t leavePlease don’t leave

.. so i guess this could be them thinking of breaking up and him secretly being selfish and hoping (back in 2009) for a future reunion (viz. present day 2016).. he couldnt say that out loud cuz they were so young and he probably thought he’d move on and find someone else so, better not to keep Holly hanging, right?

And now, coming to all those rumored girlfriends he’s had during 1D era.. i dont know about about all of them.. but, amy, ellie, barbara, melissa, selena are few of the names that floated around.. each of them latched on to him most likely due to his fame.. if any of them were indeed dating him seriously, none of them could probably keep up with his vivacious personality, his loyalty towards that anglo-irish friend circle, his constant on-the-road life, etc. that ultimately led to insufficient boyfriend time, which obviously none of them were okay with.. neither would you be if you were a teenager.. so none of those supposed 'girlfriends’ hold dear to niall’s ailing heart imo.. certainly not enough for him to write a break-up song about.. plus, he’s good friends with almost all of them even today (his instagram activity checks that out)..

BUT, maybe he reflected back upon these casual relationships too to look for inspiration when he hit that “bad-song-writing” phase he talks about.. maybe it was during this phase that he realised that he was looking back at his teenage love-life from an “adult” Niall Horan’s point-of-view.. maybe it was during this time that he sat along with other songwriters and bounced off ideas.. maybe it was during this phase that he decided to take a back-seat on the lyrics front and focus on writing melodies instead.. maybe it was during this time that they wrote songs like On the Loose and Mirrors. Maybe this was also the time he remembered watching House of Cards on netflix.. maybe that was when he probably flipped the title and wrote down Paper Houses in his notebook.. and then came across the note during these writing sessions and they wrote the song around it? maybe by now he was in “good” song-writing zone again and thus songs like The Tide and On My Own were born? I remember him saying they wrote On My Own in a frustrated drunken state.. there was a lot of shouting of lyrics in the studio.. they were letting out their frustration with their single-lives and lack of good inspiration i guess LOL..

Anyways, going back to speaking of “Niall Horan - the adult’s perspective”.. i guess this version of Niall was also curious to know whether Holly or any of his ex’s suffered heartbreak the way he did.. he probably wanted to include the girl’s point of view as well on his album, especially after all that venting out they did in previous songs, it’s only fair to hear out stuff about heartbreak from the other end, right? He’s a 21st century lover after all.. believes in equal opportunity.. understands that relationships and heartbreaks are a two way thing.. maybe this is when he really looked up to the talent that is Ruth Anne Cunningham.. cuz, i find it hard to believe that Niall or any man would conjure up lyrics that resonate so well with a girl’s point of view without having a female co-writer on board.. so here we are with beautifully written songs such as Seeing Blind, Fire Away, You and Me and Since We’re Alone ! Also, since we are on the topic of Niall being a gentleman, you cant ignore the lyrical play of words in Slow Hands -

“We should take this back to my place”That’s what she said right to my face

can you? Throughout the slow-hands-promo-tour he has been saying, they wanted to twist the song’s sexy vibe and have those words being said from a girl’s point-of-view..

To conclude, Niall has said in his interviews, there was certainly only one girl who he wrote songs about for his album and then there were other songs which are not derived from his personal life but are more inspired by people he is surrounded by in his day-to-day life.. some of them maybe about ex’s of his friends who share the same sentiment of breakup as he does.. we’ll probably never know their names and I personally dont think I need that bit of information.. what am i going to do about it? nothing.

If you read this thoroughly, thank you for your patience! :)

#niall #flicker

[personaldevelopmentnow]

Blinkist Review – Learn Faster with These Book Summaries

Welcome to my Blinkist review.  This is an App that I wholeheartedly love and recommend to anyone that loves and wants to learn more.  I decided to write this after receiving a couple requests from my readers.  If you haven’t heard of Blinkist, then we’ll start off describing what it is.

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What is Blinkist?

Have you ever wanted to read a book that looked awesome but decided not to because you didn’t have the time or you thought it would take forever to read? Well, Blinkist solves that problem for you.

Blinkist is a service that provides convenient summaries and key takeaways from a huge library of the best selling nonfiction books.  The format is both text and convenient audio.  The audio summaries last for about 15 minutes.

I have personally used this app/ service for 3 years, I love using it while driving to work and on my lunch breaks.  It’s been one of my secrets to learning effectively.

42% is the “Total percentage of college students who will never read another book after they graduate.”

– StatisticBrain.com

Below is our Blinkist Review

The Pros I’ve Noticed

30 Day Money Back Guarantee – No Questions asked – This policy of theirs actually put my fears to rest and made me initially give Blinkist a try. If you don’t like it, email them and simply get your money back.  I’ve been using it for 3 years.

LEARN MORE: Gain key insights without all the fluff and filler.

High Quality Summaries:  These are long, high quality summaries.

QUICKLY DECIDE if a book is worth reading: This is the most valuable way I use this app.  I can easily tell if a book is worth reading more by it’s summary.

SAVE TIME & Learn Faster: Devour only the important information from books. With these Blink summaries, you can now learn more and be time effective and efficient.

AUDIO SUMMARIES – PERFECT for your commute to work:  Along with text summaries, they have audio summaries too. Instead of driving, I’m doing something constructive and productive with my time.

Great if you don’t like reading: Are you one of those people who process information differently?

Ideal if you don’t read fast: Are you a slow reader and big books look like a daunting task? You will consume more content with these summaries.

Become a better version of yourself:  Learning is apart of living. Learn from other people’s experiences and insights. You have one life, why not make the most out of it.

Broad range of Categories:  Blinkist does not disappoint you with a shallow library of categories.  Look at the list above and see most of the categories they have.

OVER 1000 summaries to choose from: I was a little worried about running out of summaries because they might not have enough or that I was going through them too fast.  This is not the case, they have plenty of summaries!

Constantly UPDATED and GROWING:  I’ve been with blinkist for 2 years and they are always adding new summaries to their library. They add 40+ new summaries every month!

Use App or PC:  You can use the Blinkist app on your PC or your smartphone.

Free Version:  They have a free version too!

Extremely Affordable:  If you decide to upgrade from the free version, it’s extremely affordable, or you can just keep going through the free version. I’ll discuss more in my Blinkist review below.

The Cons I’ve Noticed:

Immersion Time – The blink summaries are awesome and very concise, however one slight issue is you don’t have the immersion time like reading a whole book. To remedy this, I tend to listen to the audio summary a couple times so it sticks in my head or I write some notes down and review them. One of the benefits about reading an entire book is that the amount of time you spend with it allows you to remember it more, you are more immersed in it.

The General Nature of Summaries – There is one minor issue that I have found with some summaries / books. It isn’t really an issue per say, but I decided to bring it up anyway.  This has to do with the general nature of summaries and not Blinkist.  For a small amount of books (roughly 10%), the summaries don’t capture ALL of the examples that really make the book.  In other words, It seems that 10% of the books out there are incredible and have gold nuggets on every single page and you can’t really capture it in a summary. One minor downside of Blinkist.

The other remaining 90% of books are filled with fluff which is why I think it’s incredible that there are services like Blinkist out there.

Now, this small issue doesn’t really bother me because I use Blinkist to do two things: ONE, use Blinkist as a screening method to decide which books I would like to buy and read more in depth and TWO, learn fast and effectively. So if I get one of these books with gold nuggets in every page and can’t be perfectly summarized, that’s ok, at least now I know it’s a book that is worthy to pick up and read.

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Blinkist Categories Covered

Entrepreneurship & Small Business

Politics & Society

Marketing & Sales

Science

Health & Fitness

Personal Growth & Self-Improvement

Economics

Biography & History

Communication & Social Skills

Corporate Culture

Management & Leadership

Motivation & Inspiration

Money & Investments

Psychology

Productivity & Time Management

Relationships & Parenting

Blinkist Review – Screenshot of the Blinkist Interface

Screenshot of Blinkist Categories

Who is this for?

Everyone: This is really for everyone who wants to become a better version on themselves or they just enjoy learning valuable information that will help them out in life or give them a new insight. Old, young, doctor, janitor, men, women… on and on.  Knowledge is power.

Commuting to work: Commuting to work is a waste of time in my opinion. My commute is 20 min to work and 20 min back, I absolutely dread it. For some people it’s far worse.  I recently got into audiobooks and then Blinkist.  It’s completely changed my routine and now I’m finally doing something constructive with those wasted minutes that will benefit me.

People who are too Busy: If you’re like me, you have a busy life with working long hours and then trying to spend quality time with family and friends.  You figure out soon that you can’t do everything.

People who read slower:  I’m not a huge speed reader like some people. So reading through a book takes a bit of time, even audio books take a bit of time.

People who love Improving:  I look at it this way, you have one life. Why not make the most out of it?  You make investments in your life all the time, why not start making investments in yourself?  Out of my entire Blinkist Review, this describes me the most.

People who want to learn more: You want to make the most out of your time and learn the most – get the best bang for your buck.

Blinkist Review Score

In this blinkist review, I’ll go over important factors such as Quality, Variety, Interface, Costumer Service, and Overall value.

Content Quality:  The summary quality is very thorough and touches upon all major highlights and keypoints. I’ve tested this by comparing some blinks with actual books I’ve read such as 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. 40+ NEW summaries every month.

Variety of Categories: They have almost have every non-fiction category from Finances, Time Management, Investments, Science, Memory, Speed Reading, Relationships,  Entrepreneurship, Marketing – READ THE FULL LIST SEEN ABOVE

Interface / Organization:  The app and website are beautifully designed and the summaries are well organized and logically make sense.

Voice Quality for Audio Summaries:  Voice quality is top notch and professionally done.  The voices are not annoying like some audio books I’ve ran across.

Costumer Service:  They are very helpful if you run into any problems and get back to you within usually 24 hours in my experience.

Price & Value:  I love this app. And if you give it try, I’m confident you’ll love it too. It helps me save time learning new things and you know the old adage, “time is money”.  The price is very well worth it, I’d actually be happy to pay more.  Blinkist App has three pricing tiers. FREE ($0) – PLUS ($49.99/yr) – PREMIUM ($79.99/yr).

Review Score

Content Quality - 9.5/10

9.5/10

Variety of Categories - 9/10

9/10

Organization - 9.5/10

9.5/10

Voice Quality - 9.5/10

9.5/10

Costumer Service - 9/10

9/10

Price & Value - 10/10

10/10

9.4/10

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And if you break it down, it’s $4 – $8 a month – that’s the price of one coffee per month.  If time is money, and you’re the type who loves improving themselves then this service is really a no brainer.

HOWEVER, don’t pay the full price because it gets better! I’ve negotiated a better price for all Flex Your Brain readers with a HUGE 20% off when you use my link below.  This is only for a limited time.  Anyways, thanks for stopping by, if you have any questions, let me know! I hope you enjoyed my blinkist review.

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I’ve secured a huge 20% discount for my readers! If you want to buy it, Use promo code “FlexYourBrain” at check out when you go through my link. Please let me know if you have any questions regarding my Blinkist review

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