I’ve been having having a lot of fun playing around and creating Subway art lately. The sky is the limit and it’s fast and easy! Here’s one of my first tries, I’ll be sure to post more.
Be the Change…
March 5, 2012 By
This is one of my favorite quotes. It really is simple, but has profound meaning. It actually took me some time and experience to even understand the impact of this message. Sometimes we feel like we wish people in our lives (or the world) would act a certain way or be a certain way. It can be frustrating. We wish and we hope certain people would change and it doesn’t happen.
The empowerment occurs when you embrace the knowledge that the change begins with you. You can’t change people, they have to change themselves. When you let that go, it’s liberating! All you have control over is yourself.
Organizing: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Turns Pretty
March 4, 2012 By
I love the thought of being completely organized at home. It’s really exciting, but when it comes down to it I find it hard to commit to taking my precious down time to clean a closet – you know what I mean? I’m a coach, so I know full well that I’m making excuses, but I just don’t make it happen.
I went back to work full time last year which was a bit of an adjustment. Even while I was home with my daughter for 10 years, I was always working part time and running my own business. So, working wasn’t necessarily an adjustment, but working out of the home, full time and a generous commute was.
Luckily, I have an incredibly supportive husband who basically jumped in and did everything that needed to get done. We hired back a cleaning service, but he does everything else; laundry, getting my daughter to school (making her lunch), toting her around, the yard work and on and on. (YES! I really do know how supremely lucky I am!) It makes my life so much easier right now to know that I can come home at the end of a long day and we can all just spend quality time together.
So, I know my house is clean (our cleaning service is amazing!), but I have these nagging projects that I just never seem to do. I mean, I would much rather have fun with my family on the weekends or my days off than clean a closet. I’m sure you can relate!
Anyway, one of my good friends recently started selling for Thirty One Gifts. I had heard of Thirty One a little over a year ago and was always very curious. I had a party with my friend last month and became instantly hooked!
Of course, I love purses, so one of my favorite items is the skirted purse. Isn’t it super cute?!
I am really picky when it comes to handbags, but have to say that I am in love with this one! It’s the perfect size for what I need to carry, but is not too heavy which can often be the case with some of my bags.
I absolutely love this bag’s fashion versatility. These two bags have the very same base, the covers (and cute flower pins) simply cover a plain black bag. They easily switch out with a hook and eye attachment in less than a minute. I love different looks (easily) and this totally fits the bill! Ok, so I digress – back onto the topic of organization…
Beyond the cute fashion stuff, Thirty One offers many great products to use for organizing and a funny thing happened after I got my order, I was motivated to organize!
One Sunday morning, my husband and I opened the doors under the kitchen sink and started to dump things. (I guess I should have taken a before picture, but I’m sure you can probably imagine what it looked like). Needless to say, I was beyond excited that 1) We actually took the time to do this project (which was literally 20 minutes) and 2) It looks so pretty! I mean, who gets excited to open the cabinets under the kitchen sink? Well, now I do!
This little success has me totally motivated to continue with these little projects throughout the house. So, here is another…
As a hostess, I was able to purchase a hostess exclusive. I went right for the XXL Utility Tote, because, at an incredibly reduced price of $40 I thought it was a super deal – although I had no idea what I was going to do with it!
I decided to use it to organize my yarns and projects for all of my crochet. The first picture shows all of my projects, scraps, and yarns and the other shows them neatly stored in the bottom of my *newly* organized hall closet! I love this piece so much that I put together another small catalog show to get another. The second will be used to organize scarves, hats, and gloves. I can’t wait to get it and keep organizing!
Ok, so that’s it for now (I’ll post more pictures as I continue to organize!)
The moral of the story – whatever motivates you to get it done – just go with it! I felt such a sense of accomplishment and energetic relief to work through my blocks and get things done!
Reflection:
What kind of blocks are you experiencing in your life? What’s holding you back? What can you do to break through?
Passion, Purpose, & the Power of Positivity
January 22, 2012 By
How do you show up in your life each day?
I show up big, bold, and ready to rock. Do I have bad days? Sure I do, but they don’t have me.
When my husband and I started kicking around the idea of me ‘going back to work’ a year and a half ago, it was exciting, yet scary for me. Now, I wasn’t scared because of what you would think the normal reasons would be. I was scared because I knew I needed to align my passion and my purpose where ever I was working. How would I find this? I really didn’t know.
I knew managing social media for an insurance company wouldn’t fuel my fire or my passion. Quite the opposite, I knew it would dull my light.
Through my journey, I just believed. I was picky. I didn’t send out a lot of resumes or apply for a lot of jobs (actually only four). When my answer showed up one day, it was like a gift from the universe. I knew I had my answer and I ultimately manifested the very thing that I wanted. A job that I love, working for a company that I believed in so passionately. It really was a dream come true! My passion and my purpose were aligned with my work. I far exceeded my goal and was ready to take on new ones in this new chapter of my life.
When you do work that you love and you believe in – it doesn’t feel like work, even on days when you are working hard and multitasking like crazy. When you work from this place, it becomes wildly contagious. Your energy is like a light for others. Now, it’s not something that you can see, but it’s something that you just feel.
You see, I am an optimist. I see the opportunity in every challenge. I always look for the lesson and the opportunity for me to grow in any situation.
So, how does passion and purpose show up and align in your life each day? Do you look for opportunities no matter how they appear in your life?
Monday Motivation: The Open Mind
January 16, 2012 By
I actually found this quote in my Twitter stream last week and really loved it. An open mind is an incredibly powerful thing. When your mind is open, you are able to receive – it’s that simple.
How about you? Do you have an open mind? Do you feel that you’re open to whatever life brings your way?
When you actually accept that life will bring you challenges and won’t be perfect – it’s liberating. Be open, take in every experience – the good and the bad – you are meant to experience it all! Always be open to finding the lesson and the value in every experience and see what you can attract into your life!
Baby Steps to Success
January 4, 2012 By
Success is not instant, it’s achieved from an ongoing repeated process. It is attained by the small steps we take each and everyday – the good ones and the bad ones. Consistency, resiliency, tenacity.
A New Year and New Goals – Empower Yourself to Create Different Results
January 2, 2012 By
With each New Year comes the promise of a clean slate, an easy way to ‘start over’ and renew. We want to commit to those things that fell by the wayside in the year prior. We get excited and motivated, but after the glow of the holidays is gone – it’s back to our normal routine, the daily chaos sets in, we have good days and bad days and we lose site of that New Year promise.
Don’t beat yourself up, it happens – it’s life. How can you ensure that you have accountability and follow through with your inspired New Year’s Goals so that you can ultimately achieve the results you desire?
Grab yourself a notebook and take some time to reflect on the following:
1. Is your resolution realistic, specific and achievable? What about your strategy for achieving it? Simply saying, “I want to lose weight” isn’t specific enough.
- How much weight do you want to lose? Be really specific. Take that total amount and break it down even further, by the week or by the month – whatever makes sense for you.
- How do you want to change your diet? Go gluten free? Eliminate sugar? Or simply make sure you commit to your daily water in take.
- What is your plan for exercise? How often and what? Does Zumba make you happy, simple walks clear your mind? Make it fun for you to ensure you will stick with it.
The key is to be really specific and make your goals realistic. To say you are going to go from never working out to working out 7 days a week – 2 hours a day is probably not realistic. Remember, start small and commit – when you see results you will be truly empowered and can ramp up your goals even further.
2. How can you keep your goals top-of-mind? Write down your goals in a journal. Be sure to really reflect on how it would feel to achieve this goal. How would you physically feel? What would you look like? How would you feel emotionally? Visualize yourself in this space of achieving success!
Post-it notes are another fun and simple way to keep your goals (and encouraging thoughts top-of-mind). You can place these on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator, and in your car. The more repetition the better! Set reminders on your phone to keep yourself in check. When your goals are visible, you’re more likely to take action, follow through and hold yourself accountable.
3. How about accountability? This piece is HUGE, so do not leave it out! Who in your life can hold you accountable? This could be your spouse, a friend, a co-worker, or a coach.
Think about an NFL quarterback, he isn’t just out there on the field alone winning games. He studies, practices and works with numerous coaches and teammates.
An accountability partner can cheer with you when you have success, but then encourage you and empathize with you when you are down. This is a sounding board for you to express your challenges and struggles, but also share your successes.
4. Begin & End the Day with a Positive Mindset. Condition yourself to commit to re-affirming your goal before your feet even hit the floor for the day. Set the intention to create the results you desire each and everyday. How do you want to feel for the day? What thoughts do you want to have to help you achieve your goal?
On the flip side, end your day in a similar fashion, but celebrate your successes. Have a challenging day? Yeah! These are the days where we have the opportunity for the most growth. In the challenging times, really reflect on the positive that you can take from the situation and turn that challenge into an opportunity for growth. The lesson is there, I swear!
5. Be Flexible and Cut Yourself a Break. Give yourself permission to be flexible and tweak things as you go. It’s better to realize that you need to make change and adjust than to give up altogether.
A football team that goes into half time down 21 – 0 certainly doesn’t come out and not make half time adjustments. They get a ‘pep talk’ (ok a BIG one) and make the necessary adjustments. You can, too! It’s okay!
Seeing your New Year’s Goals through is absolutely possible! Just apply the above strategies: make it realistic, specific, and achievable, keep your goals top-of-mind, find an accountability partner, work on your mindset, and be flexible!
Put these into practice and you will be well on your way to your best year yet – full of success, growth, and satisfaction.
You can do it!
Happy New Year!
January 1, 2012 By
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day. ~Edith Lovejoy Pierce
I always find the New Year to be exciting – like a blank book, but at the same time slightly overwhelming with a full blank year ahead. Can you relate?
Each year (which seems to go faster and faster these days), is full of possibility, excitement and heart break. It’s just the way it goes – the good with the bad. We will never be free from challenging times - it’s an important part of the process. We are all intended to go through a myriad of emotional experiences throughout our lives – it’s just the way we grow. Taking the good from the bad.
I had a conversation recently with a friend about my philosophy of challenges being opportunities. When I fully embraced this, it changed my life! Guess what? Life is challenging no matter who you are, where you live, or how much money you have. It’s what you do with the gift of opportunity (whether easy or challenging) when you get it.
So, I challenge you to make this year different. When a challenge comes your way this year (and it will!) really think about how many ways you can take it and make it an opportunity to grow and change your life!
The Magic of Giving and Receiving this Holiday Season
December 26, 2011 By
Ok, so I have been MIA from all of my blogs for a good part of this year. All with good reason – but more on that later…
For this purpose, I just felt compelled to write.
Throughout the holiday season I have received text messages, e-mails, and phone calls about our Christmas Card. I received an e-mail from a wonderful friend telling me that she does not want to hang our Christmas Card with the others, yet carry it around with her in her purse so that she can share it with people and have it with her at all times. Another old family friend, who has had some personally challenging times over the past several years, left a message that literally brought me to tears. The joy, gratitude, and gift our card gave him came pouring out through his message. A simple act – yet such a tremendous impact.
I’m literally blown away by this magic. It should come as no surprise, however as I believe and embrace this ‘magic.’ To me it’s the simplicity of the process of giving and receiving which oddly enough often gets over complicated. It’s not about the gifts or the material things this time of the year (or any time), but these simple acts that can create such a difference magically.
I truly believe that I am a change maker. Now, when I say that – I don’t mean that I’m going to occupy anything or solve world hunger, but I can contribute and make a difference in any way I know how – small and subtle yet rippling out to create a pool of change.
How can you embrace this magic from the holiday season all year long and be a change maker in your own life?
