Category Archives: Personal Improvement

Keep the water OUT of your boat!

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So happy 2021 everyone!  And, although the world doesn’t really feel any different, I think I feel a little different.  I feel an excitement rising up inside of me that I haven’t felt in a while.  Because as hard as I tried to not let the proverbial water of COVID and politics and restrictions and separation get into my boat, it seeped in just the same.  And as they say, it’s not the water around the boat that sinks it; it’s the water that gets inside.

So, I’m starting to bail out that water.  And, how I am doing that is to sit down and start writing down my goals, to get quiet and set my word for the year, to calm down the “should” responses in my life, and to really create the life I choose to have every single day and not just for some day in the future.  The future is now, right?  It’s definitely time to really take the reins of my life and not keep handing them off to someone else.  What do I want?

Doing all of this is not easy, folks.  It takes work.  It takes practice. Just like with everything else that’s important in life, you must do the work through continued practice.  According to Bob Ross, yes, Bob Ross the painter who taught us all to oil paint on PBS back in the 70s, “Talent is a pursued interest.  Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.”  I love this.  I live by these words.

And so I will practice keeping the water out of my proverbial boat.  I will practice living in the moment.  I will practice taking time to listen to my heart and my body.  I will practice my faith.  Because here is the secret “they” don’t want you to know . . . it’s not a one and done deal.  You don’t just sit down and write out everything and then just go back to your everyday existence and wait for it all to just manifest.  Nope.  You practice every day.  That’s the work.  You create your life every single minute.

And, truth be told, some of those minutes in my life, I’ve been asleep at the wheel.  Now, with the New Year ahead, I’m awake again and ready to get busy.  What about you?  What are you doing?  I hope you are coming out of hibernation and dancing in the sun!  

Reading Dinosaurs

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I have a saying on my letter board at home to celebrate back-to-school, which reads, “Dinosaurs didn’t read.  Now they’re extinct.  Coincidence?”  I placed these letters on the board to be funny and to be a little serious, too.  Reading is important.  Reading from points of view outside of your own is what makes it important.  If you only read books by authors who you can completely relate to on every level, you might be entertained, but you won’t learn anything. 

Oh, usually reading is for our entertainment though, right?  And, even then, hopefully you learn something – a point of view from a character you never considered before, a situation you hadn’t imagined before.  Fiction or non-fiction, it doesn’t matter really.  Fiction is just made-up circumstances about made-up characters, but all come from the mind of the author, and therefore their experiences with life and people.

I find that the most memorable books I read are the ones about topics I don’t know much of anything about or that are written by people who live very different lives from my own.  These are the books I learn something from.  Like having a great teacher in school – they stand out for you because they move you toward a higher version of yourself.  They teach you something.

And, here’s the most interesting part of reading books, either with characters vastly different from you or by an author who has had a vastly different life experience than you have:  at some level, you will be able to relate.  And right there is where the magic happens.  This is truly the tie that binds.

That’s how it was for me with the book, Untamed by Glennon Doyle.  Here is an author with a very different life experience from me.  But, on some very important levels, I found our common ground.  And because of that, I could better respect her point of view on the things I see a bit differently.  It’s a “live and let live” thing, based on respect for individual perspective. And that, to me, can be taught effectively through reading.

Who knows?  Maybe dinosaurs did read!  If so, I suspect they only read books about themselves. Maybe if they’d branched out a bit in the science perspective? LOL! We’ll never know for sure.

For Me, Fall Begins September 1st!

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Oh, it’s happening!  I’ve made the official proclamation in my house that fall begins on September 1st this year.  Usually I wait until the temperatures are lower, fall decor is everywhere, or at least until after the first Razorback football game.  But this year?  I’m taking charge.  I need a change.  And so, I’m putting Harvest Blend essential oil in my diffuser, drawing a pumpkin on the chalkboard, and getting the show on the road.  It all started when my Country Living magazine arrived in the mail this weekend, and I became somewhat giddy at the sight of pumpkins and “Creativity” splashed across the cover.

Country Living Cover

And, like a bear coming out of hibernation, I saw the light . . . my answer.  Fall is my absolute favorite season, and since it’s almost here, why not just hurry it along a bit!  So, to get up-to-speed, let’s start our fall education, shall we?  Perfect for back-to-school I think!  How about a little game of “Did you know . . .” to get the party started!

  1. Did you know that it takes 36 apples on average to create a gallon of cider?
  2. Did you know that 90% of pumpkins grown in the US are raised within a 90-mile radius of Peoria, Illinois?
  3. Did you know that the tradition of carving pumpkins originated in Ireland? The Irish would carve jack-o-lanterns out of turnips to scare evil spirits during the Celtic holiday, Samhain, the night when spirits of the dead would walk the earth.
  4. Did you know that autumn babies, or those born between September and November, are more likely to live to 100 than those who were born in other times of the year?
  5. Did you know that each fall, the Black-capped Chickadee’s tiny hippocampus enlarges by 30%, which enables it to remember where it collected seeds in different spots in trees and on the ground?
  6. Did you know that while Americans typically use the word “fall,” the British use the word “autumn,” though both terms date from around the 16th Century?  Before these terms, the period was called “harvest.”
  7. Did you know the word “harvest” comes from the Old Norse word “haust,” which means “to gather or pluck”?  As people moved to the cities, “harvest” fell out of use and the city dwellers began to use “fall of the leaf,” which was shortened to “fall.”
  8. Did you know that while heart attacks and car accidents increase after the start of daylight savings time in the spring, that the opposite is true for the end of it in the fall?  Heart attacks and accidents decrease the Monday after daylight savings time ends.
  9. Did you know that a study in the journal Perception noted that men think women are more attractive in the cooler season?
  10. Did you know that according to superstition, catching leaves in autumn brings good luck?  Every leaf caught means a lucky month in the next year.
  11. Did you know that Americans consume about 600 million pounds of Hershey bars, lollipops, Milk Duds, Twizzlers and Clark bars as Halloween candy?
  12. AND, did you know that each autumn, monarch butterflies migrate from the US to Mexico and some parts of Southern California?  They fly at speeds ranging between 12 and 25 miles per hour.  Monarch butterflies are the only insect that migrates to a warmer climate which is 2500 miles away.

 

You’re Ready Right NOW!

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Steal Like An Artist

I was perusing the Barnes & Noble website some months back, (a dangerous activity for me for sure!) when  I came upon a selection of books for writers and creatives.  And right then and there, I plummeted  down the rabbit hole!  I can certainly lose myself for a good long time reading titles, descriptions, reviews and the “those who purchased this also purchased this” recommendations.  In the end, of course, I ordered MORE books!

Oh, I love SO much when my order comes in the mail!  It reminds me of when, as a kid, I used to get to order books from the Scholastic something or other at school.  I’d bring home the little catalog and I’d get to pick a few books.  When they arrived, I was SO excited.  Very similar to now when my Barnes & Noble order is on my porch when I get home from work!

So, one of the books I got is called Steal Like An Artist – 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon.  This little book is full of gems for the creative or wannabe creative.  On the list of the 10 Things, #2 is: Don’t wait until you know who you are to get started.  This really got my attention.  I have waited on things.  True confessions.  I have tried for years to decide who I am.  Am I a writer?  Am I an artist?  Am I a crafter?  Am I a graphic designer?  Am I a farmer?  The answer?  YES!  I’m all of those.  The revelation from this tome?  I don’t have to wait to find out who I am.  I just have to DO.

Here’s a little excerpt from this book.  Let me remind you, this doesn’t just apply to artists, writers, creative sorts.  This applies to e v e r y o n e.  Making and Doing are one in the same if you think about creating your life – however that looks.  So here’s what Austin writes:

If I’d waited to know who I was or what I was about before I started “being creative,” well, I’d still be sitting around trying to figure myself out instead of making things.  In my experience, it’s in the act of making things and doing our work that we figure out who we are.

You might be scared to start.  That’s natural.  There’s this very real thing that runs rampant in educated people.  It’s called “impostor syndrome.”  The clinical definition is a “psychological phenomenon in which people are unable to internalize their accomplishments.”  It means that you feel like a phony, like you’re just winging it, that you really don’t have any idea what you’re doing.

Guess what:  None of us do.  Ask anybody doing truly creative work, and they’ll tell you the truth:  They don’t know where the good stuff comes from.  They just show up to do their thing.  Every day.

I’m always moved by ways people find out who they are.  I like this.  A lot.

Waking Up to a New Moon

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New Moon Goals

As I am writing this post, it is a new moon.  I read yesterday that the time of a new moon is an especially good time to update your goals, set intentions and just start moving forward with doing some new things.  And, after I read that, I thought, How long has it been since I actually wrote down some goals?  Updated my vision board?  Just really considered what my dreams are for the future?   Well, I’ll tell you; it’s been a long freakin’ time!

Now, I don’t know if it’s “the corona” that has me off of my game, but I think it’s time to re-set.  And, apparently there is no better time for a re-set than on and around a new moon.  Makes perfect sense.

So, I got out one of my 50,000 journals I’ve bought over the years – OK, maybe I don’t have that many, but I buy multiples each year with the intention to write in them and never do, so I’ve accumulated a few for sure!  So, I got one out and started making a quick list off the top of my head of intentions I have for this fall.  I just decided to start there, because setting big sweeping long-range goals seemed very daunting.  I’m a bit out of practice.

Here’s basically what I wrote down:

  1. Start doing 30 minutes of dedicated exercise every day.  Now, I have a FitBit and try to walk more than 6000-7000 steps a day, but that’s just playing at exercise and I know it.  Time to set a goal and get serious.
  2. Make a weekly blog post. This one is so weird because I LOVE blogs and, of course, I have a blog.  I like to write and share with the world, but I haven’t made a new blog post (as you can see) in over a year.  OVER A YEAR!  What is up with that?
  3. Change my work schedule to have Tuesday afternoons off.  This is difficult, because I work full time.  And, changing my beliefs about that seems a bit scary to me.  I have put a lot of my worth onto my dedication to my work.  And, some of my feelings about that are changing.  I’ll start small on this one, because really it’s big beneath the surface of my life.
  4. Get the outside of our house painted. A new color.  A big change.  Painting the whole house black.  (It’s really going to ROCK!)
  5. Clean out our garage and shed and only save the things I love.  You can learn more about my new cleaning out philosophy by reading The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo.
  6. Get more serious about the book I’ve started writing by writing on it each week.   I’m starting with this once-a-week thing, because right now my writing is feast or famine.  I write and write and write for a couple of days, and then I don’t write for a month.  My short range goal is to work on it consistently – one afternoon a week.
  7. Rekindle my love of photography.  Take little photography journeys this Fall.  I have a new camera even!

So, these are my intentions.  I could burn a little sage tonight, light a candle and read them out loud if that helps – I’m certainly open to those new ideas as well.  Has it been a while since you put your intentions, goals and dreams down on paper?  It’s a new moon! It might be time!

 

One Bite at a Time!

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Izzy and her elephantHappy New Year everyone! We had a whirlwind holiday around here. We were very blessed to have the family together and I just enjoyed being with everyone, playing games, shopping, cooking, playing with my fur babies and even a little crafting. What I didn’t do? I didn’t take the time I usually do to clean out, re-organize and set new goals. I did a new day planner, mapping out all our events, but I haven’t taken a look at what I choose to bring into my life this year! And honestly, when I came back to work last Tuesday, I started to panic a bit about it. I felt instantly behind!  When I was catching up on blogs I follow, it seemed everyone else had taken the time to clean out, reorganize and write down their goals. Of course, just like with social media, only the best foot comes forward to read about and see! (I certainly had to take a breath and remind myself of that though!)

I think the pressure to get everything done for the holidays (that I put on myself mind you!) has lingered on into this new year. I’m realizing now that I need to just stop the crazy! There is no time limit on cleaning out, organizing and setting my goals. These things should be ongoing, not just something done the first week of January.

Boom!

And that, my friends, is my epiphany for 2018! I tend to live my life in projects – everything starting with an idea, moving through a plan and then being completed. But, you know? I’m not sure everything is that cut and dry.

It’s a delicate balance though. You must take action and do the work in order to move forward toward your goals. And, you must keep moving forward. Many, many things you end up doing each day don’t propel you forward. The trick, I think, is to establish that balance of things you do for others and things you do for yourself. Both are vitally important to life. But too much for others (i.e. family, friends, work, household) and not enough for you (setting your goals, making your strategic plan, doing what you love, realizing your divine destiny) will derail your dreams.

So, if I need to do baby steps of cleaning out, organizing and goal setting in order to take the pressure off, but still keep moving forward? It’s OK! After all, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time!  Although, I wouldn’t eat an elephant.  They are much too cute!  But, you get the analogy I’m sure!

Contemplating Happiness

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contemplating-happiness

I’ve been wondering a lot lately about what separates happy people from unhappy people. And, I don’t think it’s the bad things happening to unhappy people that makes them unhappy. Likewise, I don’t think it’s the good things happening to happy people that makes them happy.

And, maybe you know this already – I probably did – but I am really taking time to think about it lately. Unhappy people seem to constantly look for things to support their unhappiness. And let me tell you; there is an unlimited amount of things you can look back on and say this should not have happened if you want to continue to be unhappy. It’s all in how you choose to see your life experiences. Forgive your past and save your life. So true!  Because when you believe that everything happens for you instead of to you, in order to bring you to a higher understanding of your purpose in life, then you ultimately can’t be unhappy with anything that has happened!

Now, some things are more difficult to deal with than others for sure. The loss of a child, for instance, is very hard to come to terms with. Someone who we have known since she was a little girl recently lost her 2 ½ year-old son when he drowned in their pool. Horrific for sure.   Unimaginable. And, after a time of grief has passed, if she is a happy person she will find a way – by faith – to be happy again. She can use her experience to contribute to the universal energy in a positive way, or she can choose to be unhappy for the rest of her life. She can choose.

I used to think there was something wrong with me that I could muster up happiness even in what should’ve been my darkest times. But you know? I love being happy! I seek out ways to be happy. And, the older I get the more I realize I can’t change people who are unhappy – I can’t make them happy no matter how much I want that for them!  I then choose to be around them if I feel I won’t be letting go of my own happiness in order to do it. And, I don’t feel guilty about that choice – well most of the time I don’t! I am human and sometimes I have to talk with myself a bit! If something keeps coming to my mind and I’m feeling guilty because I’m not doing what is normally socially acceptable – what I quote “should” be doing. I stop and take a look at how doing this thing would affect my happiness. Now, I haven’t always done this! This has come with age and experience. I look at the situation and analyze it for not if I “should” do something, but if it’s going to make me feel happy to do it.  If it’s not going to make me feel happy, then I make the choice to say “enough now” and go on with my life.

Because at the end, if you were asked, “Did you love your life?” You have to be able to answer “Yes!” not “Yes, but . . . ” or “No, because . . . ” The only thing that works for me is Yes! I love my life!

 

 

 

 

Going Back to School

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Crayon pic copy

I was at Target the other day, and they were busily preparing their shelves for “Back to School.”  Wow, that sure seemed to come around quickly, and I don’t even have kids going back to school!  They are all done with that – well they think they are anyway.

You know, even after all these years, I kind of get excited about “Back to School” time. I often wish I were part of the group doing that. A history class here and there. A creative writing class, maybe. Heck, what about an all-new major! That would be really fun!

I’ve done some online classes, even YouTube and iTunes U. I really feel like these take more discipline than the brick and mortar variety even. Lately, I’ve found myself inundated with work and so have been neglecting my education. That’s not good. That ol’ “life gets in the way” thing is just lack of motivation to get out of a rut. We have the power to choose! Don’t forget that!

Because education is what helps us grow! If we aren’t reading books and articles, going to classes or listening to/watching classes electronically, we aren’t learning!

So here’s what I’m going to do this week. I am going to commit myself to an all-new challenge, and that is to go back to school. And, by that I mean that each week, I complete some sort of class. Some weeks it could all be online. Some weeks it could be a book about something new to me – a study in something. Some weeks it could be a live seminar for a couple of days. The point is, each week I take the necessary steps to BE EDUCATED! Will you join me?

And you know, back to school means we get to go to Target or Staples or somewhere like that to get school supplies! Yay!!!! New notebooks, pens, whatever you need to support and excite you in this educational endeavor! It’s the first action step! Then, do your research for what you want to take classes in. What have you always wanted to learn about? Make your dream list in the front of your new notebook with your new pens!

This is really going to be fun – and it makes it even more fun when I have fellow students who are FOR ME in this challenge! I’ll keep you posted on what I’m learning!