Monthly Archives: July 2010

A Lesson from Childhood!

Today is Day 7 of My 30 Day Life Makeover!!

To say that changes are happening at my place of work is quite the UNDERSTATEMENT!! That is something I am ABSOLUTELY SURE of!!! What I am not sure of is how I will be faring once the bus called changed finishes running through our little office!!!! During an especially painful anxiety/panic attack this afternoon, a lesson that I learned from childhood, and needed to hear popped into my head. The lesson was,

“God will never give you more than you can handle.”

You know when I used to hear that growing up, I used to always sarcastically add, “but it is amazing what you can live through!” I must confess that even though I am not sure I am not still sarcastically adding that little statement under my breath unconsciously, I realize that my mom was always right; when you pray for challenges, and opportunities, be aware because God is going to send things your way that are going to cause you to be challenged. God has been listening. So I just need to change my perception on what is going on at the office, and realize that this is all about opportunities; opportunities to grow, opportunities to learn, and opportunitieis to take my career in uncharted territory.

Sometime God has a bigger dream than you could ever dream for yourself!

Is there anything going on in your life that you need to change the way you view it?  Look around your life and see if there is anything in your life that you can mentally change from a negative into a positive. I know that I will try and keep the changes in my career as a positive adventure, and take the time to enjoy the journey.

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

My Real Age! EEK!!

Ok, let’s get down and dirty!! I just took my Real Age Test on realage.com, and girrrrl I just found out that I was 39.5 years old – THAT IS 5 YEARS OLDER THAN I REALLY AM!!!! AAAAAACK!!!

“Life is not merely to be alive, but to be well.” ~Marcus Valerius Martial

So, for Day 6 of my 30-Day Life Makeover the lesson that I need to hear is CHRISTINA, GET OFF OF YOUR ASS and GO FOR A WALK!!! Girl, it takes just 10 minutes, 3 times a day to meet your minimum daily requirements of fitness health. My Kaizen activity for tomorrow morning will be get up with my alarm, and put my socks and walking shoes on. Once I have gotten that far, I will go for a walk!!! (Actually, that will be 3 Kaizen tasks!!!) 😉

I am so determined to take my Real Age Test again in one months time, and HOPEFULLY I can bring my Real Age closer to my actual real age!! *WINK!*

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

Change of Perspective!

Today I just got home from a rough day at work, too many assignments, not enough time, not enough staff people, and too many expectations. I then leave the office late, hit traffic, and finally get home to counters full of dirty dishes, dog hair everywhere, smelly laundry that was washed, but then accidentally left in the washing machine – OOPS!!!

I squinch my eyes, so I don’t see the chaos that is my place, and head to the fridge where my dinner of leftovers await – only to find that my sweetie has “helped” me watch what I am eating, by eating all of my leftovers – I just knew I should’ve stopped at the grocery store on the way home – silly me!! A bowl of cereal it is!

However, in the midst of this seemingly bad day, someone instantly changed my perspective. When I pulled up to my condo, one of my neighbors was heading to his door, and as I got out of my car, he asked me how I was doing. I gave him the stock answer of “fine, how are you?” He gave me a reply that literally stopped me in my tracks, and completely change my day. He said, “blessed!” Can you believe that??? Blessed!! What a phenomenal answer!!!

Many years ago when I was a youth director for a non-profit organization, one of the things that I used to always tell everyone was,

“Don’t get yourself so busy that you forget what you are doing it for.”

I think that is what I have done, especially today, I forgotten why I do what I do, and that is to serve my purpose and leave the world a better place.

Today is Day-5 of my 30 Day Life Makeover Challenge, and the lesson that I needed to hear today was Take Stock of All of Your Blessings.My assignment for you today is to sit down in a quiet place with your journal and a pen, and take some time to list out all of your blessings. They can be big, they can be little, they can be silly, just as long as they’re yours. I won’t list all of mine here, because then I will be here for hours – even after the day that I’ve had! but I will spend a few minutes sharing with you the first ones that come to mind:

  1. I am God’s daughter
  2. My husband loves me
  3. My family loves me
  4. My friends love me
  5. I have a home
  6. My puppies love me
  7. I have my health
  8. I have a great paying job
  9. I have a reliable, comfortable car
  10. I have a ton of books
  11. My bills are paid for
  12. I have a fun movie collection
  13. I live where I want to live
  14. I live in a country where I have freedom
  15. I have a FABULOUS closet
  16. I have independence
  17. I have a pool I can use whenever I want
  18. I have music
  19. I can sing
  20. Life really is good!!

I now have this song stuck in my head, it is a little chorus that we used to sing in church on Sundays. Maybe you know it, and maybe it will get stuck in your head just like it is in mine!!! 😉

“Count your blessings name them one by one. Count your blessings see what God has done. Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what they Lord has done.”

On other Life Makeover List stuff, how are your Kaizen cards going?? I have to admit I haven’t kept one going for the past couple of days, but I will get back with the program!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

What a Difference a Day Makes!

Welcome back!!

Today is Day 4, of my 30-Day Life Makeover! I have decided to continue my 30-Day Life Makeover lessons, but I will be posting them on the weekdays only! I need my weekends for creative pursuits so that I don’t burnout! You many not know this, but I work full time, at a computer all day, so keeping this schedule helps me keep my blog fun, and not a chore! 😉

Seeing that I am still surrounded by piles, and piles, and piles of books, I think that the lesson I need to personally hear today is about simplifying your home.

I believe that your home is a representation of yourself; and you can tell a lot about who you are, what you believe in, and what you value in your life. Right now, if you were to walk into my house, you might just think that I lived in a library, and that I didn’t do anything but read!!! No, honestly, although I do have a tendency to read a lot, I really do have a life outside of these 4 walls!

The simple lesson that I want to share with you, but really is something that I am needing to re-hear; this lesson is the art of simplifying your surroundings. Starting with just one room of your home. Walk around touching every item in your room, and as yourself the following question:

  1. Do I love this?
  2. Do I use this?
  3. Does this truly represent who I want to be?

If you can say “yes” to at least 2 of these questions, then honey, it is meant to stay. If not, remove it from your home, give it to a friend who will love it or use it, or donate it to someplace that can use the funds to help better the lives of others, and get your item into the hands of someone who can use it.

Remember: One man’s woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure!

When you have gone through your entire room, your room may be a little sparcer, but your space will better represent who you are, you will love everything that you have, and you will have made room for new loved treasures that will be coming your way in the future!

This is one activity that I could really benefit by!! I will keep you posted of my progress – my living room is getting this treatment first! I would LOVE to hear if you are going to try this activity in any area of your home!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Mountains of Books!!!

One of me dear friends, my adopted grandmother, passed away a few months ago. Like myself, she was an avid reader! She loved any great mystery, or any good children’s/young adult chapter book, and she had quite the collection.

Well, before she passed away she told me that she wanted me to take her books, take care of them and love them like she did! Well, today was the day that I picked them up. My sweetie and I went over there this morning, and my grandpa basically said that I could have any of her books that I wanted. It took A LOT of restraint!! I wanted to take every single book that she had, but I knew that the leftover books were going to be donated to this non-profit library, and I know Kay would’ve LOVED that!! So, even after restraining myself and leaving a large portion of books there, I ended up bringing home 9 full boxes, and 3 stuffed bags of books. I think I may have literally doubled my existing library, but my sweetie thinks that I may have more than doubled it!! WHEW!!!

I guess I am going to have to go bookshelf shopping this week!!! IKEA here I come!!! MWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAA!!

Anyway, I will be logging books into my library database for at least the coming week!! But I know that I will be making my Kay proud!!! Love you, Kay!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

All Things French!!

Bonjour!

I have had a FABULOUSLY lazy day today!!! YUM!! I Really needed that!!!

Normally I am awake at 7:30 like clockwork on a Saturday morning, that is as late as I can make myself sleep in!! Well, this morning I was SHOCKED when I saw the time when I woke up this “morning”; the clock read 12:30 PM!! WHOA!!! Because of the extra temperature outside, my sweetie had insulated our bedroom window with a heavily quilted blanket, which has caused our room to be VERY dark!! I can’t say that I am complaining, I really haven’t slept well all week, and I feel like I am finally caught back up!!!

Anyway, I have been hanging out with my Sweetie this evening, and reading blogs that have to do with anything French and just collecting some REALLY SWEET pics!! I thought I would share a few with you! ENJOY!

These pictures makes me long to go to Paris, and bring back a whole horde of furniture and accessories, have them reupholstered, and open up a French Boutique!!! Ooh La La! That would be a dream come true!!! 😉

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

30-Day Makeover, Day 3!

Day 3: Go Gather Your Dream Team!

Welcome to Day 3 of our 30-Day Life Makeover!! How is everything going?? Were you able to do your Kaizen activity today?? I would LOVE to hear in the comments section up above, what types of things you were able to write down today!! I had all sorts of things written such as brown bagged both breakfast and lunch today (health & finances), swam for two hours with my family (health), and read an article on the benefits of being self-employed (self-employment). These may not be too impressive on their own, but if you were to gather 30 days of these activities – how far could you go????

Now, you know what you want, you’ve made some big decisions on where your priorities are going to lie for the next 3 months, and you have a new simple way to track your daily progress. Next comes a task that I can honestly say, is probably my FAVORITE!!

It’s time to GO FIND YOUR DREAM TEAM!!!

To create the life of your dreams, and see your goals come to fruition you are going to need a support group. These are the people that are going to listen to you your dreams and idea, give you honest constructive feedback, pick you up when you fall down, cry with you tears of joy when you have days of success, laugh with you when you are busy laughing at yourself, and these will be the people who will at times believe in you more than you believe in yourself. Everyone knows that two heads are better than one when it comes to solving problems or creating results. So imagine what you could accomplish if you were a part of a small group of five or six people meeting on a regular basis for the purpose of problem solving, brainstorming, networking, encouraging, and motivating each other. Mountains are moved with this kind of effort.

In all of my years of reading self-help books, and listening to all sorts of motivational speakers, this step is the one that I probably hear most being repeated over and over by some of the great minds of our time, and those that have gone on before us.  Jack Canfield, Anthony Robbins, and Napoleon Hill are just a few who all have their own version of how to go about making your dream cheerleading group, although I am pretty sure that is NOT what they call it, but whatever you call it, just make it fun, and a win-win for everyone involved!! 😉

Creating Your Dream Team

Start by enrolling a friendly, on-purpose, like-minded individual, or two to join you, then and start meeting with them on a regular basis. I recommend meeting once a week, or at the least every other week, so that you have something positive and encouraging to look forward to; and knowing that you have a group of people who are going to want to hear about what kind of progress you’ve made will encourage you to keep going so you have something positive to report. After your initial mini-team is all onboard, decide as a group what other like-minded individuals you could add to your small group. You will want to make sure that any additional people get along with everyone on the existing team, because remember this will be a team that you will want to feel comfortable enough to be able to be yourself,  speak freely, and feel comfortable enough to dream out loud. You and everyone on the team should be there for the good of each other and for the good of the group – this is essential!

  1. Your Dream Team should consist of 4-8 people. Most people find that 6 is the ideal number. Once the team gets much larger than 6 people, start thinking about someone in the group becoming a leader and breaking the larger group into two smaller groups, to keep the growth process going, and to share motivation with as many people as possible. Once this happens, make it a point to host some kind of a larger get-together at least once a month, or quarter that involves all of your mini-groups, so everyone has the chance to get to know everyone (not to mention all of the networking, and additional brainstorming, and support that would provide!) Sounds like fun!!!
  2. Meetings should be an hour to an hour and a half. This meeting must be held sacred as a life-enhancing priority. The meetings should be upbeat, enriching, encouraging and beneficial to each individual and the group’s purposes. I always start our meetings with a prayer or an invocation. You could also start with an inspiring story.
  3. Each member must agree to play all out — to openly share ideas, support, contacts, information, feedback, and anything else that will help advance the individual and group goals.
  4. Start by having each member share something positive and good that happened since the last meeting.
  5. Next, have each member share an opportunity or problem they have experienced since the last meeting and ask for whatever support they would like on it. Appoint a time-keeper to make sure that everyone gets the same amount of time. This is important if you want your group to last. Everyone must get value at each meeting.
  6. End by sharing appreciations and acknowledgements.

You’ll find one of the real values of a mastermind group is the accountability factor – other members checking up on you to make sure you meet your stated commitments. It’s one way to ensure you’ll accomplish a lot more!

This is such a FABULOUS idea, that I challenge you to get a hold of at least one person to communicate this idea to, and see if they would be willing to commit to being a part of your Dream Team – you’ll never know unless you ask, and maybe your Dream Team will be EXACTLY what that person was searching for. This if practiced consistently will literally change your life for the better.

I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on this, please feel free to comment up above!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!! 😉

30-Day Makeover, Day 2!

Welcome back!

As you may remember we are going through the 30-Day Life Makeover, and yesterday we came up with our dream list that contained everything and anything that you wanted to do, be, have, learn, etc. How did that go? Were there any things that showed up on your list that surprised you?? Did you find the list easy to come up with?

What I would like for you to do next, is to go through your list, and choose the top 5 things that NEED your attentions RIGHT NOW (and for the next 3 months)!!! If 5 is too overwhelming, choose 4, or 3, or 2, or even 1 – just to get the ball rolling. You don’t have to know how you are going to accomplish these top 5 things, but you KNOW that they NEED your attention!!

Your list will look different than mine, but here are my Top 5:

  1. I need to lose 100 pounds, and gain energy, flexibility, stamina, and vivaciousness.
  2. I need a happy, passionate, and trust-filled relationship with my husband, where we both feel like we are being supported and nurtured equally; or I need to leave and find all of that with myself.
  3. I need to have a home that greets me when I come home every day from work, and reflects who I am as a creative, passionate, glamorous woman who absolutely radiates joie de vivre.
  4. I need to have my finances in such a way that all of my bad debt has been eliminated, I have at least 6 months of income stashed away for any emergencies, I have a versatile stock portfolio that will continue to grow no matter what the economy, and I need to be living within my means so as to have money left over to enjoy the good things in life – people, and experiences.
  5. I need to have a career that is honoring to my authentic self; one that is creative, artistic, challenging, fun, and filled with laughter, great people, and one that I am more in control of.

So my short version would be:

  1. Health
  2. Marriage
  3. Home
  4. Finances
  5. Self-employment

Now, when you come up with your top 5, make sure you ABSOLUTELY LOVE your list, because this is going to be a b tool in helping you manage your time for the next 3 months. From now on, this list will be known as your ABSOLUTE “YES” LIST!!!

An Absolute “Yes” List is the list that you will use to decide what you want to be doing at any given moment for the next 3 months, and will help you carve out minutes or even hours out of your week to accomplish what you want.

For example:

Say I just got home from a long day of work, and I really feel like I need to relax, so I plop down on the couch and settle in for a nice long television watching spree. At the end of the night I say to myself, “Oh man – I didn’t get anything done, where has my day gone???”

What would have happened if I would have called on my Absolute “Yes” List?

Same scenario:

Say I just got home from a long day of work, and I really feel like I need to relax, and I ask myself what could I be doing that would be both honoring to my Absolute “Yes” List , and still help me relax? My mind answers my saying, “How about taking a mini walk to unwind (health),  asking my sweetie if he would mind helping me cook dinner with his mad-fantastic cooking skills in the kitchen (marriage), crank up some playful music (home)”, etc, etc. Do you see what I mean??

Now, I am not saying that you have to be “On” all the time, no, girls – we definitely need our downtime, and there are days when a long sit with the tele is the only thing that will hit the spot, but where will that get you if that is your norm?? I know where it has gotten me! And holy crap – I need to go smack my younger self and say,

“Snap out of it – GIRL, you have OPTIONS!!! THIS IS YOUR LIFE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!!”

An Absolute “Yes” List is also something that is VERY helpful for someone like me, where I have challenges standing up for myself and saying “no”. I must confess that saying “no” has been a weakness for me – I swear it is genetic!!!! 😉 I am sure there are a few of you out there who have those same “genes” too. So this is how the Absolute “Yes” List helps me.

When someone asks me to do ANYTHING, I usually say “Yes” without actually thinking about what I want. Do I feel like babysitting a bunch of 4 year old banshees, while all of the other women go get pedicures???? Probably not, but I would say “Yes” and then be kicking myself about it the whole time I was watching those adorable, snot-nosed little tricycle-motors!!! However learning to say “no” is really a gift for both you and the asker, because your friend wouldn’t want to have you resentful towards her because you were the one who said “yes”; and by saying “no” to something you don’t want to do will reinforce to you that your TIME is valuable aka YOU ARE VALUABLE!!!

This is where your homework assignment of bringing some 3 x 5 cards, a mini notebook, a journal, or a pad of paper comes into play. For the next 29 days, including today, I want you to write on one side of a card/sheet of paper your Absolute “Yes” List, and on the other side of the paper, I want you to write the day’s date, and write down EVERY SINGLE accomplishment, action, step that you took towards accomplishing those goals. It could be BIG or little! (I have posted a pic of a sample daily card up above!)

This is called Kaizen!!! Kaizen is a Japanese word that means continuous improvement. No matter how small the action you take to continuously improve yourself, the next day you take the same small step, and the next the same small step, pretty soon you will have created a whole new future for yourself by compounding your small steps, into what will appear to be LEAPS and BOUNDS!!!

YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

I recommend reviewing your Absolute “Yes” List at least once every 3 months, because as you grow/learn/change, your list will grow/learn/change too!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me in the comments section above, I do check my e-mails throughout the day. I look forward to being of service!

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for Day 3 of my 30-Day Life Makeover!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!

30-Day Life Makeover, Day 1!

And so it begins…

My life purpose is to empower women to take control of their lives and live the lives that they’ve always dreamed of.

A little about myself:

I am a 34 year old, married, but separated, barren, overweight, woman who has a FABULOUS paying job, but feels that her job is not helping her fulfill her life’s purpose, nor does it feed my creative spirit. Who am I to be telling you ANYTHING about tapping into your inner power, and creating the life that you’ve always dreamed of, when I haven’t been able to do that for myself?? Good question. Well, I will be 35 at the end of this year, and I have a life deadline, so to speak. My mama died a little over 10 years ago at the age of 40 from breast cancer – cancer is such a nasty bugger!!! I have had it in my head, that if she couldn’t live past 40, what the hell makes me think that I am going to? What makes me think I am any better than she is? Well, who knows what tomorrow will bring, or exactly how many days or years the good Lord has deemed to bless me with (for all I know I will live to be 102), but I have a message; a message for you, a message for me, and a message for my sisters who have grown to look up to me in the short time since our mother has been gone (it’s ok, you can finally admit it; I am the favorite sister!!! LOL!!!). This series  is for all of us needing a reminder about our inner power and a refresher course on how to tap into that power.

This is my message:

We all have within us a power that if we were to tap into, we would appear to have super-human strength to make our dreams come true. I wholeheartedly believe this! The life that you have right this minute is literally a culmination of all of the choices you have ever made in your lifetime. Where you live; where you work, what you do for a living, who you spend your time with, how much money you make, how much money you have, who you are. The answers to all these questions are decided upon all through the decisions you make, either consciously or unconsciously, on a daily basis.

My goal in writing this series is to help “Wake you up” to this reality, so that you can see your power, and show you how to tap into this to take you from where you are to where you want to be.

“You have always had it my dear. You’ve always had the power.”

-Glenda the Good Witch, The Wizard of Oz

You CAN have the life that you’ve always dreamed of, and I am going to show you how to get started on the right track by taking you through a 30-Day Life Makeover journey.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

-Lao-Tzu, Chinese Philosopher

Our Step starts today, with Day 1: What the hell do I want?

You can’t plan a road trip without first knowing something about where it was you want to go. That is what we are going to talk about today.

Alice: Oh wait!
Cheshire Cat: [reappears] There you are!
Alice: Oh, no, no. I was just wondering if you could help me find my way.
Cheshire Cat: Well that depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: Oh, it really doesn’t matter, as long as…
Cheshire Cat: Then it really doesn’t matter which way you go.

-Taken from Alice In Wonderland

Do you have any idea what you want? When was the last time you even thought about it?

Have you ever noticed that if you were to ask a kindergartner what they wanted for their birthday, they would truthfully answer you, and their list would include every single thing that their innocent imaginations could possibly dream up. A conversation like this with myself as a kindergartner might have gone something like this:

Dad: “Chrissy, what would you like for your birthday?”

Chrissy: “Well, I would like a pony, a swimming pool, I want wings so I can fly, I want be a mermaid, I want to be a princess, I want a little brother, I want to go to Disney Land, I want a big tree-house  with no bugs, I want to make a mud pie that doesn’t get your hands dirty, I want to have a lifetime supply of blankets for making forts, I want a slip-n-slide, I want to go to outer space and…, and…, and…”

Well, I think you get the picture. Isn’t it amazing that as little kids we feel that it is alright to not only dream, but to dream BIG!?!?! Where does that go??? I think as you get a little older, you start to hear things like “no”, “that’s impossible”, “we don’t have money for that”. “are you crazy?”, etc. and silly us, we believe it!!!

My assignment for you today take at least a half an hour to yourself. Tell your kiddies, and your sweetie that they will all just have to entertain themselves for the next half an hour, or wait until everyone has gone to bed.

Next, find a quiet corner, maybe light some candles, or play some of your favorite quiet music, get comfy, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and ask yourself the following questions, and write the answers down someplace you won’t lose them so you can refer to them frequently.

  1. If you had unlimited time, energy, money, resources, knowledge, and you knew that could NOT fail, what would you want in your life?
  2. What would you do?
  3. What would you learn?
  4. Where would you go?
  5. Who would you hang out with?
  6. What would you want to experience?
  7. What material things would you purchase?
  8. WHO WOULD YOU BE???

There are no right or wrong answers here; this is your exercise. I only want you to start tapping into what it is you REALLY want!!! If you get stumped, here are my 9 life categories that helped me create my own personal Life List:

  1. Health & Appearance
  2. Free time
  3. Financial
  4. Career
  5. Relationships
  6. Community & Contribution
  7. Personal Growth
  8. Travel
  9. Home

Please don’t feel that you have to come up with a list as long as mine, I have been working on my Life List for about the past 7 years, just have fun with the process. I would love to hear some of your lists in the comments, that is if you are feeling froggy and would like to share!!! *WINK!*

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for Day 2. If you are able, please pick up either some 3 x 5 cards, a mini notebook, a journal, or a pad of paper. This will be super handy for tomorrow’s homework – trust me, it will be super easy-peasy!!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉