Category Archives: Self Improvement

60 Day Life Makeover – Part 2

Good morning!

I have been giving a lot of thought to the idea of a 60 day life makeover!

Goals, to be successfully achieved have to be measurable, have a target deadline, and have to be believable!

A timed life makeover challenge could be a GREAT push to get me going in the direction that will get me in to where I want to be, but I also can’t try to shoot for so many thing at once, lest I overwhelm myself and give up!!!

My top 5 60-day goals are:

  1. Lose 20 pounds. This body will only carry me for so long, and being at the weight I am is truly starting to become a hindrance, and an anchor to where and what I want to be doing.
  2. Find a church home. I NEED a church home.
  3. Clean, organize, purge my house from top to bottom, so everything in it has a home.
  4. Purchase, refinish, and sell one piece of furniture to slowly but surely get my business off the ground.
  5. Put $1000 extra away to help build my wealth.

There, that wasn’t so hard. WHEW!!! 😉

So, I will start on January 1, 2011, and I will have 60 days to accomplish these goals. In a day or so, I will come back with these larger goals broken down into weekly smaller actions that will help me attain these goals – Tony Robbins calls this “chunking”, to make larger goals more manageable by chunking them down into smaller bits!!

I will be back, in the meantime…

Have a FABULOUS day!! 😉

60 Day Life Makeover???

Do you think it is possible to completely change the direction of your life in 60 days???? This idea has been running through my mind all day! I know that it is possible to change your life in an instant, but is that decision something that if maintained for a full 60 days, can it really make you a different person than who you are today??? Not that I don’t love who I am, I just know that I want to be the BEST ME THAT I CAN BE!!!

Gosh, the only way I know to figure this conundrum out is to test it!! but, if you’ve followed my blog, you would know that I don’t do so hot at actually following through to completion any of these self-imposed challenges. Anyone else have the same problem????

If I were to completely change my life in 60 days, what would I have to do????

  1. I would have to change how I spend my free time
  2. I would have to change how I spend my money
  3. I would have to change how I see the world

OH, is that all???? I will have to get right on that!!! LOL! 😉

No seriously, New Years is coming in just a few days, and I was thinking about what new resolutions I was going to make this year, and wouldn’t it be cool if I could start it by doing something cool with myself??? I think that would be pretty phenomenal!!

I will have to give this some serious thought, but I think that if I am going to do this, I am going to first have to decide, where do I want to be in 60 days??? 60 days older? 60 days wiser? thinner? richer? more organized? What? What do I want???

Let me give this some serious thought, and I will get back to you!!

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Quickie Post!

This is just a quickie post to answer a question from my sis! “What does eating frogs mean?”

Well, this is something I learned from one of my favorite authors, Brian Tracy. Eating frogs is basically just a time management tool that means that you do the biggest, scariest, ugliest thing on your to-do list first, and get it out of the way. Anything else you do for the rest of the day, will be a cake walk in comparison. So, Brian Tracy basically recommends that you go out and eat your frog first thing every morning!! 🙂

If you had to “Eat your Frog” today, what would that look like??? Please feel free to share in the comments section!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 😉

Good Morning!

I have often heard that the definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expect to get a different result. Well, being someone who is a creature of habit, I find myself reflecting on this idea a lot. I wonder if I am in a rut, and if so, what needs a good shaking up in my life!!! I think that my natural self is to be very nomadic, moving from one place to another, one activity to another, but that all changed when I lost my mom when I was younger. Now, movement and change is something that I have to purposefully concentrate on, otherwise I find I end up getting stagnant!! EW – that just sounds gross, but I am sure you know what I mean!!

I have 3 main areas of my life that really need my attention right now: my weight, my finances, and my home. So, when I woke up this morning, I asked myself what are some different actions that I can take to help improve these 3 areas in my life? So, I decided to make a list:

  1. Avoid the snooze!! When my alarm goes off in the morning, and I hit snooze, I really am awake, so basically I am just wasting sometimes up to 2 hours wasting time “trying to get a little more sleep”. Not today – up with the morning rooster!!!
  2. Get ready for work before anything else!! That way, when I have extra time left over, I am able to get any other things needing to get done before I head out to the office, and still be on time!
  3. Put me back on my to-do list! Now, I have a tendency to create a mental daily to-do list, and then cut out anything that would be too hard, or any “I don’t wannas” – not today! I am going to GO EAT THOSE FROGS!!!
  4. I am going to take my daily walk this morning, even if that means walking in the rain. I usually “try” to get my walk in at lunch time, and because work is usually so busy, it is super easy to find ANY excuse to not go – so today, there is no hesitation – it gets done first!!
  5. I am going to spend at least an hour, actually focusing on my finances today – they have been neglected far too long. Now, I don’t mean that my bills don’t get paid, but what I mean is that they are usually paid electronically, and I don’t always know how much money I am paying for what, or to what! So, I need to start living my life on purpose, and I know that having financial wealth is the key to true freedom to choose what I want to do, so now is the time to get that in check!!!
  6. and last but not least, I want more than anything to sell our condo and move into my home – wherever that may be. My husband and I daydream about owning a house on a small parcel of land, where we can create, and grow, and thrive, and make memories with our family and friends. I know that is out there somewhere, and I am so anxious to get started on that portion of our lives, but if I don’t start taking some kind of action to move in that direction – it will sadly never happen, and I just cannot sit idly by as we let our dream life is pass us by. So, today I want to do at least one project in the house that will make me feel like I am on my way!!!

Anyway, I am off to go get my morning walk in!!

Have a FABULOUS day!!! 🙂

Sunday Evening Update!

Today has been a pretty good day! Got up, rallied the troops and then went out and did a little shopping – ok a lot of shopping!!! Went over to my sister-in-law’s and helped decorate a Christmas tree for her and the kiddos. The colors were rich chocolate, medium brown, gold, and burgundy. I was a little worried about the chocolate brown, but it turned out looking GORGEOUS!!!

Anyway, after decorating my sweetie and I headed home, I hopped into my jammies, turned on my Christmas lights and snuggled up on our couch!! I am pretty happy that I at least got out of the house, having been sick for the past 2 days!

Anyway, I have a long week of work ahead of me this week, and a lot of last minute preparations to get ready for our Christmas trip down to Roseburg.

So with that in mind, what are some things that I can do to help me have a Level 10 (as in perfect)???

  1. Take my i-pod to work, fully charged, and rock out to music while I work.
  2. Take time out of my work day to go for an energizing walk.
  3. Have plenty of ice water on hand – maybe even cut orange slices to give my water a little flavor.
  4. Pre-plan my work day the night before. Make sure my to-do lists are already created and ready to go.
  5. Get to bed on time every night this week. Sleep is your friend.
  6. Take a 10 minute meditation break at ;east once a day to help ease stress level.
  7. Make sure to pack healthy breakfast, lunch, and snacks to stave off hunger and to keep blood sugar level.
  8. Keep telling myself, “You are blessed” over and over again.
  9. When all hell breaks loose, PRAY!
  10. Remember that you can’t control everything that happens, you can only control yourself. Decide to have a good day!!! It’s A CHOICE!!!

On that note:

Have a FABULOUS evening! 😉

Back Home & Taking It Easy!

My sweetie and I are back at  home, from a quick weekend down to Roseburg. We went to support our little sisters with their Christmas bazaar! I am just so proud of them for all of the hard work they had done, and for all of the goodies they were able to come up with. The booth had all sorts of goodies for sale, ornaments, heating pads, i-spy pillows, gift baskets of bath goodies, advent calendars, etc. It actually was a little slower than my sis, Jennifer would have liked, but she really did do such a GREAT JOB!!! They all did! This was the first time that I can remember them stepping out of the box and do something that caused them to use their bravery muscles! I AM SOOOO PROUD OF THEM!!! I love you, girls! More than you will ever know!!!

On another note: I am longing for my farm today – I know it is out there somewhere, I just pray that we will find each other someday. I am really dreaming about growing my own fruits and vegetables. Sharing our goods with neighbors and friends, and canning our deliciousness away to be enjoyed year round or given as gifts – OH THAT WOULD BE THE LIFE!!! 🙂

While I go and dream some more,

Have a FABULOUS evening!!! 😉

A Day with the Aunts!

One of my FAVORITE days of the year is my annual Christmas AUNTIE DAY!! This is a day that myself and my two favorite Aunties – Alice, and Flo (HEY GIRRRLS!!) get together to do some window shopping, having lunch, chatting, laughing, and ooing and ahing at all of the Christmas sights!!!!! These ladies are such a strong support system in my life, I don’t know what I would ever do without them!!! Well, yesterday was NOOOOO exception!! We spent the day on 23rd street in Portland, and HONEY, we had SOOO MUCH FUN!!! I came home with more treasures than I actually expected – I did a little more actual shopping than window shopping this year! 😉 An oversized Gaudy-Fabulous ring, a chocolate brown hat with a flower/brooch, a couple of goodies from the MAC store – I just LOVE that place, and some other miscellaneous baubles!!!!

With that said, during our lunch yesterday one of the topics of conversation was my insane addiction to collecting stuff and the show Hoarder’s! Ok, before you get the wrong idea I am not THAT bad, but I did do a self-analysis last night and realized that if I wasn’t careful, I could be!! SO, today I have spent a LARGE portion of my day posting DVDs and books up on E-bay! I am not sure if any of it will sell, but I have to tell you that opening up my mind, I mean REALLY opening up my mind to the idea of getting rid of the excess and I realize that as I started posting objects, it just got easier and easier and actually quite…what’s the word???? FREEDOM!!! Ok, let’s not go too crazy here, I only posted 31 things – that does not a full decluttering make, but it is a GREAT start, and I can feel the momentum growing!! I will be on the lookout for more things to get rid of, and hopefully get some of this out-of-control-ness in control!!! 😉

I will keep you posted!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!!

Getting Creative!

Good morning!

I am up , showered, and dressed early this morning! This is quickly becoming a daily habit of mine, getting up early strictly for the purpose of spending time in a creative state of mind! This habit is beginning to be one of the favorite moments of my day. I have given myself permission, if I am dressed and ready to go to work, the time between being ready and actually walking out the door, I will spend that extra time in my art studio being 100% creative! I spend enough of my day being analytical and responsible – this time is just FOR ME!!!

Let me clarify on my “Art Studio”. What I am now calling my art studio, as of this morning matter of fact, is a previously unused room in my house that has habitually been the catch-all room for all of the miscellaneous crap that we really never knew what to do with. Well, after an inspired 3 hour clean out last Saturday morning, I have a large clear area where  was able to place a large table that I am going to use as my crafting table. I am finding that this table is GREAT place to journal, blog, read, get inspired, and create miscellaneous long awaited crafts! This room is SUCH A BLESSING!!!

One of the habits that I am trying to delve into is to create one piece of 8 x 11 “Art” every single day! I keep telling myself that the idea is not to necessarily create a masterpiece or even something that looks good – for that matter, but to flex my creativity muscles and get the idea out of my head and onto the piece of paper. I am hoping that this exercise not only gets me out of my “fear of failure” mode, but will also inspire me, and help me get better at expressing my true inner self! I am really don’t know what that is going to look like, and heaven forbid someone psycho-analyzes what comes across each piece of paper, but so far it has been EXTREMELY THERAPEUTIC!!! I look forward to sharing some of those pieces with you soon! 😉

As for my day today, or more especially, this afternoon, my sister, Alex, and our niece and nephew are going to come over for our weekly dinner and swim night! Tonight our niece, in honor of her 8th birthday this past Mondy, has requested that Uncle Jay-Jay make his special spaghetti dinner – apparently it is her FAVORITE!!! Uncle Jay-Jay is happy to oblige – we just LOVE these kiddos SOOOOO MUCH!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Miss V!!!

I LOVE whenever Alex comes around, Alex is one of those rare, special people, who carry an aura of love, warmth, and true sisterhood with her everywhere she goes! TRULY she RADIATES JOY!!! and I am just SOOOO BLESSED to have her in my life!! I LOVE YOU, SISSY!!! 😉

Well, I am going to get a move on, and get started on my daily art page for today! I think I am going to make a collage, or maybe do a quick painting, or…, or… well, we will see!! What would you create today if you had an extra hour in your morning??? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments above!

Have a FABULOUS day!!!

 

Tuesday Evening Update!

Well, I am still going through the Crafter’s Devotional, and tonight’s assignment is to color as if you were still a little kid. So here I am trying to think of something to color. The only thing I immediately thought of was houses, trees, suns, and rainbows – all of my favorite standbys just like when I was a little kid! I do however appreciate the exercise because it is helping me loosen up my creativity muscles so to speak!!

My husband and I live in a small condo, and I am actively looking for a little farm/cottage/or plot of land to call our home.  Someplace where we can have a small flower cutting garden, herb garden, and vegetable garden. I would also LOVE to have a space where my husband can do some woodworking, and I have a place to have both an art studio and a place to refinish/reupholster  furniture – HOW DIVINE!!! 😉 Ok, I can already hear some of you saying, “You? Get dirty?? Ain’t gonna happen!”, but, really, I am telling you! I want to get back to a simpler lifestyle, a lifestyle where you don’t watch life go by, you actually spend your life LIVING IT!!! I don’t forsee that we will be moving for at least a year yet, unless the good Lord has other plans for us, but I TRULY CAN’T WAIT!! 😉

I think I am coming down with something! I have been getting more and more congested, my right ear hurts, and now my neck and shoulders are really getting ache-ey!! I don’t have time to get sick right now, my work life is JUST TOO CRAZY BUSY to take ANY time off. At least, for the time being! I can imagine calling in sick in the morning, and my partner-in-crime, driving to my house, and picking my booty up, pj’s & all, and drag my sickie-self off to the office!!! I just love her – she really is a GREAT friend!!! I COULD NOT do what I do WITHOUT HER!!! 😉

Anyway, I am off to color some more…er…I mean, encourage my creativity!! What are some of the ways that you encourage creativity in yourself – I would LOVE to hear form you in the comment section above!!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!