Mindset

Oct 31 2017

How To Embody The Spirit of Halloween Year Round

Happy Halloween!! One of my favorite holidays!!⠀
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How can we embody the spirit of Halloween year round? Let’s discuss a few things that make Halloween so great and see how you can use those principles every day.

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1 – We let go of our inhibitions and ALLOW ourselves to be outrageous on Halloween. We’re not worried about what others think of us. We go full force with our crazy costumes and makeup. We’re full on visible saying to the world “look at me!” (and loving it!)
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2 – There’s an element of FUN – groups of people all dressed up running around the streets, gathering together at parties or even participating in a local parade. The vibe is a collaborative HIGH – feeding off of one another’s energies.
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3 – We EXPECT and ALLOW ourselves to RECEIVE⠀
We knock on a door and fully EXPECT treats. We don’t stop at just one door – we keep going. There’s no sense of feeling greedy. We know there’s enough for everyone. We stand there with our bags fully open to receive as much candy as we can hold.⠀
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Why do we only allow ourselves to feel like this on this one day of the year? ⠀
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Embrace it. Live it.⠀See how much your life, biz, and world can expand when you allow fun, high vibes, expectations, and allowing & receiving into your life.

Oct 03 2017

Are You Testing Your Limits?

I’m not an animal person but for my daughter’s 11th birthday back in April I broke down and we got her a bunny. His life is pretty boring – mostly in a cage, eats, poops, eats, poops, poops, poops and for fun, poops some more.

When he’s bored of eating hay or decides he’s ready for some attention, he starts banging on the cage – like a crazy mad bunny!

When I’m alone I try to ignore it as long as possible but eventually cave and let him out.

As soon as the cage door opens he jumps out, runs in circles hoping to get a treat, then runs around the rug and back towards his cage.

There are no barricades set up to prevent him from venturing out to the rest of the apartment. Believe me when I say I DON’T WANT him venturing out past the confines of the rug but I find it really interesting how he limits himself.

I wonder…

can he even see past the rug?

doesn’t he realize there’s a whole world to explore just past the edge of that rug?

doesn’t he realize how much his life could change if he just took that first step?

why is he limiting himself?

what is he so afraid of – it’s right there for the taking!!!

why isn’t he testing the limits? The only thing that could happen is that we say no and put him back on the rug.

TAKE THE CHANCE BUNNY!!! You never know unless you try!

Where in your life are you NOT testing the limits?

Sep 26 2017

Create Your Own Opportunities

If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.

Sometimes you have to create your own path, take charge and not wait around for things to just happen to, or for you.

When my daughters are at summer camp one of their favorite activities is to play gaga. Don’t feel bad if you don’t know what it is – I didn’t either! Think dodgeball in a big round enclosed pit. My younger daughter especially was hooked. She was great at it and the more she played her confidence grew and grew.

She was beyond excited to find out her new middle school had a gaga pit in the recess playground! She couldn’t wait to start school just so she can get back to playing gaga. Even though it was a new school for her, she had something she enjoyed and was good at to break the ice with the new kids she would be meeting. Every afternoon at recess she heads straight to the gaga pit and usually ends up being one of the last 2 remaining players.

She came home one day and said “I want to create a gaga team!”

My older daughter told her she wouldn’t be able to because no one ever did it before.

I, on the other hand told her the exact opposite. If she wants a team she could be the first to create it!

Here’s what happened:

We spoke to the gym teachers – they loved the idea and after only less than 2 weeks of school already knew how great she was at gaga.

They suggested she start by creating a club – collect names from kids that would be interested, then present the idea to the principal.

I created a simple sign up form for her to get the names during recess. This is where you have to know your strengths. She’s the idea person and the athlete, not the public speaker. She collected a few names but knew she’d need help in getting the rest. While she was playing, she got another friend to collect the names of the kids as they got eliminated. Teamwork!!

They got over 20 names AND she got the commitment from her gym teacher to oversee the club.

With the list of names and the commitment from her gym teacher, she went to the principal’s office to present her idea.

I’m happy (and so proud of her) to say there’s going to be a new gaga club in her middle school starting in October! Woo Hoo!!

Lesson learned – when you really want something, go for it. You can absolutely create something from nothing. All you need is a strong desire, be hyper focused on the outcome, not worry about how it’s going to happen, surround yourself with positive supportive people who believe in you, cheer you on, AND hold you accountable!

What’s something you’ve been wanting to create?

Sep 05 2017

5 Step Experiment In Getting Uncomfortable

I read a ton of books. I LOVE to read!! Most of the books I read are on the topics of mindset, money, business and success. A common theme that runs through most, if not all of these books is that if you want success in life and business, you have to get used to being uncomfortable.

The only way we grow and expand out of our comfort zone is to continually challenge ourselves, try new things, no matter how scary they may seem, and practice being uncomfortable.

I did an experiment with the women in my facebook group last week because I noticed in my own life I wasn’t putting myself out there as much as I’d like, or doing things that would make me uncomfortable. The result of being comfortable is that I’m not making much progress in the areas that I want to improve.

I told my group I was going to start with baby steps and do a 5 day challenge for myself to see how I can be uncomfortable. I was happy that some of them joined me! I’ll break down each day for you as inspiration so you can see where in your life things seem to be running on autopilot and how you can start to expand that comfort zone.

Day 1 – Daily Habits

There are so many things we do on a daily basis without even thinking about it because they’ve become habits ingrained into our system. When I actually stopped to think of the many things we do I had to laugh. Sleeping on a certain side of the bed, my seat at the dinner table, the way I put the toilet paper on the roll – just to name a few. For day 1 I switched all of that up. I slept on the other side of the bed, turned my toilet paper around so the paper went over the roll and sat at a different seat during dinner.

I tried to go to bed before my husband but couldn’t fall sleep fast enough. Sure enough the first thing he said when he came in was “what are you doing on MY side? Move over!” I laughed and didn’t move. I also didn’t really sleep much that night.

Day 2 – Our Outward Appearance

We all seem to have a style that we like and wear most of the time. For me it’s jeans, black shoes or boots, neutral or muted color shirts, understated jewelry, same hair style, not many prints and no loud colors. I realize this may be a visibility issue – not wanting to be noticed. But I also realize the more successful I want to be with my business, the more visible I also need to be. So on this day I decided to raid my daughter’s nail polish stash and wear electric blue on my fingers and a kelly green on my toes. I had to be out in public all day because I was running my photography camp. I rarely wear nail polish because I have zero patience for the upkeep but on the seldom times I do, it definitely wouldn’t be either of these colors. Unless of course it’s Halloween. That’s when all hell breaks loose and I go crazy! Love it!! By the middle of the day I completely forgot I was even wearing the nail polish and I even got a compliment on it. 🙂

Day 3 – Exercise – stuck in a rut

As far as exercise goes, my version of stuck in a rut is plain old NOT exercising. I think about it a lot! Does that count?!? On days that I do exercise it consists of taking walks around the neighborhood. We recently bought an exercise board that I saw as one of the products on Shark Tank so that was a bit of a stretch but I knew I was still being pretty lame about it. So, I decided to join an extreme fitness group on Facebook called We Do Hard Stuff. I figured it would inspire me to get my butt in gear. These people are serious about their exercise! They have challenges each month and donations are sent to different charities each month so it’s a great cause. I kept seeing posts where people were talking about how many burpees they did that month. What the hell is a burpee?!? My first uncomfortable moment was introducing myself to the group and second was showing my ignorance by asking what a burpee was. I know now!! I have since attempted to do a burpee – 4 of them to be exact. So friggin’ hard!! If you were in the dark like I was, check out this video on how to do a burpee.

Day 4 – What’s For Dinner?

Each week we buy the same food, make the same recipes, eat at the same restaurants and order the same dishes. Creatures of habit!!! Whenever the girls and I go out to lunch with my mom, she always says girls’ choice on where we go. It usually comes down to 2 places – Panera or California Pizza Kitchen. Last week when we were meeting my mom I threw out this crazy idea to the girls – why don’t we try a NEW place?!? You would have thought I suggested we go to the moon by the expression on their faces followed by a shrill of Noooooooo!!! We ended up at CPK. I ordered something I hadn’t ordered before. They didn’t. I also tried a vegan cookie for the first time. My younger daughter has been vegan for a month now which is a whole topic I’ll save for another post. The cookie was supposed to be chocolate chip. It tasted like Apple Jacks cereal with chocolate chips. Not a fan!

Day 5 – The information We Take In

I love going to book stores! When I pay a visit to Barnes & Noble, upon entering the store I make a beeline to the magazine section, specifically the Crafts & Hobbies section, followed by the Food section and then if I’m feeling really adventurous the Home section. Like clockwork. On this day I decided to venture out to the other sections. Woo Hoo – look at me go!! I ended up at the Healthy Lifestyles section where I found a magazine I’m so excited about called In The Moment – mindful ways to live your life well. LOVE this magazine!

A few takeaways from this little experiment:

I survived! Granted they were all baby steps but last week while I was doing this challenge, it was helping to build up the “being uncomfortable” muscle and I took action in areas of my business that I had previously been putting off.
I found a new magazine that sparked so many new creative ideas for me. If you want creative ideas for your business, start to look outside of your industry.
It was fun doing this challenge with other like minded women. One woman gave up her routine of her morning coffee, another went skipping though a park risking looking like a 5 year old, and another posted a video of herself without any makeup on. We all took leaps and stretched… and survived!

My challenge to you if you’re not satisfied with the status quo of your life and biz, is to really take a look and think about which areas are currently running on autopilot and how you can switch things up a bit. Build up that muscle so you can start to grow leaps and bounds in your life and biz!

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Aug 25 2017

Why Little Things Matter

There are many quotes that I love and inspire me, and then there’s one that while it does inspire me, it also haunts me. Throughout the day, this one particular quote keeps running through my head to help keep me on track.

How you do one thing is how you do everything.⠀

In the morning when I feel lazy about making my bed, this phrase pops into my head.

When I’m feeling unmotivated to exercise, I hear it again.

When I try to put off sending an email that I know I need to send, it’s there again.

This one phrase helps to keep me on track during the day.

I start off by making that bed because it sets the tone for the rest of the day. Think about it – if you’re willing to slack off on a little thing like making your bed, where else in your life and biz will you slack off? By not making the bed, you’re basically setting the tone for a slack off day. Is that really how you want your day to go?

These seemingly little unimportant habits can add up to big negative habits in the long run.

So…next time you want to slack off – even if it seems like something so unimportant – like making a bed, keep this phrase in mind to keep you on track.⠀
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So tell me – did you make your bed this morning??