life curation

Welcome 2019!

Welcome 2019!

I love New Year’s Day! It’s my favorite holiday because it’s symbolic of new beginnings and innumerable opportunities. There’s nothing quite as exciting as looking out and seeing a limitless horizon: that’s what every New Year’s Day feels like to me.

I’m filling in the first few weeks of January in my new planner, starting my organization challenge, and catching up with friends today. I hope you take the time to envision all of the fantastic things you want to experience in 2019 and then set your intention to have a year that exceeds your wildest dreams.

Thanks for an incredible 2018, and I can’t wait to journey through 2019 with you all! Take care, and I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!

life curation

Goodbye 2018 …

Happy Monday, friends! It’s New Year’s Eve, and we are closing the books on 2018. Did you get everything you wanted? Did you see some dreams come true? Did you get answers to some of your burning questions? Are you reflecting back on the year with appreciation?

Here’s a truth you may not hear too often: it doesn’t matter whether things worked out exactly as you hoped. All that matters is that you lived to see another day, and every day offers an opportunity to “reset”. Life is the gift, and everything else is icing.

Goodbye 2018

I took off from posting for the past couple of days: my first blogging “break” ever. Inspiration led me to stop pushing myself so hard and to take a break to regroup and think carefully about how I want to enter 2019. I needed that space to clear my mind.

This past weekend led me to the difficult decision to cease doing weekend blog posts. While I love writing and have no problem doing it daily, I feel that having the weekend will give me more time to enjoy my journey and perfect my writing craft. Not to mention, the time off really gave me an energy boost: I look forward to feeling that way more frequently.

I’m going to get back to working on my vision board and I’ll be back tomorrow. Have a great evening, and I’ll talk with you all soon!

life curation

2019 Planning – Career and Finance

Happy Monday, beloveds! I hope you all are enjoying your day and getting your errands done in a comfortable, easy fashion. Christmas Eve is a notoriously hectic day for stores so I’m hoping that you have already done whatever you need to do and that you can just enjoy relaxing before the holiday. However, if you have to go out in the crowds, my thoughts are with you!

I’m taking this time before the New Year to reflect and get some clarity on what I want in the upcoming year. I wrote about my health and fitness goals in a previous post, and now I’m reflecting on my intentions and goals for my career and money.

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This woman looks so full of focus and purpose: may I be her in the upcoming year

As with my previously listed goals, I want to keep things fairly simple. The problem I see that most people make is having too many “irons in the fire”, or too many goals happening simultaneously. The goals tend to be too vague as well: it’s hard to know when you’ve reached your goal if you haven’t gotten crystal clear on what your goal actually is. That’s why it’s important to take some time to sit with your thoughts and feelings, and give yourself the space to suss out the details of what you desire in your future life.

Here are my career and finance goals for 2019:

  • Develop two additional income streams
  • “Try out” at least two different art-related careers
  • Work with a financial planner to begin wealth and legacy planning activities

The intention behind my goals for my career and finance is that I can further create financial independence as well as transition into a satisfying and lucrative career in the art world. There are still a lot of little steps that have to be taken along the way, but the most important thing is to START, and allow the path to unfold in front of me.

Watching the path unfold involves trust unlike anything else I’ve experienced. But I’m ready for it, so it’s all good.

Thanks for stopping by today, and I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow. Take care!

life curation

Need Help Developing Your Vision for 2019?

Happy Sunday, friends! I spent most of today resting as I’ve had really low energy, but I’m feeling a little refreshed so I wanted to make sure that I get this post done before I get tied up in chores and other activities this evening.

I recently came across a great resource for anyone working on their personal vision statement. You know, having a personal vision statement can do wonders for giving you a “compass” for your behaviors: the right vision statement can help you to stay focused as you work toward accomplishing your goals.

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Kelley Rosano is a coach, astrologer, and author that has developed some great materials to support anyone trying to create a more successful future. Her Personal Vision guide has some great questions to help you reveal what really matters to you and what vision is most aligned with your personal desires, strengths and calling.

I’m working through the questions little by little throughout the next week. I’ve already gained so much clarity from this exercise! I’m glad that I found it before the end of the year. I can’t wait to share my vision statement with you all in a few days.

I advise you to check out the Personal Vision guide as well as the other offerings on her Free Resource page. Also, if you’re interested in her services, you can always contact her directly. I love that she has generously provided so many great materials that can be used to get a head start on a productive and successful year!

That’s all for this Sunday: I’ll catch up with you all tomorrow. Enjoy your evening!

fitness · life curation

2019 Planning – Health and Wellness

Welcome, Monday! You’ve been gone for a few days but we’re all somewhat glad to see your return!

As I plan for the upcoming year, I’m reviewing the planner I bought a few weeks ago and starting to think seriously about what goals I’m pursuing in the upcoming year. My challenge is to balance my ambition with a little bit of realism. I don’t want to set my goals too high and then end up missing the mark.

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So, I’m taking my time to consider some major areas of my life and set realistic goals that are attainable but still require me to “stretch” a bit. Since I’ve been talking about improving my health since the summer, I figured I’d start with this area.

For 2019, my health and wellness goals are as follows:

  • Learn to swim
  • Take at least 3 dancing/fitness courses that I’ve never taken before
  • Achieve my goal weight
  • Start working with a naturopathic doctor

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My overall goal is improved health and more energy. I know that I can achieve it if I do the work and stay committed. I won’t write a tonabout my health journey – the blog will be taking a more focused turn in the new year – but I will post periodic updates so that you all can keep me accountable.

I’ll have more posts over the next two weeks about my 2019 planning. Look out for those, and I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!

life curation

Making Space Challenge: End of the Year Updates

Happy, happy Saturday! I figured I’d make this last post about the Making Space challenge before the end of the year, because it’ll be 2019 before you know it.

I’m still doing my thing with the challenge. It’s a little easier to “make space” in December because I have more time at home (due to the holidays). When I’m enjoying “down” time, I always start clearing out things and tidying up. That may defeat the purpose of taking time off, but I enjoy it, so that’s that.

However, I also tend to clear out a lot of clutter (in the form of magazines) during this time. Since I create a vision board every New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day, I need images to paste on it. So, a few weeks before NYE, I start ripping up my magazines, putting the images I plan to use in a folder and throwing out the magazine when I’m done. I also will rip out any articles that I’ve been meaning to read: I challenge myself to read them all before the end of December.

Sometimes I read the articles, sometimes I miss my December deadline. It’s the intention that matters though, right? I always intend to do it, and eventually, the articles get read because ripped out pages don’t age well and I get tired of them holding valuable space in my file cabinet.

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So for the challenge, I’ve been working through no less than 3 magazines a day. At the rate that I’m going, I will have gotten rid of at least 50 magazines by the end of the year. That’s going to create massive space in my magazine bins, and I can start using those containers for something else (yay!)

Are you all making space before the end of the year? Please let me know in the comments below, and if you’re so inclined, take a pic of how you’re making space and use the hashtag #makingspacechallenge or #makingspace so I can see what you’re up to.

Have a great day, and I’ll talk to you all tomorrow!

life curation

Writing Out My Bucket List

After a few weeks of feeling uninspired and restless, I finally started getting back to my “normal”. I’m not 100% back but I’m on my way. As part of my recent burst of inspiration, I started writing out my bucket list.

checklistNow, I’ve done this before (multiple times, actually). But funny enough, I can’t find any of my old copies. I take that as a sign that I need new dreams. NO surprise there: I’ve already accomplished a lot of what I’ve wanted to do (as I mentioned in a previous post).

So I’m starting all over again. And I needed some ideas to help get my creativity flowing. I found this great list on Celestine Chua’s website that has 101 things everyone should try. She also makes this fabulous list available as a free PDF so you can get a printable version if you’d like. Between this list, Write It Down Make It Happen, and this incredible book I’ll be reviewing soon (more about that later), I expect to be absolutely unstoppable next year.

To our continued success! I hope your Monday is happy, productive and everything else you want it to be. Take care, and talk to you all tomorrow!

life curation

Let Inspiration Lead You

Happy Saturday, friends! I recently experienced a major positive shift in my energy, and I wanted to share what happened that turned things around a bit. Now, the positive shift doesn’t mean that things are completely perfect; in fact, nothing is truly perfect in my life right now. However, this shift was powerful enough to give me a significant “push” when I wasn’t feeling inspired to do anything at all.

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Letting inspiration guide you is as simple as letting go

Earlier this week, the word “lagniappe” crossed my mind. Lagniappe is a Creole term meaning “a little something extra”. It’s a little gift or token that may be given for anything or nothing. Usually, little shops in New Orleans (though this might also happen in other parts of Louisiana, I’m specifically referring to New Orleans because I’ve been there) will throw in a little extra gift when you purchase something, or even give you a little token just for stopping by and chatting with the staff for a bit.

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A common sight in many shops in New Orleans – masks with all sorts of fancy designs

I hadn’t thought of the word in years but here it was, on my mind. I just figured that meant it was time to plan another trip to New Orleans (which would be fabulous!) and let the thought pass. I went on with my day as normal and didn’t think any more of it.

Two days later, I went online and read some posts in one of my coaching groups. I saw a post from a member that was unclear on what she needed to do to resolve the issue that she was facing. I thought a writing technique that I first read in Write It Down, Make It Happen by Dr. Henriette Anne Klauser. I flipped through the book, located the technique I wanted to describe to her, and posted my response.

After writing the response, I flipped to the back of the book, right before the bibliography. Right there, in the middle of the page, was the word “lagniappe”. For clarity, Dr. Klauser is not Creole nor does she write about life in Louisiana or anything else related to that part of the world. Literally, the word was on the page, like a beacon, telling me that what I needed was sitting on my bookshelf all along.

I’ve been languishing a bit because my dreams need fine tuning. It’s funny: I actually have almost everything that I want. I’ve spent years getting clear on my desires and successfully co-creating everything that I’ve wanted. I’ve traveled to places that I couldn’t imagine that I’d ever see in person. I’m in my dream field: the one that took me NINE years to get into. My family is healthy and happy, and I earn enough to do everything that I want to do (with proper planning, of course). By all accounts, I’m happy with my life and everything is great.

But my daily passion is lacking. I knew that I needed to get clearer about my art career goals as well as a few other “bucket list” items. I didn’t realize how much being “comfortable” and uninspired could negatively affect me, but now I know. So the next few weeks will be all about getting clear and finding my passion again. Now, don’t get me wrong: I love my life and find a lot of joy in it daily. But my drive was gone because I’ve already gotten so many of the things that I wanted.

I mean, what do you do when you got everything you wanted?

It’s simple: you find new dreams. You get some new goals. You find a new passion because that passion is what keeps us going.

So I’m taking some time to get quiet and let inspiration lead me. I think I know where it’s going to take me: there’s a dream that I’ve been tossing around for a bit, but I needed a little extra clarity on how I’d like for it to look in my real life. So I’m going to reread Write It Down, Make It Happen, spend some time just doing what sounds like fun (because having fun is great for setting things in motion), and allowing my new dreams to reveal themselves to me.

Have you all had to “recalibrate” your dreams? I’d love to hear how you did it: feel free to comment below and let me know how you tapped back into your passion after a period of feeling uninspired.

Take care, and enjoy your Saturday!

life curation · Uncategorized

I Got a New Planner!

Happy Friday! Let’s just take a moment to smile and rejoice as we made it to the end of another week.

A few days ago, I knew I had to embark upon my annual exercise of selecting a new planner. I hate to wait until after January 1st to buy one, because the selection isn’t as good AND I have a slightly compulsive behavior where I must fill in the first day of my calendar/planner: filling a calendar retroactively just won’t suffice.

So I buy these sorts of things in December. Last year, I was gifted a 2017/2018 planner and it was absolutely perfect: seriously, it’s exactly what I would have purchased for myself. This year, I’m buying my own and I needed to find one that met my practical needs and aesthetic preferences.

My planner had to:

  • Be pretty
  • Have lined spaces for daily entries
  • Include a space for weekly/monthly goals
  • Have convenient at-a-glance calendars for this year and next year
  • Lots of space for notes at the back of the planner
  • Less than $30

I was delighted to find this beauty at Target for a little under $13. It’s perfect: pale pink with gold lettering, and generously sized.

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I am already enjoying it so much. The first few pages of the planner have spaces for fleshing out your vision for the year, as well as milestone goals that you want to accomplish in different areas of your life. Talk about comprehensive!

This planner is by Day Designer and I highly recommend it. It’s beautiful and meets all of my requirements. I love it!