Tag: the best year of your life

life curation · reading list

The Best Year of Your Life: The “Plan It” Section, Part 1

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Ooh, it’s Monday again, and this month is just moving right along! I’ve been having a lot of fun with April: that may be because of the Joy Challenge, or maybe it’s the warmer weather we enjoyed over the past weekend. In any case, this has been a fun time for me.

plan

As part of creating the best year of my life, I’m reflecting on my December book selection, The Best Year of Your Life by Debbie Ford. In my previous post here and here, I discussed the Dream It section of the book, and how I worked through the exercises outlined in those chapters. Now, I’ll discuss the Plan It section of the book, which I feel has the most intense and critical exercises of the book.

Since the material in this portion of the book are crucial to consciously creating the best year of my life, I’m going to go through this part MUCH more carefully. I’ll break this review down into three parts: one for each chapter in the Plan It section.

Chapter 4 of this book talks about creating a clean slate. How many of us try to create something brand new and wonderful on top of our old mess? I can’t recall how many times I “turned over a new leaf” only for those same old leaves to pop up as soon as I lose my focus or resolve.

So my exercise for this chapter was to handle unresolved projects, incomplete tasks, and relationships past their expiration dates. I’m happy to say that there are only a few projects and tasks that I have to do (mainly, closing out some tax consulting projects from last year and finalizing financial arrangements) and I have no relationships that I need to sever: my current circle is healthy and positive. I’ve given myself until June 30th to complete the old tasks and projects, allowing myself one project/task per week until they are all done. I’ve listed out the actions I need to take on my calendar, so I won’t have to think too hard about what to do next.

Do you need to “clean up” before you move forward? Let me know what you intend to finish up during the next few weeks and months!

life curation

Living Your Best Life: Take Control of Your Financial Condition

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Happy Monday! Nothing like talking about money to get the week started LOL!

I previously mentioned how my divorce was the catalyst for my personal growth. Part of that growth journey included getting to know all aspects of myself all over again. I had to do some HARD work, mainly in the realm of facing my reality without letting that reality depress me.

I eased into this work by starting with the things that felt truly neutral: in my case, the most neutral things I could work on were my money and my career. I know that money is usually a charged topic when it comes to married couples,, but I handled our household finances, and I felt pretty competent when it came to budgeting. So, starting here seemed like a good idea.

April 25, 2025

I realized that, while I paid our bills on time and had automatic withdrawals for our retirement accounts, I really didn’t know much about our finances. And, now that I was handling my finances solo, I needed to get a grip on what I had already in place, and what I still needed to address.

Enter a financial binder.

A financial binder organizes your financial information, so that you have all of that data at your fingertips. You can make copies of it and provide it to trusted family members, put it in your safe (and your safe deposit box), or drop it off with your estate attorney (assuming that you have one, which you probably will, after completing the binder and realizing that an estate attorney is a wise investment). The binder is particularly useful when you’re trying to figure out the “gaps” in your financial life, be it a lack of certain advisors, under-tended accounts, or backup plans that need to be established.

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Take time to get organized (but don’t put your croissant directly on your desk!)

Financial binders are a great way to get your money organized and to give you some peace of mind. This is especially useful if you’re navigating a breakup and you need to know what areas of your financial life need to be addressed now that you’ve “uncoupled” (oh how I love that term). The best part about a binder is that you don’t have to address all of the gaps in one day: you can pace yourself, knowing that you’ve got time to get it done and, with determination and focus, you can get it all done well.

I’ve had a few versions of these, but the one available online for free through Utah State University is by and far my favorite (click on the link to download it). It’s clearly written, captures a lot of information, and has a great set of instructions on the first page, so you have some solid guidance for what you’ll need before you undertake this project.

As tax day creeps closer, make it a point to start getting clear on your financial condition, whether you’re navigating a divorce/breakup, happily coupled, or satisfyingly single. Having knowledge of where you stand financially is extremely empowering and can really help you to feel inspired to improve your condition, or relaxed about where you are currently.

life curation

The Best Year of Your Life: the Dream It Section Follow-up

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A few weeks ago, I gave a brief recap of my revelations while working through the book, The Best Year of Your Life by Debbie Ford. I completed my notes on Chapter 1, but I hadn’t finished fleshing out my thoughts on Chapters 2 and 3. Here, I’ll follow up on what I learned from doing the work outlined in those chapters.

Doing the Work to Create my

 

Chapter 2: Exposing the Fantasy -I thought deeper about the feelings I associate with my “fantasy” life: I often fantasize that I will feel joy, eagerness (happily looking forward to the good stuff to come) and calm. Activating joy will be easy, since I’m doing the Joy Challenge and will be regularly activating that emotion on a daily basis. Eagerness will come from taking more chances and affirming the goodness of everything that comes across my path. I can engage the feeling of calm by instituting relaxation practices for different scenarios. Right now, I can only think of two situations that would greatly benefit from the relaxation practice: I’ll need one for when I feel stressed about work, and one that I can engage to set the tone for a good night’s sleep. Once I finalize the details of those practices, I’ll make another post describing them. That takes care of Chapter 2’s exercises!

Chapter 3: Stepping Into Greatness – I allowed inspiration to come to me, and I created my vision for this year: I will become a well-known influencer, using my reach to encourage people to supporting the arts, move past relationship disappointments, and create the most enjoyable, luxurious lives that they can experience.  The traits I mentioned in the previous post – discipline and boldness (extroversion) – still apply. Creativity is also required, as is excellent communication skills. Focus will be big for me: I tend to get sidetracked. I could easily list about 5 – 10 additional realms that I want to influence, but my primary love is the arts, so I’m going to focus on that, with healing from relationship trauma and living high-quality lives as secondary and tertiary goals.

I’m glad I got a chance to review these chapters and get clear on what I’m dreaming up in 2018. I’ll be sharing more on how I plan out this year’s activities in a future post. Ciao for now!

reading list

Reading List: April’s Book

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creativity is Intelligence having fun (1)

As part of creating the best year of my life, I’m committed to doing the internal and external work that will help me realize my intentions and create the lifestyle that I desire. In support of this journey, I am focused on reading books that will enhance my life, either through providing inspiration, knowledge, or entertainment, all for the sake of crafting a wonderful year.

For April’s book of the month, I’ve selected Lifestyle Design for a Champagne Life by Cassie Parks. I’ve read this one before, but I didn’t execute all of the exercises mentioned in the book. I have, however, read another of Cassie’s books, Manifest $10,000, and I got phenomenal results, so I am confident that Lifestyle Design for a Champagne Life will be truly life-changing for me.

However, as you all know, I’m doing the Joy Challenge for April, so I am going to read Lifestyle Design but I may have to save the exercises for May, when I have a bit more time and can give it my full attention. That being said, if I find that I do have a bit of time, and inspiration leads me to completing some of the exercises in April, then I’ll do so. I believe in not “overworking” my conscious creation muscle by doing too many things at once. But I also believe in following inspiration, so we’ll see how it goes.

Have any of you read Cassie Parks’s books before? Let me know in the comments below!

life curation · reading list

Book Review: How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci by Michael J. Gelb

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I’m a bit behind with my book reviews, but it’s great to finally get caught up.  February’s book selection was  “How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci” by Michael J. Gelb.

I enjoyed that this book is broken down into 7 broad concepts, and the author goes to great lengths to describe how da Vinci embodied those concepts

The seven Da Vincian principles – Curiosita (curiosity), Dimostrazione (closely examining beliefs and learning via questioning), Sensazione (fully engaging the senses), Sfumato (embracing uncertainty and ambiguity), Arte/Scienza (balancing between arts and sciences), Corporalita (physical health and fitness), Connessione (understanding relationships between and connection among all things)- are the building blocks for living a genius life. Gelb provides examples from da Vinci’s life, as well as practical exercises, to describe how these principles worked in the past and how we can make these work in the present day.

 

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I especially appreciated how Gelb provided exercises for embodying the Da Vincian principles at work and while parenting. He took great care to show how these concepts can be applied wholistically. I feel that many books exclude multiple groups in favor of focusing on one particular group. But this is a testament to Gelb’s application of da Vinci’s stance of connessione: all groups are connected, related and at some level inseparable.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely reread it! I think I’ll draw upon these concepts for future posts, because I strongly feel that this multidimensional approach to life is crucial. In these times, where change can happen in an instant and we need to be able to respond quickly, I feel there is so much benefit to training ourselves to be the best thinkers that we can be.

Make sure that you check this one out! You won’t regret it!

life curation

April’s Joy Challenge: Join Me!

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Happy Sunday, my friends! I hope you’ve had an enjoyable weekend so far.

Whenever I come across something that I think you all would enjoy or find useful, I make sure to share it here. It’s my pleasure to share something with  you today that I can personally vouch for: I participated in this event last year, and I saw major changes in my life within 30 days!

Joy

(photo courtesy of Orfordville Lutheran Church)

Every April, Amina Makhdoom of Lunch With Cinderella hosts the Joy Challenge, a 30 day program designed to help participants reach their goals through the magic of including JOY in their day-to-day lives. Amina’s group is an amazing, encouraging group that helps keep joy at the forefront of the conversations being held.

Since I’ve completed the challenge, I can confirm the quality of the content and the efficacy. Amina has even won the Best Law of Attraction Program Award for the Joy Challenge. Best of all? This program is free of charge, and it is a great way to get a feel for the work that Amina does.

I’d love for you all to join me for this April’s Joy Challenge! You can sign up here for the challenge. I can’t wait to see what magic you create during the month!

life curation · reading list

The Best Year of Your Life: The “Dream It” Section

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Happy Monday, beloveds! What better way to start a week than to discuss some of the things I’ve done during the past (almost) two months in preparation for my best year ever?

strangecharmed

(photo courtesy of StrangeCharmed.com, one of my new favorite websites)

As you all recall, Debbie Ford’s The Best Year of Your Life was my December reading list selection, and I reviewed the book in January. I didn’t want to make the review too exhaustive, because I intended to reference it throughout the year. This post is the first of those references, and I’ll share my takeaways from the first section of the book, the Dream It section.

Chapter 1: Creating a Powerful Intent – I’ve been doing affirmations for quite some time now, but I recently changed my daily affirmation to the one provided in the book. Daily, I affirm, “This is the best year of my life”. I’ve noticed that I have had a much “smoother” day-to-day experience, My life isn’t “perfect” but it’s good and I am more aware of the little ways that show my life as being good and satisfying. I can improve on this step by using some of the tips in the book, such as writing my affirmation on signs and notes and posting them in my office and home. I could also use it as a background on my phone and computer.

Chapter 2: Exposing the Fantasy – I need to redo this step. I did it in December but I didn’t put as much time and energy into it as I would like. I need to specify the feeling I associate with my “fantasy” life and then clarify exactly how I will activate that feeling daily. This is a key principle of law of attraction, so I’ve done it before but I’ve never been consistent about it. The consistency will really make the difference.

Chapter 3: Stepping Into Greatness – I could stand to redo this step, as well. My vision for this year isn’t as laser-focused as I would like. It’s a bit fuzzy, so getting really clear and then identifying the personality traits that would make it possible would do wonders for realizing this best year of my life. Off of the top of my head, traits such as discipline and boldness (extroversion) would bring me closer to my dream. But, I want to make sure that I’m invoking the best qualities to bring about my ideal life, so I’ll spend some more time on that.

So I’ll post again, in a couple of weeks, just confirming the progress I’ve made on redoing the activities from Chapters 2 and 3. I’m looking forward to sharing that with you all!

international · travel

I’m Back From My Trip To . . .

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Nairobi, Kenya!

No one won the prize I offered in my Guess Where I’m Headed post, so I’ll be the sole benefactor of some neat Kenyan souvenirs. But even if you didn’t guess the location correctly, you can still check out my pics from the trip: I have photos on my Instagram but I’ll also share a few on this post.

Since I enjoyed a lot of activities while I was there, I will have a LOT of reviews coming over the next couple of weeks. I am excited to talk about my hotel experience, sightseeing at major landmarks, my museum visit, my first safari, dining out, and more. I also plan to do an in-depth video explaining how anyone can afford international travel, and how to plan for domestic and international trips (including timelines and helpful tips from an experienced traveler).

Without further ado, here is a soupcon of my photos from my time in Nairobi, Kenya. Enjoy (and look out for those reviews soon)!