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SOPA and PIPA and Why You Should Care

Wednesday, January 18th, 2012

Source: thisisnthappiness.com via Ben on Pinterest

 

Today several large websites including Wikipedia, Wired.com and Craigslist thousands more have blacked out their websites in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills that are making their way through congress right now.

In a nutshell, SOPA and PIPA are two bills that are trying to stop the piracy of copyrighted material (images, music, movies) which in theory is a good thing. You know what else works in theory, Communism…

Pirating music and movies is bad. We all know that, but with these two bills simple pictures, silly animated gifs and user created videos could put an entire site at risk of being blacklisted.

Why should you care

If these two bills are allowed to pass, sites with user submitted content would be at risk of being flagged as piracy. The result would be the loss of PayPal and other payment processors for the site as well as no search engine activity at all. Basically, sites like YouTube and Facebook would be deemed illegal and could be shut down completely.

Additionally, if you have comments on your site or if you have a forum attached to your site you could very well be held responsible for anything that your users add. For smaller sites this could be doable with minimum effort but for larger sites with hundreds of users this could be a full time job.

How you can help

Contact your representatives and senators and let them know your concerns about the bills. These bills have already been controversial so anything you can do to help push back against them would be great! Wikipedia has a great site to help you find your representatives: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:CongressLookup

If you still don’t understand the bills head on over to The Oatmeal. He’s blacked out his site and created an AWESOME animated GIF that explains the issues perfectly! : )

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2012 Goal Binder

Thursday, January 5th, 2012

Happy 2012 everyone!

In case you haven’t heard, this is your year to shine and be awesome and create amazing awesomeness (at least that’s what my Facebook and Twitter feeds are telling me…)

This year I’m doing something a bit different from my previous years (check out my posts for 2010 and 2011 here and here) and focus more on organizing my goal follow through. I’ve done really well at following through with my goals for each year but I have a lot of specific things I want to get done by specific times this year so I thought a more organized approach might be helpful.

Goal Binder

This year instead of a shiny new planner or a fancy task list app, I created a Goal Binder from scratch with paper and markers!

 

 

What you’ll need:

Binder - I used a half sized binder but you could use a full sized one too
Paper - lined or blank, whichever you like writing on best
Colored paper or Colorful dividers – I used colorful cardstock that i had laying around but you could always just buy some pre-made dividers
Hole punch
Markers, colored pencils or crayons – Color and/or write with them to liven up your pages! (I have no idea why I have markers with my maiden name writen on them but they make me feel nostolgic everytime I use them.)

I started off by creating tabs for each month with the colored cardstock. For my half sized binder that meant cutting the cardstock in half and then punching holes.

 

 

Then I added some sheets of paper with each month that will track my Goal Focus for the month, Important Dates Blog Post ideas and Money/Mileage Tracking. You can chose to track whatever you want here or you could create a traditional daily planner type setup. Whatever will keep you motivated and keep you on track.

Then I created some additional cards for my main focus or Vision cards. I chose to just draw and write out my intentions/goals for the year but you could cut out magazine images or draw pictures of your goals too! Whatever gets you excited, do that!

I created 4 cards for my main focuses this year; Me Time, Spirit, Business and Family. You might end up with just one main focus card or you might create more than four! Again, just remember this is for YOU to follow so make something that YOU like and don’t think about the right way to do it, because there isn’t a right way to create you own goals!

 

 

I realized at the end of creating my cards that I had a distinct theme for each of my main focuses so I created one final card that listed my themes all together that I could glance at and remember what was really important for me this year. I ended up putting this card on the back sleeve of the binder!

 

That’s it! Nothing super extraordinary but I’m really hoping it will have the right combination of structure and creative freedom to keep me motivated to stick with it for 2012. I may end up changing things around but that’s the beauty of using a binder because you can always take pages out and add pages in!

  • What are you goal plans for this year?
  • How are you planning on tracking your progress on your resolutions/goals for 2012?

PS: Don’t forget to check out the new Chocolate Banana website and sign up to get on the VIP list for updates and discounts on all the planning goodness!

PPS:Don’t know what a Chocolate Banana is? Click HERE for all the delicious information!

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Posted in Business Planning, Chocolate Banana, Random Thoughts, Working with your Passions | 2 Comments »

You Are Awesome!

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

Today is the start of my holiday vacation (YES!!!) and I wanted to give you all some good cheer and happy thoughts as we all celebrate the season of joy and light.

You are all special and fantastic.
(yes, even you)

Remember that even if you don’t see yourself as such, someone else out there is thinking the world of you. Make them proud by being the best you that you can be each day.

Take some time to really think about what others see in you. What do they love about your personality? What is the one thing you always get praised about? Taking an honest look at ourselves though someone elses eyes can sometime help us see how wonderful we truly are.

Your ideas and thoughts are creations waiting to be unleashed.

Want to climb a mountain? Want to record an album? Want to write your memoirs for your grandchildren to read? Hold on to your crazy plans because you never know when you might actually be able to make them a reality.

That’s the core idea behind Your Chocolate Banana. We’ve been having a great time this month discussing the steps to making your big exciting plans come to life and in January I’ll be launching the companion workbook! If you’re ready to get your crazy awesome idea rolling be sure to get on the preview list to get access before anyone else and to receive discounts on the workbook and other products!

Stop saying you CAN’T and find ways that you CAN.

“I can’t start my own business, I don’t have a degree.”
“I can’t write my novel, I don’t have enough time in my day.”

Excuses are just ways for our lizard brains to tell us “Oh this sounds scary, better not try it.” I urge you to push through your apprehensions and TRY. Make your time to write a priority. Do the research to decide if you truly need a degree to start your business. Yes, you may fail but what is life but a series of failures and happy accidents? You’ll feel better for having tried rather than never even giving it a chance to succeed.

Remember what is truly important in your life

If you’re anything like me you tend to be a workaholic and tend to get your priorities out of wack on at least a few occasions. Take some time this holiday seaeson to really decide what is the priority for your life, your business and for your family.

My daughter is now, and will always be, my priority so rearranging my business and my life needs to happen to make sure she is happy and taken care of, even if it cuts into my Facebook and WOW time (and now I’m loving Skyrim and Assassin’s Creed too… so many awesome games, so little time…)

Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah to all of you and I hope you all see yourselves the way I do, as awesome sauce. : )

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Taking Time to Breathe

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

Source: modernhepburn.tumblr.com via mrs. french on Pinterest

 

The holiday’s are taking their toll on me this year.

I’m not really a scrooge but the past few years I’ve just not been into the whole holly jolly atmosphere but this year my daughter has kind of perked up my inner elf. She’s just at the age where she’s getting really excited for Santa and the other holiday festivities so it’s helped me get excited about the holidays as well. Holiday crafts, special outings to see Santa and special family baking fun times have all been weaved in with a new product launch over on Your Chocolate Banana and my regular client work! I may not be the best at taking time to breathe but I definitely know its one of the things I need to do in my life, especially at this holly jolly time of the year.

Along with the obvious reason of “you need to breathe to live” (yes thank you Captain obvious…) taking time to sit with yourself and just breathe and let the world around you go is one of the most important tricks you can have in your de-stressing tool bag. At some points of my day I am so stressed I have to just walk away and collect myself. Sometimes though I don’t have even the time to walk away so just being able to breathe and collect my thoughts is completely satisfying and completely necessary for me.

It doesn’t need to be done sitting lotus style on a Persian rug with incense smoking in the background while you’re listening to Celtic music on your computer(even though that actually sounds like a great idea…) It could just mean closing your eyes and breathing.

Try this:
Sit with good posture (head up and back straight) but be comfortable.
Breath in deeply through your nose and fill up your lungs to the count of 5.
Breathe out, completely depleting your air, through your mouth.
Repeat this as many times as you need to feel calm. I usually do it about 5 times.

Best case scenario: You take some time to center and then plunge right back into your work with a renewed sense of vigor!

Worst case scenario: You do the deep breathing exercises and you turn into a hippy. (I’m not saying it’s a really good chance. I’m just throwing it out there…)

Most of the time when I take a step back to re-energize myself I come back to my work more excited to get stuff done. Plus I don’t get as flustered by computer OR people problems when I come at them from a calm place. It may take you away from working for 5 minutes but I can almost promise your work will not fall apart in those 5 minutes and it will totally be worth the time investment. (Unless you are a card/tooth pick house creator. In that case you may want to wait until the glue dries to center your thoughts…)

  • What are some other ways you’re been able to collect yourself and get back into your work?
  • If you’ve tried deep breathing techniques how have they worked for you?

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Following Your Passions is REALLY Hard… But REALLY Worth It

Thursday, November 10th, 2011

Sooooo, hey there! I’ve been super busy the past few weeks (plus I had the plague for about a week… joy of joys…) but this week I am back to a normal schedule and wanted to fill you in on some big things that have happened / are happening for me!

You know those dreams that you have in the back of your head just waiting to become real but you think to yourself “Naw, not something I can ever do.”? Well I had some of those and now I’m on the look out for new ones because I’ve been moving through my list pretty fast this year!

Source: voguebespoke.tumblr.com via Sara on Pinterest

 


Become an Actress

This past weekend I starred in a community theater production of Almost, Maine. I tried out for the play on a whim because I realized earlier this year that my passions really lived in performing (acting, dancing, singing) and was over the moon when I got not one role but TWO!

It was so much fun and the other actors were so inviting and really made me feel welcomed. Normally I am extremely shy when I meet new people but in that setting with those people I was my fun quirky self the whole time and it was fantastic. Feeling like I belonged there was the greatest feeling in the world and I can’t wait to do another one soon!


Raise the next Audrey Hepburn

Another big success of mine was my daughter’s 3rd birthday! I know, not really MY accomplishment that she is the cutest most wonderful little girl in the world but I like to think I’ve been a pretty big influence on how awesome she is turning out to be.

I tease people and say that I’m a horrible parent, and sometimes I really believe it, but this past year I have basically turned my business upside down and rearranged a lot of my time just to be sure she has as much of my attention as she needs. I think that at least deserves a vacation to Vegas… but I’ll settle with a big squeezy hug and an “I love you Mommy”.


Become a Speaker

(but preferably not one that lives in a van down by the river…)

This past year I’ve been putting together Power Points and worksheets to create presentations on branding, social media and business planning. Not all of them have worked out the way I had planned but the point is that I have pushed forward because this is something I really want to do in my business.

I love helping people and I love helping them figure out how to do something they didn’t think they could ever do before. Sometime there is a lot of hand holding but sometime they just need that push in the right direction to make things click for them.  I had a great workshop on how to start using social media at the Women Writing for a Change center here in Cincinnati which I was really excited to do! I really think there were some light bulb moments for some of the attendees even though we covered A LOT of content! I’m also working on my first ebook/ecourse on how to create a plan for your one big goal which will hopefully be done by the end of the year! I’m really excited about that and I’m hoping that will open a lot of new doors for me as well!


No Fat Mommy

My other big success has been my weight loss journey. I started my journey last year, almost to the date, and so far I’ve lost over 100lbs which is a lot more than the planned 50lbs that I figured I would lose! It’s amazing to be thinner and to feel better about the way I look but my favorite things about this journey has been the way it has changed my self confidence and the way I feel about myself. I spoke with a friend last week that put it very simply for me. She said that the weight was just an outward manifestation of the way I really felt about myself and I totally agree. Once I made the decision to change my life and lose the weight everything fell into place. 

All of the other items above could not have happened if I hadn’t lost the weight and gained back my feeling of ME. I feel like Sara now instead of Old Sara, as I lovingly call her now, because I was holding back so much of myself before, but now I feel free to be myself and be happy. I can put myself out on a stage and not care if people think I’m rediculous. I can act silly and chase my 3 year old daughter around the house while she squeals with delight. I still get super nervous when I do trainings and speak in front people but I’m still pushing myself out there even though it is scary.


Keep Following Your Dreams

Wow, this ended up being a sap-tastic post huh?! Well, now that you know where my passions are and how I’m moving towards them let me know where you are on your journey!

  • What successes have you had in following your passions?
  • What passions are you working towards right now that will change your life in awesome ways?
  • How have you fallen in your journey to accomplish your dreams? How did/will you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward?

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The Wonderful World of the Platypus brain

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

In addition to today’s blog post I also have a guest post up on Michelle Ward’s When I Grow Up blog! Go check out the awesomeness!

We’ve all heard of Right Brained people and Left Brained people. Right Brain’s are creative, emotional and have to touch and feel everything around them in order to understand what they’re learning. Left Brain’s are logical, analytical and need to plan out and learn before they get into doing something.

I, on the other hand am what I am calling a Platypus Brain (mostly because I love Platypuses…Platypusi….ummmm more than one Platypus.)

Platypus.

What happens when you combine lemons and sugar?
You get lemonade!

What happens when you combine humans and Cylons?
You get human/Cylon hybrids!

What happens when you combine a duck with a beaver?
You get a platypus!

In each case you have an organized, logical ingredient (lemons, Cylons and beavers) combining with a free spirit creative element (sugar, humans and ducks). When they combine they create something new and wonderful and sometimes a little hard to understand.

This is the way Platypus Brains work and because of their awesome mixture of characteristics they are hard to put in a category. Taking me as an example, I love to make to do lists and plan ahead and think problems through logically BUT I also love to go on spontaneous adventures and dance around the house like a crazy person when I need a pick me up!

I love being a Platypus Brain because it allows me to help get Right Brains organized and bring out the creative sparks in Left Brains!

What kind of brain do you have? Right Brain, Left Brain or Platypus Brain? I think there are a lot more of us out there than people think so I’d love to hear about how you see yourself!
If you don’t know how to decide what Brain you are, take this quiz and find out!

Here is my results.

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz
The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realizing your right brain/left brain tendency will help you interact with and to understand others.
Left Brain Dominance: 8(8)
Right Brain Dominance: 8(8)
Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

See! Platypus Brain! : )

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Girl Effect Post

Tuesday, October 4th, 2011

Today I am dedicating my blog post to all of the little girls, teenagers and young women out there like me that are not allowed to read this.

To all the little girls who will never grow up to become beautiful young women because of the circumstances of their birth and the country that they live in.

In any number of countries (including Ethiopia, India and Bangladesh) I might never have had the joy of going to school, graduating, going to college and marrying the love of my life.

I think about these little girls being married off and pregnant by age 12 or 13 and forced into prostitution and I think of my daughter who will never have to worry about such things.

Women are still treated as second rate citizens in much of the world even though we have taken great strides to change this. In many countries though, women are still looked upon as property and are treated as such which doesn’t make any sense to me.

The Girl Effect is trying to change that and to give little girls the same rights that I have had; the right to grow up healthy and the right to an education that will help take them out of their horrible circumstances.

Watch and share the video below with anyone and everyone to help get the word out about these little girls and how we can help ensure they grow up to become beautiful young women.

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Keep it Simple, Silly

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

 

Every Day I'm Shufflin

“Every Day I’m Shufflin” photo by Fully Sick Rapper found via Facebook

 

More is not necessarily better.

Sometimes more is just more.

I’m coming to that realization in my business as well as in my personal life so I’ve been working through a plan of attack on how to become more minimalist and focus on what truly matters in my world.

In case you haven’t been stalking me online for the past few month I will update you on some personal victories in the world of Sara:

Now when it comes to business, minimizing might sound like the ravings of a madwoman.

“What do you mean by minimizing your business?! Don’t you want to be successful and make lots and lots of money!”

Umm, well of course I want to make money (Duh…) BUT the difference is that I don’t want to stress myself and my family out in the process. What’s the point of making thousands of dollars a month if you’re too busy and stressed out to enjoy any of it? That’s where I was a few months ago and I promised myself that I would get on a path to simplifying my business to leave room for me and my family as well.

Quality over Quantity
I’ve found that having quality clients and projects to work on is much more valuable to me than having tons of wishy washy clients and boring project that don’t completely fit me. I also think I’m putting out a higher quality of work than I was when I was crazy overwhelmed and that’s good for everyone involved!

The Money will Come
Yes, not having the same amount of clients or projects as I have had in the past has taken it’s toll on my wallet but that’s ok because now I can focus on how I can build some alternate revenue streams to keep me calm and awesome but still make me some money to pay on that really expensive piece of paper I got from The Ohio State University….

For example, I am planning a live seminar in Chicago on creating a workable and non-sleep inducing business plan for Authors and Artists (more details coming next month!). Plus I have some ebook/ecourse ideas floating around in my head that I just need to put onto paper and now I have the energy to put towards these projects that I didn’t necessarily have before when I was overwhelmed with clients and projects.

If Momma isn’t Happy, Nobody is Happy
Taking time away from my business has been the key to harmony in my house. As much as I love the show Mad Men, I didn’t like how I was turning into the overworked and irritable female version of Don Draper. As sexy as he may be, I was not happy with my crazy work schedule and my short fuse because of my work schedule. Plus, with my new eating plan I can’t just chuck back a scotch every time I have a problem.

Now, I have the freedom to play with my daughter when she just HAS to have a race with her cars in the kitchen and still have time to work on projects for clients. I even have time to step back, re-energize myself in my business and work to help my tribe by writing articles!

The slower speed may not be for everyone, some people thrive on the always moving and high energy pace of work. I used to think that was where I thrived as well until I took it to the extreme and burnt myself out. Now I know that there can be a happy balance and having more than one priority in my life is entirely possible just by keeping it simple.

Weekly Exercise:

Here are some questions to ask yourself when thinking about bringing on a new project (in your business or in your personal life):

  • Does this project light me up inside and make me do cartwheels in the front yard?
  • How much time will this project take away from something important in my life (work, family, hobbies, etc)?
  • Is it worth that extra time and energy and will you be rewarded in the end?

 

My blog posts are first published in my Tuesday newsletter, Your Creative Buzz,  so if you’d like to get these posts early with extra awesomeness be sure to sign up! 

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Why I’m giving away my books

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Last week I posted pictures of my books on Facebook and told them it was first come, first served for some free books! This was an odd gesture for some people to take and some messaged me wondering what was going on and if I was all right and wondered if I was giving away all my worldly possessions because I was moving to Tibet to become a monk! (Ok so no one actually asked that but it would have been a fair question…)

I love books. I have an unnatural addiction to Half Priced Books. I can imagine living in a house filled with books or possibly even made out of books…

So why am I giving 90% of mine away then you ask? Well it’s a combination of two reasons: Quality and Karma

Quality over Quantity

I’ve come to a realization that there’s no point in keeping books on my shelf simply because they look good or make me look good for owning them. Sure, if I had my dream home I would have a private study filled to the ceiling so that you’d have to use one of those ridiculously cool ladders to reach the top books (which are always the best ones.) But I don’t have a big Victorian mansion, I have a small 1920′s craftsman style house that just needs to be aired out, de-stressed and lighted up – so the books have to go.

Some people have said that my book purging is a result of my love for my new Kindle. True, I love my Kindle but I can’t read everything on there. I have certain books that I love that I will need to read in all their physical, paper turning glory as well as all my training books and business books that just don’t seem to work as well in e-book format.

It’s Coming Back Around Again

The other part of this purge has to do with my need to do nice things for other people.

I know, it’s a weird concept for some people.

I once paid for the car behind me in a fast food drive thru and my brother thought I was on drugs! It’s a wonderful feeling to do a randomly nice thing for someone else so my thinking was, instead of selling all my books I’ll give them to the people I care about and share something I love with the people who will appreciate them!

Look through your stuff this week and see if there is any space you can clear out and lighten up and by doing that you might be able to give back in some way too!

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2011 is going to be awesome!

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

Essential Daily to-do list by CreativeKismet

It’s another year! Hurray!

Ok so I really liked this post from last year and I was surprised to see that I really followed what I said I would!

I definitely focused on self care this year. I started sending my daughter to a babysitter 2-3 days a week and it was the best thing I could have ever done for my sanity and for my business! She has a great time playing with other kids her age and I get to spend some focused time on work!

I was able to make my client goal and more which was amazingly awesome! I met some wonderful new clients this year and I can’t wait to continue to grow our relationships this year!

My self doubt may still be there but I have really tried to not let other people’s negativity affect me. Things happen and sometimes they suck, it doesn’t mean that dwelling on it will fix anything. I love that I can see the positive as opposed to the negative in situations now, even though I have a feeling is ticks some people off. ;-)

And finally, I created my cool free download Social Media for Noobs Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Tweet (if you haven’t downloaded it you still have time to and become one of the cool people!)

Ok so here is my look into the future for 2011! I can’t wait to see all the great things that I’ll make happen this year!

(more…)

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