Stepping Away from Your Creative Ally
I have tried to write this about three times now so hopefully third time is the charm.
In a nutshell.
At the end of August I will be stepping back from my business and closing it down for an indeterminate amount of time so that I can follow my passions to a career that I truly love.
(If you don’t want the long story but would like to learn about what this change means for you (i.e. super discounts) skip down to the last section.)
SOPA and PIPA and Why You Should Care
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.
Read More2012 Goal Binder
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!
You Are Awesome!
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 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. : )
Read MoreTaking Time to Breathe
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?
Image Source: modernhepburn.tumblr.com via mrs. french on Pinterest
Following Your Passions is REALLY Hard… But REALLY Worth It
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?