Nourishment!

Happy Friday All! Sometimes we can get so busy with the cares of life that we begin to neglect the things that matter most. I’ve challenged myself recently to only focus on the things that nourish me. Now we know nourishment is necessary to maintain good health and for continued growth. When we give our time and energy to people and situations that constantly drain us, we begin to lack the vital nutrients we need to keep going. We have to take control of our mental and physical peace and know how to enforce healthy boundaries. A good starting point?.. focusing on the things that nourish you! If there’s a friend that drains you daily and only calls to complain, it might be wise to distance yourself from them. Call the friends that make you smile and laugh! Focus on the relationships that add to your life. Make healthy conversations and joyful interactions a priority. Take care of yourself and protect your peace. Focus on the things that nourish you! Have a great weekend!

Why Worry?

Happy Friday! We’ve made it to the weekend! If your week was anything like mine, you’re just barely holding on. These past few days have been chaotic to say the least. I found myself worrying, anxious, irritable, and completely unfocused. There were several times of doubt, aggravation, frustration, and apathy. Amongst other things, I’m transitioning from one role to another and IT’S BEEN A WEEK! Despite dealing with a myriad of emotions and situations, I was able to reflect on those tumultuous days and recall some things to my remembrance. As with most changes or new opportunities, it’s easy to begin to worry. What will happen? Will I like it? Am I enough? These thoughts are natural. But what isn’t natural, is letting those thoughts completely unnerve us. I caught myself worrying about so many things that are beyond my control until it hit me.. Why am I worrying? Haven’t I survived EVERY single bad day I’ve ever been faced with? Hasn’t God always provided and seen me through? Why worry? I know he’ll continue to guide me like he always has. One bad moment, doesn’t have to ruin the whole day. Things happen that are beyond our control all the time; we notice and we adjust. The focus should be on us and what we can control and handle. The rest will work itself out! It’s a waste of time trying to make sense out of nonsense! So when we find ourselves spiraling and worrying, lets think back to all of the moments we’ve overcome already and be assured that we will continue to be victorious! Have an amazing weekend! 🙂

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! We made it to 2024 and that is indeed a blessing. So many people like to dive head first into a new year with tons of resolutions and goals, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but we rarely stop to appreciate all of the things we accomplished in the previous year. Now I’m sure someone is saying… I didn’t do ANYTHING in 2023, right? Well if you simply survived and made it through, that is indeed an accomplishment to be proud of. If you kept putting one foot in front of the other each day, you have something to celebrate! 2023 was full of hidden obstacles and plenty of curveballs, but we were victorious! Perhaps last year didn’t go the way you thought it would, but are there any lessons that we can take from it? Sometimes we focus so deeply on what went wrong, and ignore all of the things that went right. So before we begin to write out new goals, first let’s appreciate our growth, assess what went well, and then recognizes our areas for improvement. Let’s be realistic this year. We always want to swallow the elephant whole, instead of cutting it into bite-sized pieces. We set the bar so high that it isn’t attainable, and then we’re disappointed when we miss the mark. Enough of that! Life is hard enough as it is, so why add more unnecessary pressure? Let’s focus on adding more values to our lives like love, compassion, encouragement, and patience. There will always be another pound to lose and another dollar to save, but you may only get one chance to make a lasting impact on someone else’s life, and the world around you. Let’s choose the goals that really matter and let them permeate our lives in a more meaningful way. Cheers to a happy 2024!

The Giants Keep on Coming!

Lately l feel like my life could be summarized by the following statement: “If it ain’t one thing, it’s another! The giants just keep on coming!” I’m sure at times we all can relate to the sentiments of “When it rains, it pours,” but even during those trying times, we can still find things to be grateful for! When the ‘Giants’ keep coming, you have to learn to control what you can control! Sometimes we drive ourselves crazy worrying about things that will never happen and panicking before anything ever happens! STOP AND CONTROL WHAT IS WITHIN YOUR POWER TO CONTROL! We can be guilty of putting more pressure on ourselves than anyone else! Let’s break that habit! When those hurdles of life come, we will do our best to jump over each one as best as we can and keep going to the finish line! Giving up isn’t an option! WE GOT THIS!! 🙂

It’s Been a While…

Hello There! It’s been a while since we’ve connected! Happy 2023!! How’s everything? A LOT has happened since we ‘spoke’ last! Hopefully everyone is still keeping on! Let’s take a second to do a quick pulse check! How are we mentally? Physically? Emotionally? How’s our self-talk? Are we still progressing forward? Or have we been allowing the cares of the world to choke us out? Let’s take a moment and reflect! Every day that we’re blessed with is a new chance to improve! With every sunrise, a new day begins! Let’s seize each opportunity that we are given. Maybe yesterday wasn’t the best, but let’s live in the present and appreciate the opportunities we have RIGHT NOW! Let’s choose to focus on what’s right, instead of what isn’t! I’ll leave you with this quote:

“For whatever it’s worth, it’s never too late to be whoever you want to be. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start over.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

Yesterday does NOT have to dictate your tomorrow! You make the rules! Fight to create the life you want! Have a great weekend! 🙂

100%

Happy Friday All! It’s been a while, but I hope everyone is doing well! So much has been going on in the world and in life, but I wanted to stop and check in! As I was driving one day, the lyrics of an old song popped into my head and I just kept singing the same part over: “I’m trying to make it to 100! 99 and 1/2 won’t do!” And depending on what’s at stake, that is completely accurate! In some avenues of life, you will never make it trying to do the bare minimum. 100% will be required for successful completion. But as I continued to ponder the lyrics, it made me think deeper. Sometimes we put a lot of unneeded pressure on ourselves trying to FORCE 100% in so many areas and we leave ourselves drained and stressed out instead of logically navigating our issues! In life there are some things that we will not be able to avoid and it will require EVERYTHING we have to push through, but the personal pressures that we place on ourselves mentally can be adjusted. Let’s lead with a more collaborative mindset; meaning, let’s stop the ALL OR NOTHING mentality. Continual additions are still progress. Let’s work on properly aligning what areas of life we allow to consume us and work to find lasting balance! Maybe I don’t have 1 hour to workout everyday, but doing 30 minutes on the weekend is better than nothing. Every properly aligned step we take is still leading us in the right direction. It might take us an extra hour to get there, but we arrive prepared and refreshed, and not stressed out and overwhelmed rushing to the finish line! Just some food for thought! Feel free to sound off in the comments! I hope you guys have a great weekend!

No Matter What!

No matter what, show up for yourself everyday! Some days there will be a laundry list of things for you to do, and not enough time to cover half of them! Some days it’s a struggle to even get out of the bed and force yourself to live life! Sometimes depression and anxiety will beat us with many stripes! Life can happen and leave us misplaced and devastated. Even in these moments, it’s important for us to continue to persevere and fight to show up for ourselves! That may look different from day to day, but your best is all you can do! The biggest battle you will ever fight will be between your ears! The mind is the battlefield of it all! The more we can control our minds, the better we’ll be at controlling our lives! We will never achieve what we can’t conceive. If you don’t believe you’ll ever get better, chances are you won’t! Everyday no matter how hard it is, we have a choice to make! We can remain chained to our past failures, doubts, and fears, or we can PUSH and show up for ourselves the best we can and keep making an effort every single day! We can all easily fall into slumps, but we can’t allow ourselves to stay there! Let’s make it a priority to show up for ourselves DAILY, no matter what! 🙂

Kindness

Today’s message will be short and sweet! ALWAYS BE KIND! It costs us absolutely nothing to be kind to someone. So many people are dealing with challenges and battles that we are not aware of and are doing the best they can to maintain! Send someone a kind word of encouragement today. It just might shift the entire course of their day! Let’s stop being so self-consumed and self-absorbed and esteem others better than ourselves! Smiles and laughter are contagious; spread them around! Always be kind to others! You never know when the tables may turn and you will be in need of someone’s mercy and kindness! Have a great weekend!

Gratitude Never Gets Old!

Happy Friday! I hope you are all well! Before we get a head start on our weekend, let’s stop for a moment and re-center. I know it’s not always easy to look at the glass as half full instead of half empty! I know it’s challenging to always try to keep a positive attitude with so much going on in life. I know it can be difficult to constantly choose faith over fear, but.. it always pays off in the end. No matter what situation we are in, there is a lesson that can be learned. If we choose to analyze the situation correctly, we can still walk away with sincere gratitude! When we talk about gratitude, most people only walk away with the idea of thankfulness. And while that is a large part, there’s more. Gratitude also includes a readiness to spread that thankful attitude on to others. Our attitudes are contagious and we can control so much simply by our words and demeanor. So let’s all choose to focus on the good things that we can control, starting with ourselves! Let’s examine our lives and add joy and positivity where we can because no matter how bad you may have it right now, things could always be worse. There are people praying for that ‘bad’ situation you have because they are living in ‘worst!’ So let’s count our blessings and not our burdens! Having an attitude of gratitude will never go out of style! The fruits of gratitude will never get old! Have a great weekend!

Fallacy!

Happy F-Word Friday All! Today’s word is FALLACY! A FALLACY is a misconception that usually results from inaccurate reasoning! In our day to day lives, we encounter many different fallacies! I think the worst fallacies come from ourselves! Too often we fill our minds with things like: ‘I’m not good enough!’ or ‘I can’t do this!’ We trick ourselves into believing that we are ‘less than’ and we adopt a defeated mindset! Well what better day than TODAY to drop that ‘stinking thinking’ mindset and to adopt an attitude that is filled with self-respect and encouragement? Hard times come, but they don’t last forever! The world is harsh enough with its twisted standards and unrealistic ideologies. Why add yourself to the list of doubters? Choose to be kind to yourself and appreciate all of your hard work, determination, and strength! Sometimes we don’t realize just how strong we are! Let’s choose to embrace our resilience and keep progressing! Let’s bury self-doubt TODAY! Have an amazing weekend!!!