TO SUSAN

Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday to you. Happy Birthday dear Susan. Happy Birthday to you!!!! And many more....................................... Gee, I thought I'd be nervous to sing in public. LOL Hope you're having a great day!

Happy Holidays!!

Susan says: Loving greetings Readers during this holiday season. Clearly Jennifer and I are on a break! Baking and eating and working and writing and hanging with the kids and watching movies and meditating and planning and running and tidying and clearing out and more baking and having birthdays and celebrating the New Year and going to the beach and enjoying the sunshine and the little bit of cold and gathering with friends old and new and giving and receiving gifts and generally making merriment and getting on with it!! Why not???

So Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah and Happy Kwanza and Blessed Holidays or whatever applies! May the New Year bring all good surprises and more new and exciting adventure!!! Tomorrow's my birthday!!! Booya!!

So look for more new and exciting reports of adventure in the New Year, as well as some introspection and observation.

Monday's Quote

Photo By Jennifer Campbell

"Ideas without action are just dreams."

Chris Guillebeau

Monday's Quote

Photo by Jennifer Campbell

"Happiness lies in the passions we pursue and the pressures we decline. Happiness is not automatic but must be wisely pursued."

Alexandra Stoddard

Goals

Photo by Jennifer Campbell

Jennifer says: Aside from acknowledging that you aren’t living the life you want, I think the next step is setting goals to help create that ideal path. Goals and the process of setting them, is an important part of creating your life and not just sitting by while life happens around you.

So how do you go about deciding what your goals are? One popular exercise that I’ve tried, several times, is to write what your “perfect” day would be. It has to be specific. Like, I wake up in my own home and have coffee in my backyard surrounded by flowers. Think about how you spend your time, beyond spa treatments and driving your Lexus. Although I think you should include them, if that’s what you want. I know I dream of daily spa visits. But what I mean is to define your work. What do you want to be doing? Event planner, clothing designer, landscape artist? This is the crux of it.

Also think about how you want to dress; business suits, jeans and a t-shirt or pajamas. What causes, charities or organizations do you want to support? Personally, I think this is important. I believe if everyone donated even a little bit of time or money to something they believe in, the world would be in a much better state.

Ok, you have your detailed idea of a perfect day. Now stop thinking of it as a dream and look at it as a blue print of what your life could be like. Now try taking making a list of each point in your blue print. Like this: have my own home, backyard gardens, spa treatments, landscape artist, wear jeans and T-shirt with my company logo, donate $10.00 a month to St. Judes Children’s Hospital, spend one hour a month working in the soup kitchen at church, etc.

How many of these things can you do right now, there’s always at least one. From the list above, I would say planting some flowers in your backyard or even a window box is do-able. Donating $10.00 to charity and spending an hour volunteering for a cause is probably do-able. Wearing jeans and t-shirts on your time off is do-able. Designing a logo is do-able. Maybe scheduling one spa treatment a month, to start, is do-able. That’s six things off the top that could be done right now.

What’s left? Have my own home and landscape artist. Two major goals. Not overwhelming. Ok, now begin to break these down into smaller and smaller steps. For instance becoming a landscape artist could involve taking some courses, learning about different types of plants, developing a design style, purchasing tools, gaining experience, getting clients, etc. The point is to think of such small steps that it’s easy to make some progress every week, or month, like purchasing one tool or one book. Now make the commitment to invest the time.

A word of caution here, don’t let yourself get so caught up in the planning of your goals that you never actually start or can’t maintain the schedule you’ve set for yourself beyond a week or a month. This has been my downfall. I would also limit my choices to two or three big things, more than that can be too much to devote enough time to. Major goals take major time, in most cases. But starting and committing to taking small steps everyday will yield success.

It is possible to create your dream life!

Monday's Quote

Photo by: Jennifer Campbell

"What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make."

Jane Goodall

I'm back

Photo by: Jennifer Campbell

Jennifer says: For the last week I’ve been in a major “funk”. I don’t know exactly what triggered it but I’m glad it’s over. It seems to have ended as quickly as it began. Thanks to Susan for posting the Monday Quote for me. I couldn’t seem to make myself to anything – beyond dragging myself to my job every day.

During the black days, I kept reading my Angel cards, which had finally arrived. I thought it was really interesting that I kept drawing the same or similar themed cards. Yes, I did shuffle… And no, I don’t base my life on astrology or which way the wind is blowing. Although, I do admit to believing in a higher power. I also believe we manifest a lot of the circumstances in our lives, positive and negative, by our thoughts and actions. I think there are “signs” or influences, whatever you wish to call them, that come along to help us – if we pay attention.

Pre-funk, I was invited out by three friends. Normally I would've made up some excuse to sit home and veg out, my usual routine. "Thanks, but I'm really tired." "I've already got something planned" Whatever generic reason to stay home. But instead, I accepted all three invitations and had a fabulous time on each of them. Two of the invitations were from friends I'd never gone out with. Great conversation, great food, great time. The third outing was with an old friend and involved my first yoga class and my first meal of black beans and rice. Fabulous! So I choose to see these invitations as a sign. It's time for me try new things and meet new people. Become an active participant in the life I feel like I've been missing.

Given that I kept drawing, and continue to draw, cards along the lines of positive major life changes, I choose to take that as a sign too. Just as this blog is a starting point for my writing and photography, kind of another sign that the timing is right. So I’ve decided to accept all of the invitations that come my way, unless it’s something I know I absolutely do not want to do. I’ve also decided to take better care of myself and try new things. And I’m going to open a “store” on ETSY.com. I’ve been talking about trying to sell my photos, and other things I make, online for over a year. So I have been reading how to set up on that site and decided on a name: Jenn’s Photos & Crafts. I still have to learn how to use Pay Pal and a few other details, but I’m doing it!

I guess I can describe the last week as finding the light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry to be so cliché, but there it is.

Namaste