inspiration

The Secret to Happiness

Whenever I think of self care, I instantly recall the emergency instructions given by flight attendants before an airplane takes off.

Before you help others, you must first help yourself.

In my experience, helping others is next to impossible when there’s turbulence in your own life. If you can’t manage your own situation, how can you possibly help others with theirs?

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Photo by Jerry Zhang on Unsplash

Well, I challenge you to take care of yourself first this week. I know it can be hard. I’m a mom, wife, daughter and sister too. It’s the second week of school. Homework and forms and meetings. Oh my! And those work deadlines!

Oh, but I dare you to try.

  • Get 8 hours of sleep tonight.
  • Wake up 30 minutes earlier than you have to tomorrow.
  • Eat breakfast.
  • Bag a lunch.
  • Drink water.
  • Exercise 30 minutes a day.
  • Eat a healthy dinner.
  • Organize a closet.
  • Get rid of something you don’t need.
  • Cuddle with your pet.
  • Enjoy a coffee.
  • Read a book.
  • Phone a friend.
  • Take a deep breath and…
  • SMILE.

Progress, not perfection.

Let’s face it. Self-care, gratitude, and the secret to happiness is within you.

You have so many reasons to be grateful today. Do you have a roof over your head, food on the table, good health, parents, a partner, friend, coworkers, or pets?

Focusing on the bad–what we don’t have–is easy. It’s way harder to remember all the things we take for granted every day, but we must remember to be thankful for all those little things.

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There are things some of us forget are a luxury, like Netflix, smart phones, and internet. Hey, I’m not pointing any fingers, I was guilty too.

I was forced to go without internet for a week this year, which meant (more…)

Liebster Award🌟2017

Okay, so Author J.W. Martin nominated me for the 2017 Liebster Award, and since he pointed out that I don’t do this kind of thing, I’m totally going to do it. It’s been years since I’ve done something like this, but it’s not going to stop me now. Thanks for the opportunity, JW!  Without further ado… let’s get to it.

Rules:

1. Thank the person who nominated you. Boom, done.

2. Answer the 11 questions they gave you.

3. Nominate 11 blogs.

4. Give them 11 questions to answer.

J.W.’s Questions:

If you could have lunch with any author, who would you pick?

Stephen King. He fascinates me. I’ve read his book On Writing and I know he credits a lot of his success to persistence and life experience and pure dumb luck, but just to sit in his presence would be an honour.

What made you start blogging in the first place?

I wrote a book–a trilogy actually. Can you believe that was my first step?!  When I started to consider my publishing options, I read a few blogs that caught my interest. I was in the process of absorbing knowledge on WordPress and I thought, hey, wouldn’t it be cool to document my progess? That’s how I got started with blogging back in 2012.

What’s the best post you’ve ever written? (in your humble opinion)

Oh jeez. I don’t know. I know which posts get the most traffic on my blog. I’d say the best posts I’ve written have not been published. Is that a fair answer? I have hundreds of posts I’ve written about the writing process, publishing and marketing, that I never get around to editing or posting.

Favorite stand-up comedian.

I can’t say I really have one. It’s not the type of thing I frequently watch, although I really enjoy comedy. I always get nervous going to comedy shows in person though, because I hate having the spotlight shining on me and I’m afraid the comedian is going to ask me a dumb question and I’ll have the perfect comeback come to me about five minutes after the opportunity has arisen. So, yeah. Comedy, I love. Stand-up comedy, not a super fan.

Name a hyped author you’ve never read and don’t plan on reading.

Hmm. When there’s a hyped author, I like to give them a chance and see what it is that’s got everyone’s panties in a twist. Having said that, sometimes I have to put books down. That’s a new skill I picked up a year or two ago, and I’ve been a much happier reader since.

So, to answer the question…

(more…)

Desperate Times Call for Desperate Measures

You know the saying that goes a little something like this?

If you do what you have always done, you will get what you’ve always gotten.

Many people attribute this quote to Anthony Robbins, Henry Ford, and even Albert Einstein. The point to be taken away here is:

If you want something you’ve never had, then you must do something you’ve never done.

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HERE GOES NOTHING!

You know me, always trying new things. With my newest book, which I’ve been sitting on since June 2015 due to its unusual nature, I’ve decided to try something drastic. I want to grow my reader base. I want to get my books in front of lots and lots of faces. This plan could fail miserably and ruin my book launch, or maybe something truly amazing will happen. I’ll never know unless I try. (more…)

7 Things You Need to Give up this year!

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I may be talking about myself and I may be talking about others…you know who you are. One thing is for sure: we could all handle giving up these seven things this year!

My biggest challenge???

Procrastination is sitting at the number one spot for a reason!

As an author, social media is my number one no no. Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, Goodreads and now Instagram, OH MY!! Hours can fly by and I can chat with fabulous people, learn incredible things and have a good old laugh, but nothing more is had but a good time. Productivity is minimal, while my list of things to do grows infinitely.

Speaking of which…I have to go finish preparing my post for my Beautifully Broken cover reveal next Saturday! 😉

Which of the above are you guilty of? Come on, don’t be shy. 🙂