A Little Inspiration

Last weekend I attended my youngest sister Emily's dance recital.  She has been attending George Brown for the last year and is finishing her performing dance program this month.

Her show was better than I expected, there was not only dancing but also signing and acting, it was very entertaining.

Any sort of live performance normally inspires me and provokes my thoughts.  Sometimes I get lost in the characters, story, music movement or even thinking about the actual performers and what they are like off stage.  All in all, I find live performance inspiring.

Watching my sister perform was an even more inspiring moment.  She is technically a very good dancer but when she really shines are the moments in which she looses herself in the dance, movement, music or emotion.  She allows herself to go somewhere, a free place where all she needs to ever do is move.  

This is inspiring because we all have the capacity to throw ourselves into something we are passionate about and loose our reservations or negative thoughts.

I hope she holds on to those fleeting moments and allows them to drive her towards success.

My passion has changed over the years and I am working on narrowing my focus so I can let go of my own reservations.  

Following passion is not an easy path to take, the easy path is to take what is handed to you.  Sometimes living your life with passion is difficult because you need to challenge something that is out of the ordinary or try multiple times, its hard work. 

I know that if I live my life with deliberate actions, set goals to meet and allow myself to let go, I will be great.  Thanks for the inspiration Em!

Women In Networking

Women meet, share, engage, listen and inspire.  I am lucky enough to interact with wonderful women all the time.  Women who work hard, have opinions, are intelligent, are feminine, are mothers and wives.

I woke up this morning rushed through my regular morning routine, helped my husband get his lunch together as he put out the garbage and cleaned the first snow fall off our cars.  After he left, as I poured my coffee, I thought to myself - "how do couples with kids do this?".  It was not easy to get two people out the door, let alone 4.

I went off on my way to start my day feeling relieved that I was simply responsible for myself.

Today I attended my monthly women's networking lunch.  Included in this group are women of all ages but I am one of the youngest.  There is one woman who attends often who was pregnant last month and without her bump this month.  She had recently given birth to her 4th child and was back at it, a month later.  She looked wonderful as she usually does, I always notice that her hair is nicely done, her outfits are trendy and she is always engaging.

I found this inspiring, if she can do it, then I can do it too.  I am not ready to have kids yet but it's something I have been giving a lot of thought to and my husband and I have been speaking about lately.  

I love my job and the freedom to do and be where I want to be when I want to be and I know when I have a child I will loose some of that.  Seeing these women each month who still strive for growth in their professional lives as well as at home, gives me hope that I could learn to balance the type of life I hope to have someday.

One thing I do wonder about though is how much they sleep, this is the really scary part for me because I love my sleep!

Thank you to the women around me who want more and show me that I can have it all with a little hard work.

Changing The Way I Think

If I say something and I think something, it will come true.???

Positive thoughts are the key to success.

If you don't believe it, it won't happen.

I saw something on TV this morning that struck a cord with me.  A preacher was speaking about how God wants us all to have abundance.  There are many elements that go into having this abundance but the one I have been contemplating most today is how our own thoughts effect our physical decisions and manifest themselves into reality.  I need to change my thought process!!!

I do think sometimes our thoughts manifest themselves into reality so it is important to know what you want and think positively.  But what if you don't think you are worthy of something because it is outside of everything you have ever known so it is difficult to picture a life, a goal, or an experience that you yourself have never had had or seen.

You know what the end result is but you have never first hand seen someone accomplish it from your position so, you are unsure how to create the map to get there.

It has been done and is being done every day by people but how do they do it?  I think they must find people that act as mentors for them.  I know in my own personal life as a young girl I was lucky enough to be put in situations with women who had accomplished things I wanted to accomplish.  As an adult, I know that having someone to look to for advice and guidance is important in all areas of life, i.e. work, personal, being a woman in general.

I have someone to look to - now I need to believe in myself that I can make it happen.  I use to think that this simply meant being willing enough to put in the physical work to make something come to reality but I am now thinking that there is another element.  I must truly believe that I am not only capable of achieving my goals and having what I want but I am worthy and deserving of at least that. 

For some reason this second part is a little tricky for me.  Right now the way I operate is strictly on an earning basis.  Don't get me wrong, I think everyone needs to work hard to achieve their goals but then you become worthy of the benefits of your labour.

I think I need to change my thoughts process and start reaping some benefits.

Realization

Over the past few years I have been thinking a lot about what kind of adult I want  to be.  Thoughts like "How do people perceive me?", "How can I be a great wife?", "How can I make my community a better place?" and "How can I be a good Mom someday?" are things I have given many hours of contemplation.

As references, I look to the adult figures in my life like parents, mentors and teachers.  I have found as I turn into an adult woman, I view these figures in a very different light.  As a child most adults in my life could do no wrong (I mean they were adults, whatever they do must be correct) and I idolized them.  Now as I become an adult and I am faced with choices, I am finding it difficult to look up to those figures because their choices are not matching up with what I want for my life.

Things I thought I knew, are now items I ponder and question.  This is an exciting realization because this is how I believe we evolve but it's also troubling.

What I am attempting to do right now is choose the characteristics that generally drew me to those figures, focus on those, take them with me, leave the rest behind and make room for me to write the rest of the rules myself.

The next big questions with writing your own rules is of course "How do I know if I am doing it right?"  

I hope to always analyze the way I live my life and continue to grow and learn but I think what I need to do is figure out what I want, what the end result looks like and then create a map that will help me get there.

Time to start planning my route, 26 year old me knows a little bit about what I want.