Start a Positivity Campaign

Positivity is something we all want. I want to be more positive in my interactions and I know a lot of people feel the same way. Positivity is something we especially want with our own selves…I want to treat myself with the respect and good vibes I’d give a close friend. It doesn’t always happen.

I’m following a positivity campaign from now on. I’m making it my priority to be positive about myself, even to the point of being embarrassingly so.

Stage one: I only have positive things to say about my looks and body. No more negative comments no matter what the motivation behind saying them. There is no good reason to put myself down. And if a negative thought creeps in, either out loud or in my mind? I have to do 25 jumping jacks. (Or 25 squats if I’m bra-less…). This physical movement won’t be a workout but it will get my body moving and hopefully break the thought.

Another part of this positivity campaign: treating my body to heathy foods, exercises and habits. I’m committed to fitness. I will exercise 5 days a week no matter what. I will count my calories and track my eating to find any major unhealthy habits. I will eat small meals throughout the day.

I feel more positive already. How can you start a positivity campaign?

99 Ways to Enrich Your Life

“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
-Lemony Snicket

We can enrich our lives in many different ways. Obviously! The question is how do we want to enrich our lives? Yes, going to fast food joints, watching hours of tv or being around toxic people are usually easy, but are they enriching? If being well and living well are your goals, here are 99 ways to enrich your life:

1. Love Yourself. It all starts with self-love. Hard but worth the pursuit.
2. Exercise Your Body.
3. Take Risks.
4. Start Your Own Business.
5. Watch a Documentary.
6. Go to an Art Museum. Better than that, go to an art museum and spend 30 minutes looking at one piece.
7. Journal Write.
8. Spend 5 Minutes Savoring One Quarter-sized Piece of Dark Chocolate.
9. Read. See the quote above.
10. Listen to Classical Music.
11. Adopt a Pet.
12. Cut Your Own Hair.
13. Sip a Hot Mug of Herbal Tea.
14. Travel.
15. Hike.
16. Hang Around People Who Care About You and Have Habits You Want.
17. Meditate.
18. Write Down Your Ideal Day.
19. Learn to Play a Musical Instrument.
20. Skydive.
21. Go Vegan.
22. Meet Your Soulmate.
23. Keep Your Identity After You Meet Your Soulmate.
24. Learn to Salsa. Or ballroom dance or dance hip hop.
25. Take a Class at Your Local Community College.
26. Eat at an Ethnic Restaurant You’ve Never Tried Before.
27. Watch the Sunset.
28. Take a Yoga Class.
29. Brainstorm Ideas.
30. Volunteer Somewhere on a Regular Basis.
31. Listen, Really Listen, to People When They Talk.
32. Walk a Dog for an Hour.
33. Get Rid of Negative Self-Talk.
34. Become an Expert on Your Hometown.
35. Stop and Smell the Flowers.
36. Learn the Basics of Cooking.
37. Go on a Detox.
38. Solve a New York Times Crossword Puzzle…even if you have to Google different clues.
39. Shop at Goodwill.
40. Make one of Julia Child’s Famous Recipes.
41. Take a Vow of Silence for a Day or a Week.
42. Read an Autobiography of Someone You Respect.
43. Laugh More.
44. Go See a Play.
45. Listen to Podcasts.
46. Run or Walk a Charity Race.
47. Treat Others How You Want to Be Treated.
48. Stop Using Technology for One Day Every Week.
49. Set Goals. For the month, for the year, for 10 years.
50. Eat More Veggies.
51. Learn to Sew.
52. Stop Gossiping.
53. Prepare Your Breakfast the Night Before.
54. Help Someone in Need.
55. Use Positive Mantras.
56. Text a Friend What You Love About Him/Her.
57. Write a To-Do List and Follow It.
58. Stop Right Now and Appreciate Your Surroundings.
59. Drink More Water.
60. Think the Best of Other People.
61. Constantly Improve.
62. Try New Classes at the Gym.
63. Write Down Ideas as They Come.
64. Keep a Notebook with You Always.
65. Smile.
66. Live Simply.
67. Be Kind.
68. Get Rid of Negative People and Toxic Things in Your Life.
69. Drive Below Speed Limit in the Rain.
70. Write a Blog.
71. Use Your Library Card.
72. Follow Your Passions.
73. Learn a New Language.
74. Watch an Old Movie.
75. Recycle.
76. Stand Up for Your Beliefs.
77. Go Listen to the Beautiful Sounds of a Symphony.
78. Buy Clothes You Absolutely Love…don’t buy something because it’ll be adequate.
79. Spend Time Focusing Inward.
80. Read About the History of Something that Interests You. They have books on the history of many things!
81. Don’t Get Stuck. In jobs, in relationships, in ruts.
82. Write Down Your Dreams.
83. Organize Your Closet.
84. Take a Drawing Class.
85. Let Change Happen.
86. Tour Official Government Buildings.
87. Clean Your Computer Desktop.
88. Sit at a Coffee Shop with a Book.
89. Listen to Old Crooners like Frank, Dean and Sammy.
90. Stop Caring What People Think.
91. Be Calm.
92. Go See an Opera.
93. Walk to Do Your Errands, Not Drive.
94. Take a Road Trip with No Destination in Mind.
95. Stay Open Minded.
96. Stay Positive.
97. Spread Love.
98. Breathe.
99. Bask in Life.

xoxo pia

Change

“Maybe the past is like an anchor holding us back.  Maybe, you have to let go of who you were to become who you will be.”
-Carrie, Sex and the City

Jobs take a major toll out of me.  Maybe it’s my personality (my empathy, my desire to achieve and to be the best I can be, my no nonsense approach to things); maybe it’s because I was raised by entrepreneurs.  All I know is I get weighed down being in a job that doesn’t teach me anything and is full of drama.  I can’t live like that– to me, life is too short.

I’ve lasted more than a year and a half at my current job.  That’s pretty long for me.  I needed a change…I quit.

I made sure to get all my ducks in a row first:

• A little savings.
• Started selling janitorial for my family’s company.  I so want to keep improving myself for the business world.  With this, I am learning sales, setting myself up for comfortable income while pursing my endeavors and helping my family.
• Signed myself up for 3 real estate classes at my local community college so I’m on the path to get my real estate agent license.
• Started a company with my wonderful boyfriend with the intent of helping the Museum where we used to work and all the other cultural institutions in San Diego.  We love the cultural scene in San Diego and want to see it thrive!

Change is exciting.  Change is new.  Change is good, especially when you need it.  Sometimes you have to let go of who you are to become who you will be.  What can you do to bring positive change to your life?

xoxo pia

Create Your Year in a Word

I love talking with my friend Heather.  She enjoys all types of conversations, especially the scattered array of topics I like to talk about.

I really like to brainstorm with her about goals and pursuits.  One of our topics over the past week involves a fun New Year’s brainstorm.  Her favorite New Year’s activity doesn’t involve resolutions or goals; it involves picking a word.  What do I want my year to look like and what do I want to focus on…all summed up in one word.  That’s how she allows her year to take shape.  2012, for instance, brought color into her life in the form of the obvious (more fun nail colors) and the not so obvious (a new full time teaching job in a very artsy school).  I love this novel way to inspire life.

This year, Heather’s word is story.  What’s mine?  Confidence.  I want to live my life with confidence and be confident in myself, not just when I’m alone and doing activities I’m highly comfortable in, but all the time.  I want to treat myself with the respect I treat others and stand up for myself when I need to do so.

What’s Eleanor Roosevelt’s famous quote?

“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”

I want to live that this year and follow my goals knowing full well I deserve to achieve them.

What’s your word for the year?

xoxo pia

How to Enjoy Running

Running is fun.  Crazy talk, right?  If the word running brings back horror scenes from your middle school gym class, bear with me for a minute.  Running doesn’t have to be complete torture.  If done the right way, it can be rewarding, energizing, and fun.  Here are some ideas to make running a fun part of your life:

• Run for a reason.  Are you running to lose weight?  Are you running to release stress?  Are you running as a means to stay connected with your friends? Running for a reason helps you stay motivated and interested.
• Start slow.  Running’s hard if you go from couch potato to running a mile.  No wonder people think it’s torture!  Start slow.  Start walking if you don’t already exercise a few times a week.  When you’re ready to run, pick landmarks to run to, then walk.  Do this a few times in your run/walk session and walk the rest.  Let running slowly become easier on your body and only then should you run continuously.
• Find a time that works for you.  Do you like exercising in the morning to get you pumped for the day?  Or do you like exercising at night to release the day’s events from your brain?  Find when you like to run and that’ll make all the difference in your enjoyment of the activity.
• Schedule yourself.  Once you find the time of day you like to exercise, book yourself.  It’s easy to let outside forces creep in on your “you” time.  Defend your time by scheduling yourself.
• Enlist a friend.  Running is more fun with a friend.  You can enjoy laughs and minutes will feel like seconds.  Better yet, enlist a slow and goofy friend…you’ll feel better about yourself!
• Sign up for a 5K.  Races are fun.  There are so many people who run 5K’s nowadays that there’s no fear in being last.  Depending on the race, many people walk (with strollers, dogs and their kitchen sink to boot).  Pick a fun charity race.
• Start a Run Tip Jar.  Every time you go for a run, put $2 in a Run Tip Jar.  After 25 runs, reward yourself with a new running clothing piece or gadget.
• Change up your venue.  I love running in a different place all the time.  Your neighborhood gets boring if you do the same thing everyday.  Change it up by going different routes, different directions or going to a completely different location.
• Play some music.  Music is pumping.  Play some good music on your run.  It’ll feel great to lose yourself to the pounding of the pavement.
• Wear clothes you feel good in.  It’s so much better to do things in clothes we look and feel good in.  Do yourself a favor and feel good in what you wear while running.
• Keep a running journal.  It’s fun to add up your running miles.  Nothing feels as good as getting to double digits…except getting to triple digits and beyond!
• Smile.  We like activities that make us smile.  Smile.

xoxo pia

New Year’s Goals

“Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right.”
-Oprah

Family, friends, food, festivities, good feelings–they all make the last few months of the year fantastic. These months are fantastic for another reason. They propel us into the New Year with great intentions and high hopes for our lives. This year, we will get it right. Are you ready?

Brainstorm your top goals for 2013. Write down as many ideas as you can.

Remember: effective goals are specific, achievable (but not too achievable!), measurable, and time bound. And make sure you’re actually excited about your goals…if you’re writing it down because you should or because you think it might be something you want, guess what? It’s going to be something you look back on in a year and feel bad you didn’t achieve.

Some great areas to have goals: Career, Money, Improvement, Health, Fitness, Creative, Activities, Social, Spiritual, etc.

Review what you wrote. Are there any major themes? Do any of the goals really inspire you and get you pumped?

Condense your brainstorms to 3-5 main goals for the year. If you have more or less, that’s fine too, but only have a few main goals to spend the majority of your time focused on. This is how you’ll get things right this year.

xoxo pia

How to Reflect on the Year

“How few there are who have courage enough to own their faults, or resolution enough to mend them.”

-Benjamin Franklin

It’s the end of the year, which means all talk inevitably leads to New Year’s resolutions. Am I the only one?

Just as important as making your goals for the New Year is reflection on the year past. It’s a step most people either ignore completely or do to the extent of condemning weight gain or a failed this or that. Life passes us by too quickly to not reflect—if you don’t, you’ll find yourself 30 years from now wondering where your life went.

Reflect on what you achieved for the year. Did you start doing yoga once a week and now have a deeper connection to yourself? Did you get that project completed or that promotion you’ve been working to achieve for the past 2 years? Did you make more time for family and friends? Reflect on all the areas you can pat yourself on the back for in 2012, no matter how big or small. It’s through these reflections that you should develop the goals you want for 2013.

What have you achieved this year?

xoxo pia

Quote of the Day

Thanks to Addicted2Success!

xoxo pia

Listen

Ideas are all around us. Take time to listen to yourself and others for ideas to inspire you, ideas to pursue as business ventures, ideas to make life better, and more.

One customer I listened to yesterday laid down a great idea for me to pursue as a business. Why did it even register? Because I made sure to listen.

Spend time listening to your surroundings today. Listen to the client with a suggestion for your product; find out what your sister-in-law is doing at the gym for workout ideas; write in your journal and brainstorm what has made you blissful over the past week.

Ideas are all around us if you just listen…

xoxo pia

write your daily goals!

There are a lot of days when I don’t get anything done. More often than not, it’s because I don’t know what I want to get done.

If I’m on a 30 minute lunch break with nothing to do or between appointments, I’m not going to write in my journal or call that person I’ve been putting off because my mind goes to default. Default equals wasted time (Pinterest is my weakness!).

Don’t let your mind go to default. Get in the habit of writing your daily goals. The night before, write down what you would like to accomplish the next day. It can be as simple as remembering you have two appointments or as complex as the five things you have to do to move closer to your ten year goals. Writing it down allows you to remember and frees your mind.

What are you goals for tomorrow?

xoxo pia