Follow Your Bliss

"The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Up until recently, I never thought I would consider dating someone who has a child.  Not that its bad in anyway, but I have always heard such negative stories, and at the time it seemed so much easier to just keep away from it all together... However, despite all the drama everyone says comes with dating someone who has a child, I was actually looking forward to accommodating my life in a way that a  single person wouldn't have to; I was excited for the new experience - all of course, while staying within the boundaries of not trying to take the place of "mom." I wanted this little person to teach me so much more about life because I knew they could.  I also hoped I could have contributed (when requested) to make things easier for this person... maybe to inspire, encourage, and love.  Nevertheless, this must be one of the awesome things about little people: They're a type of special  that bring a new life that's too great to describe. In a way, I almost fel...

Do you remember the days when liking someone was just enough?  For some, it didn't matter how they treated you, what kind of attention the gave or didn't give to you, whether or not they had goals, who their friends were, how they got along with their family, if they were reliable, responsible, and whether or not they would make a good father... or mother. When I was in high school, I chose the boys who were cute because they gave me "butterflies"; up into my mid-twenty's I chose the guys who had a nice face, muscular body, and who knew how to have fun because they gave me excitement...and you know what that got me? A LOT of good pictures LOL! J/K :-) No...but seriously, I was shallow, but then again can we really help who we are attracted to and how they make us feel?  Nevertheless, I found that its not about choosing the guy because of who he is, how he is, or how "excited" he makes you feel - its about choosing for you . As the years go by, we s...

The soul never thinks without a picture. ~  Aristotle  

I remember the year I heard one of those eye-opening quotes - to me, it was simply... the truth, and isn't that all we ever want to know? It was 2008 when I read the following quote by Dale Carnegie: " Two men looked out from prison bars, one saw the mud, the other saw stars.” I couldn't have read these words at a better time, and to this day, I have to remind myself that we're never defeated by what life throws our way, we're defeated by our very own thoughts.  The funny thing is, we hold the key to them both. If there's something we can all relate to, its coming across an event that didn't come out the way we had hoped - something we wanted, yet it became something we lost.  Perspective says you can choose to be defeated by an unfavorable situation, or you can choose to be empowered by it. Whatever it is that happens in our life that didn't turn out in our favor is opportunity in disguise.  Instead of disappointment taking over you - you us...

Its been a year since I started training for my first competition, and even though I may have "lost" in the competition, I've come to learn that I have won much more in many different ways... One of the most difficult parts of training was saying no to all of my favorite sweet foods.  Specifically chocolate chip cookies. To deny something you know you want, something you know you love, and something you know you can easily have - as it lays right in front of you and having to say "no," is somewhat a realization of how efficacious will power truly is once you have made the decision you will only say yes to what you need because you know its going to get you exactly where you want to be; the reason for saying no to certain foods (in my case cookies) is knowing the facts...the facts about knowing what I was putting in my body and how it was only going to take me further away from my goals. Sometimes knowing the facts, for lack of better words, sucks...because ...

"You don't know what's on the inside, until you put a demand on your potential." ~ Joel Osteen

Its probably pointless to state the obvious:  We all have strengths.  We all have weaknesses.  Unfortunately, I am more confident in declaring my weaknesses then I am in declaring my strengths; however, at least I allow myself to be vulnerable by admitting to them both. At times my mind get so warped around a a situation - it causes me to loose sleep.  Does this ever happen to you too?  Where your mind re-plays whatever "life event" has changed...in a less then favorable way? Thankfully, I've come to accept this "weakness" and even though I come to realize it will probably never go away, I have learned, it is treatable .  This is where the decision of who you choose to keep in your life is critical. I'm not a doctor so I could be wrong, but I'd like to view weaknesses similar to how one would view  arthritis .  There may never be a cure, but with the right treatment it is in fact controlable - preventable from getting worse. I'm a belie...