#YourTurnChallenge

Many of you are probably unaware that one of the first things I do most mornings is read Seth Godin's Blog. It jump starts my brain, makes me think, and gives me a positive start to the day. 

A few days ago he was talking about one of his people's failures - she promised to blog for 30 days straight... and stopped at 29... she failed! This inspired her to create a movement and get a whole bunch of people to come together and blog for 7 days straight -- share their thoughts -- and hold each other accountable, in some sense.

Here is is 11:41 on the first day, and I nearly already gave up and failed the challenge.

I am kicking myself in the ass a little bit because today my goal was to write a blog post for my business and instead of sticking to it (I started it) I let other things distract me and take prescience. And now I am letting this challenge win out, too. But I think that is ok. I am sitting here sharing my thoughts, and I know that there is always tomorrow to write about how to clean out the clutter in the coat closet. Perhaps, I will really challenge myself and try to write TWO blog posts a day for the rest of this week... one for me and one for my business.

Do I have enough to say? Am I motivated enough? Do I find myself worthy enough?

How do we let these questions identify us and who we become. I was almost not motivated enough. I almost let myself believe that what I has to say was not important enough to share. So I am doing it anyways. I know better and I am going to prove that to myself.

Life is full of contemplation, one that I hope to stop soon, is whether or not I am good enough, if I can make a difference, if I will be able to change the world... I should have no doubts... Change can be exponential - If you change one person's life today and that person changes one person's life tomorrow, and down the line - your one act, word, etc can make the difference in this world.

So stop being afraid, starting shouting out, and be sure to be heard - today, tomorrow, and forever. Let your voice, your heart and soul, leave their print on this world. its #YourTurn

I bid thee a gracious farewell, 2014!

So as has been part for the case over the life of this blog... it has been awhile. I think I was nervous to share what has been going on with me for fear that it was actually real, perhaps?

This afternoon as I was kicking my own ass out of a depressive state that I have been in over the last few days I started to reflect over this past year, and I must say its been pretty interesting.

I started it off in true typical fashion bringing in the New Year celebrating with Michele. I celebrated a birthday with a collection of pretty amazing people. I celebrated the year anniversary of quitting an awful boss and making the most difficult decision of my life. I fell completely in love with Snowboarding, and refell for Grand Lake, CO. I made and ate/drank lots of wonderfully amazing food and beverages. I was named the Leasing Consultant of the Year, won District Table Topics Competition in Toastmasters, and was offered two pretty awesome jobs from two different sets of friends. Thanks to the job I picked I was able to hold ONLY one job for the first time in my adult life. I opened a business! I had two awesome visitors (Travis and Uncle Pete), saw soo many amazing concerts, sporting events, and such. Visited Wyoming and Washington - finally meeting my pretty awesome friend Jeremy. I did some climbing and a little bit of running, I even started weight lifting again. I had my own place. I saw my "Big Bro" tie the knot and finally saw Block Island. I went paragliding and camping. I contributed to a few great causes. Purchasing a motorcycle set me free in so many ways. Christmas came early to CT with a total surprise for Michele's 30th and then made a quite and serene stop in CO as I celebrated my first Christmas by myself and away from home. I have made so many great connections and friendships that I hope to continue to build and strengthen and add more to the collection.  Self exploration, development, and actualization has been an ongoing and very important part of this year that I foresee flooding over into the rest of my life.

Some of my nearest and dearest friends experienced losses that I could not be there to provide the support I wanted. I went through quite a few trials and tribulations with my health and the struggle to understand what was happening in my body. I ended three different relationships. I fought with both of my parents. I left Boulder. I had to resort back to getting roommates. I kind of failed at my job and have to take multiple steps back, yet again.

When you look at all the good compared to the not so great, I will say 2014 was a pretty decent year. I am thankful for lots of growth, a magnitude of amazing adventures and opportunities and the ability to regularly push myself to learn more, give more, and be a better me everyday.

I love you all and look forward to sharing in some great adventures with you in 2015 and on.

So rock me momma like a wagon wheel...

What an eventful week it has been! And very exciting, too!

I was super excited to see my Uncle Pete, I truly enjoy his company. He looks out for me and imparts so much helpful information its hard to not want to spend more time with him and hope it will all sink in through osmosis or something.

He got in on Monday and we went to dinner at The Fort in Morrison - finally using the $100 gift certificate I won a while back. It was an interesting little place that was clearly confused in its identity... It had all sorts of different foods like bison, quail, duck, lamb, etc, but a lot of it had a mexican twist, but it was very high-end and fancy... just strange. Then they must just want you to spend forever there -- they bring you just a booze and app menu. Once you order and food has been put in then they will bring you the entree menu, and continues like that. Oh and they seriously need to better describe their food temps -- med rare looked freshly butchered... even I cannot do that. But overall pretty great night.

Wednesday night I cooked for him at my place -- totally butchered the rice pilaf because I was in a hurry... rice is one of those really obnoxious foods... maybe one day I will just invest in a rice cook and be done with it. Uncle Pete had won Pearl Jam tickets at the Pepsi Center. We had amazing seats!! And it was a THREE hour show of just Pearl Jam rocking out. So freaking great! I was very impressed, it was a great time.

Thursday we had lunch together and I need to remember the name of the bourbon he was drinking because I need more of that in my life NOW lol. It was so nice to get so much time with my uncle. I definitely need to go visit him soon, especially since I have yet to see him new place, many years later. It is pretty awesome to have a mentor who is also a family member, I am pretty blessed.

Thursday night I went to the Broncos game. I can finally check an NFL game off my bucket list and we definitely did it right with Club level seats, it was really a great time! Minus the fight that ensued afterwards in the parking lot... and subsequent hospital visit. Thankfully not for me, but still. All in all, though, I would say it was a pretty damn awesome night!

Friday night I kicked some serious butt at washers as Paula's house. I miss her and Brad... my Colorado parents haha. They are so great. They are so giving -- I mean Brad cooked 10 pounds of wings and got to eat ONE! And was totally stoked about it. They are so adorable.

On other notes: I am doing a pretty great job of keeping up with my exercise. Been to the gym 3-4 times a week and usually walk or something else at least one more day a week. My gym membership came with a challenge to make it to the gym 36 times in the first 90 days and I will get Jan - March free... so you bet your butt I am determined to make that happen.

I am failing at maintaining my nutrition schedule... so I have decided to adjust my goal tracker and pay myself for eliminating dairy. Additionally, I am going to try and only eat gluten 2-3 times a week, which I think is reasonable. So I will see how this acknowledgement and adjustment work out.

I am already for Halloween!! And cannot wait. Reading A LOT! Have another crazy week coming up, but am very excited for it.

Mind is clearly wandering now... guess its time to shut down, read a little more and head to bed.

Night all!! Keep a look out for a private message from me soon with some big news!

Lots of love!

OO YEAH! I forgot I got a car this weekend! Specialist Bush is the shit and traded me her car for a couple meals! Super excited about it all-- but more next time.

*Star*

Open Heart

Normally my posts are a little chaotic, jam packed with the happenings of the last week or several weeks, but today, I just want to focus on this weekend.

It was a fabulous weekend.

I am working toward a successful launch at work.

Friday, I finally got to see HoneyHoney, and oh man what a show! I swear I could listen to them all day long. And Pati Fiasco, who performed before them, were pretty damn great, too!

The weather has been outstanding for motorcycle riding, which I could not be more thankful and grateful for... being as which that is my only mode of transportation.

Saturday, I spent the day at a seminar learning with a Jeffery Combs a millionaire multiple times over. He taught about understanding how our stories get in the way and the necessity of setting up simple systems. Most importantly, he spoke of opening your heart and being a person who truly cares about others. How important it is to truly be intrigued by others and have a strong desire to learn about and understand the human race and its individual beings.

I am on this path to better myself in as many ways as I can and I resonated with a lot of things Jeffery said. That was easily the best $20 I have spent in a long time. I look forward to surrounding myself with more people who pay attention to energies and whom actually are engaged, present, and also looking to better themselves and the world they live in.

Today, was great. I have been doing my best to be up and out of bed by 7am... today however, everything just said I needed to sleep in so I did just that. From about 9:30-11 I got a little work done and them headed downtown for a great mediation class. I think it might be something I commit to (around the pats/broncos football schedule obviously). It was very energizing and we passed out some food to the needy afterwards, which was refreshing and rewarding. I have decided I am going to look into working with my new friend Christian, who ran the events I attended on Saturday and Sunday to help align me better with my purpose and where I want to go.

After a nice long ride in the sun I received a great surprise invitation for a hike with the ever so fabulous Specialist Bush, that I could not turn down. We had a wonderful afternoon catching up, I am sure going to miss her while she is gone, but an already looking forward to planning all sorts of crazy shenanigans for when she returns.

With a great Broncos game, and pretty awesome new gloves for the bike, my weekend has been top notch for sure.

And on an even better note: I am soo looking forward to this week my uncle is coming into town. He is truly my guide and mentor in life. I look to him for advice, to blow off steam, and generally as a little bit of a hero. I love that I have such amazing people to surround myself with no matter where I go.

Thank you all for being a part of me, and helping me be better everyday. You all have a piece of my heart.

Don't Stop; Won't Stop

Once again, I found myself jumping in to about 9000 things at one time. Working out, eating well, getting back to my goal/task charts - trying to make those charts something I can sell off to people. I had thought about trying my hand at the internet marketing thing. There is this competition going on where you could win a week on Sir Richard Branson's island learning from some amazing people. However, I am not 100% happy with my charts and how they work, so I have not jumped head first into that. I really think the Internet Marketing Business is a good idea, since I really need to understand who I am trying to sell to better.

Really starting to get frustrated with myself at the day job... not making sales yet, but I am kind of kicking butt in organizing and keeping our JV launch on point. I am excited to rock this and then jump into a bunch of other things like working on our SEO, learning more about adwords, and then working to find the exact pain points of potential customers to work on expanding our market to more small business professionals offline.

I joined the gym (did pretty great the first week) hoping I can keep it up. I have a lot of Physical Therapy work I really need to adhere to for my joints -- knees, hips and shoulders specifically. I am determined to build up my muscles for my birthday tattoo pictures. Ideally, when I come home (already bought my tickets!!) I hope to get a couple touch ups done. Hey CT and Boston you better watch out the next time you see me because I will be packing! ;-)

On the food front I had a bit of a slip... My nutritionist jokingly said something along the lines of if you want to add Gluten back in your diet, just go have a bunch of pizza and beer. haha. Well I took that line a little to seriously and had pizza three times in one day... problem being that I have issues with some of the other food I ate and have been eating... so I have to take a huge step back starting tomorrow and try it again the right way! So back to no booze, no gluten, no dairy, etc for at least 5 days and then systematically add things back in. On a positive and in the potential for an over share... the only real issue I have been facing is gasiness, which is still a major improvement from the past. If only I could get myself to meal plan I would be in much better shape... But then again that would require me going shopping... which is a little difficult currently...

Having only a motorcycle is great... and difficult. I really appreciate the mornings I can go for a ride and start my day with sun shine, music, mountain views and the wind in my hair. However, if I need to buy anything its about 3 things at a time. I will figure it out eventually. Hopefully, I should still be getting a car at the end of the month so fingers crossed on that one.

I am in the process of getting myself ready to volunteer with the hospice program at the nursing home across the street from me. I feel like I have been doing quite a bit of taking lately and I feel the need to give back. I am worried about my grandma and I feel like this will be my round about way of being there for her. I will be so happy to spend time with her in December.

I have an awesome new endeavor in the works, but I am not ready to share too many details just yet. You should all be ready for some stop you in your tracks news from me over the next couple months! :-P

For now, see you on the flip side!

Holy Crow Where Did The Time Go??

Things have been absolutely hectic over the last few months and I just completely got lost in my self and life.

I am trying to get back to my goal charts and what not, hence this random last minute Blog post out of no where.

I am in new my place, and I really love it. Pole is set up in the office/exercise room... going to force myself to get on it next week. Projector is set up in the living room above my fire place. Little grill and table and chairs are set up on the balcony. And my little window seat over looking the day care center is one of the few places I get decent reception in the house.

I am officially only working ONE job! How crazy is that?!?! I still need to make a sale... things have changed a bit since I started, but we are figuring it out. I think this week will be the changing point as I am getting a lot of information from the team and outside sources that will help me do amazing things. I have high hopes and expectations of myself and am know once I get some more things figured out, I will be able to rock this.

The Buick was giving me all sorts of stupid problems once again... so I got pissed and posted it on craiglist as kind of a hmph I will show you kind of response; and forgot that I did it... then I started getting people texting me about the car. I had a mechanic look at it and he told me if someone wanted to give me more than $2000 for it, take it and run! It needed a bunch of work (I managed to get some of it done for free before I sold it, so I didn't feel so creepy.) So I took the money and ran... Which let me pay off the $8000 portion of the loan I took for the Car in Feb of 2013 which felt pretty awesome. Now I just have the credit card portion to pay back down... hopefully to be complete by this time next year...

With some of the money I went and bought my first motorcycle after a full decade of having my motorcycle license. Its a 2006 Honda Rebel - little 250cc engine, but it fits me nicely, especially for a first bike. It is in pretty great shape, so there should be no reason that I cannot recoup the money I paid for it, if I want to sell it and trade up next season.

I know some of you think I am crazy and are wondering about what I am going to do for a car. Well in October a friend of mine who is in the Guard is headed to Guantanamo Bay, so she is going to sell me her car for super cheap. Ideally, it will get me through the whole year and by this time next year, I can either give it back to her, or trade it in for a new to me car.

Some other awesome things... I bought my first set of snowboard gear -- still need to buy a pass, but might need to wait until my first commission check for that... we shall see. Snow making starts in about 2 weeks though, so I feel like I need to figure it out much sooner rather than later. I invested in this great seminar entitled 6 Figures in 12 Months, which is part of what I know is helping me turn things around at work, plus I have all of this awesome information in my pocket for when I eventually want to start my own business.

I have a bunch of reading I want to do to and set up in the Kindle. I also decided to apply to help with the hospice patients across the street. I feel like I need to start giving back. I have a book to read, to get a better idea of what I am in for, but I figured it would at least look into it. OO and I also, am participating in my first Fantasy Football Team. It has been pretty exciting so far. And I am in charge of my first Contest in Toastmasters. I feel like I am in a little over my head as I only gave myself 2 weeks really to plan it, find help, etc. but working under pressure is always fun.

I am a little bit ill today, so that is about all I have... I am ready to go curl back up in bed with lots of covers. Might have to go invest in some Sleepy Time Tea tomorrow.

OO and lastly, I really want to start Traveling and there have been some amazing deals online for tickets... so if you want to go somewhere, meet me somewhere, etc lets talk abd plan something together. I do not really have the money for it, but I also know life is short and sometimes you just need to have fun. Besides my credit is pretty kick ass, I just got approved for the BLACK CARD!! Granted I need to tell them to go kick rocks with their $500 annual on a $5000 limit -- I thought the Black Card had no limit...tricksters.

Woohoo just earned $2 toward that pass! Have a great night!

Life Moves Faster Than We Think

Holy Crow -- Once again I had to look back to see just how long it has been since I have posted... and wow... 2 full months to the day almost... Craziness. Time flies when you're having fun I guess.

So many things have happened, are going on, and are on the way to change it is hard to even know where to start. So here goes nothing...

JOB(s):
- I was offered a raise and promotion of sorts at the new job. I am now responsible for the sales and marketing. This includes being responsible for the financial well-being of the company, selling the software, and then selling the service we are still in the midst of figuring out. It is fun and exciting and challenging. I am working from home, doing a bunch of networking, and learning a lot in many realms.

- My last day at Taft was in June. It kind of seems weird to be ending a 6 year business relationship, but I am happy to be moving on. Mostly because I kept forgetting to do the work and it was causing me all sorts of extra, unnecessary stress. Of course, Lisa (my boss) asked me if I really wanted to give it up, and to at least consider coming back once I am settled... haha

- I am technically done with the club, but they are very short on staff, so I got asked to work yesterday, which was fine. I really enjoy working at the club, it is always entertaining and I love the people I work with. Plus the money is pretty decent. But the prospect of no more working till 3 am and only have one job really is awesome!

- So what am I going to do with all of this freedom?? Try to not completely fill my schedule back up! lol I keep thinking about going back to play with the puppies, teaching gymnastics, volunteering with my networking groups. There are so many things I want to do, but I first need to figure out my routine with the job, start making some sales and get into a groove. So really I will be focusing hardcore on myself and my new career.

With that being said let's jump into SELF:

- Due to some recent unhappiness with where I am at mentally, physically, emotionally, etc... I started a crusade to get myself all moving in the positive direction my career is going. I started physical therapy again for my shoulders (and have actually been trying to keep up with it). I have been getting out on my bike a couple times a week. A friend of mine put together a work out schedule for me. I am starting kick boxing classes. I have been seeing a therapist (although I apparently am not medically in need so that isn't going to last very long... thank you kaiser). I dished out an exorbitant amount of money to get some special blood testing and to work with nutritionist to really figure out my diet issues. So starting Tuesday (I already had dinner plans on Monday that I did not want to skip) I will be back on yet another elimination diet. I will be exercising. And most importantly I will be keeping track of all of this. It sounds exhausting. But I am determined to feel good and get myself on track.

- I have set a goal that for my 30th birthday in February I want to submit photos to INKed Magazine of my tattoos, which means I have to be fit and feeling great... So LET'S DO THIS! Ideally I would like to have a little bit more work done, but that all depends on how awesome I am kicking but at work or not.

LIFE:

- Logan and I put things on hold. We are both on two amazing paths of growth, but they are just on different planes. He is pretty amazing and we are still going to hang out and what not, but in order for us both to get where we want and need to be, it is for the better right now. Who knows what can happen down the line :-)

- My lease is up Aug 5, I just put in my notice to leave my apartment complex. With the new job I am driving all over the place and being in Boulder is becoming difficult on my mental stability with all the traffic. Plus my car is not so happy about it either. I have been looking for a two bedroom apartment for myself because I need an office. It can sometimes be difficult to work at home as distractions are so easily available. I figure if I can lock myself into a room, I will be much better off. Finding an apartment, however, if turning out to be quite difficult, so now I am contemplating finding a roommate and renting an entire house... now if only I could find someone who was clean that I get along with and wouldn't mind sharing a house with... Any takers?? Side note: I am so not looking forward to moving again! I think this is why the house option is appealing to me, maybe I would stay longer...

- Some cool things: I went paragliding, which was pretty awesome. Had my first Colorado camping trip and had a blast (might need to go buy some gear soon). Already putting my Elitch's pass (amusement park in Denver) to good use - been three times so far and cant wait to go again. Went to my first Rockies game, sooo lame! Colorado seriously has no idea how to do baseball! Did my first hike of the season the other day. Tonight I am checking out the drive-in theater for the first time. And tomorrow I am going on my first bike ride brewery tour :-)

Well I think that is all the major stuff... I have officially been distracted falling in love with houses... Bagh this is going to be a very interesting month... Hopefully I will do a better job at keeping you updated through out the process. Until next time <3 p="">
*Star*