Motivation for Your Monday

Happy Monday! Today is a bit chilly and quite wet in Florida and it is this weather that I absolutely love. We do not get many days where all you want to do is cuttle up on a patio with a good book and a warm mug of coffee, but this is one of them. Hopefully, that will be a bit of my future today! I also need to get to wrapping and order the last few gifts for under our tree and, of course, actual work as well ;) How is your Christmas going so far?

Today, I decided to do something a bit different but oh-so important for the MFYM- talk about gratitude. This was yesterday's task in Elf 4 Health and it was wonderful. Seeing all the things that everyone was thankful for and making a list of my own had an amazing way of relieving so much stress. This and making a list of the next day's to-do's might become a nightly activity for me.

Today's motivation may take a bit longer than the usual reading of a quote, but I highly suggest you do it. It really does have an incredible ability to calm our mind and put the focus on what we have instead of what we need to do, the time we have wasted, the errands and meetings that must be checked off the list, those bills, and everything else that can so easily come in and change our perspective of the day. Here are the twenty things I am grateful for:

1. My husband- he is everything I need.
2. Our cats- they make me so happy and remind me about the important things in life. Chuu is on my lap cuddling and purring right now. Is there anything better? I think not ;)
3. My parents- they are kindness and support.
4. My in-laws- I am so thankful to have in-laws that I look up to and sincerely love.
5. My family- I am so thankful for a close, loving family.
6. God
7. Our friends- They are incredible.
8. My home- it is peaceful and perfect for us right now. It makes me happy.
9. Forgiveness
10. Love
11. Grace
12. People who help others- Especially those who help ones with no way of giving back.
13. Kindness
14. Our business- I know of no other business that encourages the good in people, positive change and growth, and rewards you for helping others. I am reminded of this every day. Here's to people following what they love instead of a cubicle.
15. Freedom- My goodness, how could I not be so thankful to live in a place and time where we are free.
16. The health of my family
17. The ability to grow and change
18. The ability to travel
19. The internet- it is magic that makes no sense but boy, do I love it!
20. Having enough food and water daily, without worry.

What are your twenty things?

Motivation for Your Monday

Happy Monday! I hope your weekend and your Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful! We were able to have a great time with family this past weekend and I loved it. Now, we are into the holidays and today we will be putting the finishing touches on all that decorating. The tree will be going up today along with all garland and a few craft projects. I am thinking we might needs a house photo tour with all the Christmas decs up, but we will see :)

As far as motivation, this week we are keeping it simple. The holidays can so easily turn from a time to give thanks and be with family to a crazy material fest filled with stress. This year, I want to focus on what really matters during the holidays- family, love, gratefulness, and joy. To-do lists and presents will take a back seat to the real purpose of life; giving. 

Does your family have any special traditions for holiday giving? We always give a bit more time to the places we volunteer at over the holidays and donating gifts for those who may not get any. I would love to start doing a few more holiday traditions about giving and would completely love any ideas! 

As far as the blog goes though, we will still have plenty of holiday themed posts going on including a few DIY projects (mercury glass, anyone?), gift guides, and sale updates. And, talking about sales, I hope you are taking advantage of all these cyber Monday deals! Express, Target, J. Crew, Gap, and almost everywhere else are having some pretty great deals. A few places are 50% off your entire order! 

Motivation for Your Monday

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Happy two post Monday! This little bonus is because I just needed to share the Cornbread Stuffing recipe with all you Thanksgiving chefs, but still did not want to leave the motivation undone. Instead of doing my usual one quote today, I wanted to do a few of my favorites from past motivations and a few new. The holidays are officially here and for many, that means more stress, more headaches, and more difficulty keeping a positive attitude in check. It tends to mean that for me.

This year, I have decided to choose to be happy, thankful, and calm this holiday season. To help with that, I have a few go-to quotes about attitude that remind me everything we do is a choice. We can choose to get annoyed in that insanely crowded store or parking lot, or we can choose to breathe, relax, and know everything that must get done will get done. We can choose to show our family and friends how stressed and upset we are, or we can choose to make their day better with our kindness, patience, and understanding. Likewise, the choice of this holiday season being stressful, sad, dramatic, happy, joyful, and calming are all up to us. For this reason, I choose to be happy.

There was a great quote I recently heard which states that we can be in a situation, but our situation does not have to be in us. That is powerful. My self goal for this ending to such an incredible year is to choose to react with positivity, helpfulness, and kindness.

What are some of your goals for the holidays and how are you going to make it happen?

Weekly Motivation

I recently found this quote and simply loved it. It has quickly become one of my favorite poems and my mantra during the holidays. Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I could not be more excited! But, that excitement can so easily turn to stress with family in town, cooking to be done, more work than usual to be completed, plenty of parties to go around, and all those crafts! But, through all of this, it is equally as important to remember that our lives are for enjoying and for helping others enjoy theirs'.

This holiday season I have made it my goal to be happy, stress free, and continually in the pursuit of making my life and the lives of those around me better. To begin with, I have signed up for Elle's annual  Elf for Health challenge. You can read all about it here and sign up as well! This will be such a fun way to meet others, keep the holidays in perspective, and learn a bit along the way!