Friday, October 21, 2011
Upsizing,
I've been using a small purse recently, but like all purses, no matter the size, I pack it full to bursting, usually meaning I can't do it up. We're heading to a cottage this weekend with my family, and since I'm using one of my smaller suitcases, I, of course, need a bigger purse. ;) My big purse has been sitting in my room. When I downsized to the small purse, I only moved out the most important daily purse articles. It's only been a couple of months, but I had to go through my big purse today to use it. (I also plan on using it as my secondary carry-on when we head down to the DR in a couple of weeks, so it's a job that needed to be done).
And what should I find in one of the pockets...? A gift card from Starbucks. I left my old job in June, which broke my heart, but I received lots of thank yous and wonderful farewells from staff and students and families alike. It was a sad leaving but it was full of love. This gift card is from one of those co-workers. It just made me smile. It was in a card. I had forgotten it in a side pocket of the large purse when I did the downsize and I found it today. All of the love and gratitude I received from all of those people flooded back to me and back out of me as I fondly remembered working with them and being an important part of that team.
I am grateful to be working and to being a member of a new team. Making new friends, setting up new roles and responsibilites, finding where I fit in best. I'm happy and excited and I know so many wonderful and fabulous opportunities lie ahead of me.
It's funny how cleaning out a purse can be so rewarding. :)
With Love
~sarah~
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
What motivates you?
I have been feeling unmotivated for a while, in a number of areas. Professionally, weight loss, exercise, life direction. I continue to ask myself what motivates me? How can I get "started"?
Last week our weight watchers meeting was about motivation. Our levels of motivation change as our situation around us changes. When I first started Weight Watchers almost 3 years ago I was extremely motivated. I had just gotten back from a wedding down south and saw the pictures of myself next to 3 beautiful, slim, blond girls and I felt like a troll. My own wedding was 6 months away and all I could picture was that troll in a white dress. I was motivated to be the princess I felt like inside. That motivation pushed me to loose 32lbs in 6 months and I felt fantastic.
I had my motivation, my wedding day. Since my wedding day I've been "maintaining" my weight...although I haven't really maintained, as I have gained 10lbs over those 2.5 years. However, I can't seem to find the motivation to lose that 10lbs. Not even knowing that in a month I'll be spending a week in the DR, in my bikini, with a large group of friends. I'm happy with the way I look, I know I'd look and feel better if I lost 10lbs, but "better" doesn't seem to be enough motivation for me.
The same thing goes for work. I'm not motivated to go out and do something big or life altering because I'm waiting for something to shift where I am currently. For the past two years I worked my butt off and was motivated at work, but when, due to union boundaries, I had to take a lesser position (in order to eventually get back what I had permanently), I've just been "comfortable" to wait it out. Only I'm not comfortable, I'm restless, but not enough to motivate me to do anything big.
And the exercise, I'm getting more than I was, but not as much as I'd like to want to. In my head I'd love to be working out every day and seeing improvements, but I don't have the motivation to actually do it, and when I do go out and do it, it's not due to motivation but sheer force of will (and believe me...I'm forcing it). I like working out, but I just don't have the motivation to really attack it.
I've been extremely motivated to do all sorts of things in the past, but I am currently missing my muse, my enthusiasm, my motivation.
How does this all make me happy? At our Weight Watchers meeting this evening, a girl behind me talked about her motivation. How she has done the program more than once, successfully, and other times not so successfully. Last week's meeting about motivation did just what it was supposed to do, it motivated her.
When she spoke about her past week about tracking and exercising, about feeling good, feeling motivated she was so happy and excited, I wanted to join in her joy. I did, I was and still am so happy for her. I wish a weekly meeting could do that for me. It has in the past, I hope it will again.
If you read my blog, I'd love to know what motivates you. What motivates you to strive for better? To eat less and eat healthier? To get off your butt and move? To take chances professionally? To go out and take a risk? What motivates you to do that thing you say you want to do but never do? What motivates you to do that thing you have to do but don't want to? How do YOU do it?
With Love
~sarah~
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Last week our weight watchers meeting was about motivation. Our levels of motivation change as our situation around us changes. When I first started Weight Watchers almost 3 years ago I was extremely motivated. I had just gotten back from a wedding down south and saw the pictures of myself next to 3 beautiful, slim, blond girls and I felt like a troll. My own wedding was 6 months away and all I could picture was that troll in a white dress. I was motivated to be the princess I felt like inside. That motivation pushed me to loose 32lbs in 6 months and I felt fantastic.
I had my motivation, my wedding day. Since my wedding day I've been "maintaining" my weight...although I haven't really maintained, as I have gained 10lbs over those 2.5 years. However, I can't seem to find the motivation to lose that 10lbs. Not even knowing that in a month I'll be spending a week in the DR, in my bikini, with a large group of friends. I'm happy with the way I look, I know I'd look and feel better if I lost 10lbs, but "better" doesn't seem to be enough motivation for me.
The same thing goes for work. I'm not motivated to go out and do something big or life altering because I'm waiting for something to shift where I am currently. For the past two years I worked my butt off and was motivated at work, but when, due to union boundaries, I had to take a lesser position (in order to eventually get back what I had permanently), I've just been "comfortable" to wait it out. Only I'm not comfortable, I'm restless, but not enough to motivate me to do anything big.
And the exercise, I'm getting more than I was, but not as much as I'd like to want to. In my head I'd love to be working out every day and seeing improvements, but I don't have the motivation to actually do it, and when I do go out and do it, it's not due to motivation but sheer force of will (and believe me...I'm forcing it). I like working out, but I just don't have the motivation to really attack it.
I've been extremely motivated to do all sorts of things in the past, but I am currently missing my muse, my enthusiasm, my motivation.
How does this all make me happy? At our Weight Watchers meeting this evening, a girl behind me talked about her motivation. How she has done the program more than once, successfully, and other times not so successfully. Last week's meeting about motivation did just what it was supposed to do, it motivated her.
When she spoke about her past week about tracking and exercising, about feeling good, feeling motivated she was so happy and excited, I wanted to join in her joy. I did, I was and still am so happy for her. I wish a weekly meeting could do that for me. It has in the past, I hope it will again.
If you read my blog, I'd love to know what motivates you. What motivates you to strive for better? To eat less and eat healthier? To get off your butt and move? To take chances professionally? To go out and take a risk? What motivates you to do that thing you say you want to do but never do? What motivates you to do that thing you have to do but don't want to? How do YOU do it?
With Love
~sarah~
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Location:Jackson Ct,Kanata,Canada
Monday, October 3, 2011
Social Media - For Better or For Worse - Part 2 (or She Made Me Think!)
So....back to the question @fleur_de_lotus asked that made me think...
How Different would your life be without social media? Better? Worse?
And this is the second part of "It Made Me Happy" today, because for the most part, social media makes me happy.
I should let you know, social media for me is Twitter, Facebook, how I get most of my news and a little blogging here and there. I've got a Google+ account but haven't used it since the day I got it. There is much more social media out there, but I don't understand it all, know much about or use it.
I also do not consider myself to be a social media expert or specialist or anything, but I do use social media as part of my life, on a daily basis.
Why does social media make me happy...why do I feel like my life is better because of it? Because I keep in touch with so many friends and family. I see pictures that I would never see. I find out about weddings, and birth announcements as they happen to a wider circle of friends and loved ones. I am able to keep tabs on a wider circle of friends, to support them, be happy for them, and celebrate their lives with them.
Social media gets my news to me faster. When the earthquake happened June 2010 in Ottawa, and I had a scared little boy in the office with me, I was able to tell him within seconds what was going on and that it would be ok. I received information faster and with more clarity than over the school board's emergency information line.
Social media allows me to share. It gives me an outlet. I am able to ask questions, give answers, and express myself in a manner that I enjoy. I feel like a student, an expert, an artist, a writer, and a performer, all at the same time.
However, I believe there are some parts of social media that makes things worse...potentially.
I can easily slip into patterns of not TALKING to my close friends and family as much. I don't need to pick up the phone and call, and have a conversation as much as I would if I didn't have Facebook. It's easy not to have to commit as much time or focus on relationships as much, and still appear to be very involved. Taking the time to maintain personal relationships personally is important to remember. Social media is a tool not a crutch.
Social media sometimes feel like it could overrun my life. NEEDING to know all of the time what's happening on Twitter, on Facebook, in the news. It would be easy to be more involved with my online life than with the world offline. Instead of telling others what's going on in my life, I can just make the information readily available for all to read and see, instead of again, talking with them, making it a conversation rather than a "look at me".
There is also the possibility of opening myself up to all sorts of negative people. Short of keeping top security on everything I do online (which I sort of see as defeating the purpose), a lot of my life is online for others to see, which has the potential to put me at risk. So I try and monitor just how much I share, and how much I allow comments and opinions to affect me.
I know people who avoid social media altogether for privacy and security reasons. I also know I could allow myself to get so carried away with social media that the "real me" could cease to exist. However, social media is another area of life, where In Moderation strikes me as being important. I feel like I'm am learning everyday how to properly balance this fabulous world of information, learning, news and people with my life outside of social media. Keeping social media...social.
Thank you again to @fleur_de_lotus for asking the question this morning and giving me something to ponder.
With Love
~sarah~
How Different would your life be without social media? Better? Worse?
And this is the second part of "It Made Me Happy" today, because for the most part, social media makes me happy.
I should let you know, social media for me is Twitter, Facebook, how I get most of my news and a little blogging here and there. I've got a Google+ account but haven't used it since the day I got it. There is much more social media out there, but I don't understand it all, know much about or use it.
I also do not consider myself to be a social media expert or specialist or anything, but I do use social media as part of my life, on a daily basis.
Why does social media make me happy...why do I feel like my life is better because of it? Because I keep in touch with so many friends and family. I see pictures that I would never see. I find out about weddings, and birth announcements as they happen to a wider circle of friends and loved ones. I am able to keep tabs on a wider circle of friends, to support them, be happy for them, and celebrate their lives with them.
Social media gets my news to me faster. When the earthquake happened June 2010 in Ottawa, and I had a scared little boy in the office with me, I was able to tell him within seconds what was going on and that it would be ok. I received information faster and with more clarity than over the school board's emergency information line.
Social media allows me to share. It gives me an outlet. I am able to ask questions, give answers, and express myself in a manner that I enjoy. I feel like a student, an expert, an artist, a writer, and a performer, all at the same time.
However, I believe there are some parts of social media that makes things worse...potentially.
I can easily slip into patterns of not TALKING to my close friends and family as much. I don't need to pick up the phone and call, and have a conversation as much as I would if I didn't have Facebook. It's easy not to have to commit as much time or focus on relationships as much, and still appear to be very involved. Taking the time to maintain personal relationships personally is important to remember. Social media is a tool not a crutch.
Social media sometimes feel like it could overrun my life. NEEDING to know all of the time what's happening on Twitter, on Facebook, in the news. It would be easy to be more involved with my online life than with the world offline. Instead of telling others what's going on in my life, I can just make the information readily available for all to read and see, instead of again, talking with them, making it a conversation rather than a "look at me".
There is also the possibility of opening myself up to all sorts of negative people. Short of keeping top security on everything I do online (which I sort of see as defeating the purpose), a lot of my life is online for others to see, which has the potential to put me at risk. So I try and monitor just how much I share, and how much I allow comments and opinions to affect me.
I know people who avoid social media altogether for privacy and security reasons. I also know I could allow myself to get so carried away with social media that the "real me" could cease to exist. However, social media is another area of life, where In Moderation strikes me as being important. I feel like I'm am learning everyday how to properly balance this fabulous world of information, learning, news and people with my life outside of social media. Keeping social media...social.
Thank you again to @fleur_de_lotus for asking the question this morning and giving me something to ponder.
With Love
~sarah~
She Made Me Think! Part 1 (or Social Media - For Better or For Worse)
I rarely blog during the day and I barely ever sit down at the computer anymore to do it, but I have the time, access, and my brain is firing away, I have to get this out of my head.
On Twitter this morning @fleur_de_lotus asked a question. Often when I encounter questions on Twitter I think quickly and reply quickly using the 140 characters and move on. Today, I read the question, went to answer, went to answer again, thought about it, thought about it some more and then it grew into a huge conversation in my head.
THIS is the first first part of "It Made Me Happy" today. My brain getting all fired up with thinking, and thoughts, and questions, and answers. Working only a couple of minutes every day at the school doesn't give my brain lots of time to do much thinking. So when my brain got some exercise this morning it started to run, and felt wonderful.
So what did she ask?
How Different would your life be without social media? Better? Worse?
And this the second part of "It Made Me Happy" today, because for the most part, social media makes me happy.
Cont'd in Part 2
On Twitter this morning @fleur_de_lotus asked a question. Often when I encounter questions on Twitter I think quickly and reply quickly using the 140 characters and move on. Today, I read the question, went to answer, went to answer again, thought about it, thought about it some more and then it grew into a huge conversation in my head.
THIS is the first first part of "It Made Me Happy" today. My brain getting all fired up with thinking, and thoughts, and questions, and answers. Working only a couple of minutes every day at the school doesn't give my brain lots of time to do much thinking. So when my brain got some exercise this morning it started to run, and felt wonderful.
So what did she ask?
How Different would your life be without social media? Better? Worse?
And this the second part of "It Made Me Happy" today, because for the most part, social media makes me happy.
Cont'd in Part 2
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