Tag: Motivation

Embroidery wrapped cell phone charging cable craft

Five Things I’m Loving: Spring 2017

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In my “Five Things I’m Loving” post series, I share five of my current favorite things or activities. The theme in this post seems to be the little things in life making a huge difference. Feel free to share what your top five are in the comments below.

1. Handy Healthy Snacks

The tip that I heard many years ago of having nutritious, easy-fix snacks available is the first example of the small things in life having major impact. Grabbing a handful of almonds has saved me many times from being hangry. A few more snack ideas?

  • Trail mix
  • Granola or snack bars
  • Ingredients for a simple salad (strawberries and pre-washed spinach, for example)
  • Bananas
  • Dry cereal
  • Cheese sticks

2. Craft Time: Wrapped Cell Phone Charging Cable

Recently I happened upon a listing for earbuds wrapped in embroidery floss on Etsy. I was inspired. So I sat myself down with some American Southwest-colored floss and began wrapping the charging cable for my phone (this is the cable I currently use the most). Following the instructions from these tutorials[1], I wound and knotted for a few hours to wind up (hehe) with the cable in the header photo.

3. Learning from others by discussing ideas

“Two heads are greater than one” and “Iron sharpens iron” are two sayings that describe my third fav. A few discussions with other people who put a priority on growing and learning has given me new ideas to ponder, new brain connections between subjects, and new inspiration to pursue positivity. My experience corroborates that of Megan Gebhart, who went to coffee once a week with someone new for a year and wrote about what she learned. Wisdom and encouragement can be found in a coffee meetup. Thank you to those friends who have shared their time and encouraged me this spring!

4. Spring Flowers!

How awesome is it to see and smell the lilac trees in bloom! And wildflowers, cherry and dogwood blossoms, and alliums. Just lovely.

5. YouTube Exercise Videos

A friend mentioned Yoga with Adriene’s 30 day challenges, and I thought that sounded fun! Adriene is a calm and self-depricating yogi who leads by doing. I learned a new yoga pose and increased my strength and concentration by completing this 30-day challenge.

And that’s the top five things in my spring that I hope will spark an idea of something fun you want to try.

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[1] Embroidery wrapping tutorials: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/214835844702525776/ and https://www.pinterest.com/pin/214835844702525776/.

Black mortarboard from College Without the Campus

Leavenworth Pigeons

The Pigeonhole

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A few weeks ago, I met and visited with a peer who also lives in Walla Walla. She asked if I was working or going to school; I asked her the same. She told me she works at her church, has a part-time reception job, and is earning her psych degree.

Her response stuck with me because lately I’ve been thinking about my answer to the “What do you do?” question. Like this young woman, my response can also have three parts: writer of a book, HVAC shop assistant, and Etsy store owner.

I’m grateful that most people I talk to are open minded about my triple job description. This gratitude is why I’m writing this post: I want to learn to forget stereotypes when meeting someone. A person’s job does not define them. It does add to the description of the person, but that person is more than their job, more than their marital status, and more than any of the other general topics that come up in an initial conversation.

Of course we already know this. Yet, think about how much credit is given to a person when someone says, “My relative works at Google.” We don’t know this relative, but in my mind this person has just been given some clout. This could be deserved—after all, I hear it’s not easy to get a job at Google. This person put in the work! But, on the flip side, maybe this person got a lucky internship and was then employed. None of this is known.

Take me, for example. When I talk about each of my jobs individually, I can see my life being pigeonholed. If I say, “I’m an Etsy store owner,” this can seem like a hobby-type job, one that I probably do for fun and that doesn’t pay the bills. If I say, “I just finished writing a book”, this is usually received with excitement, regardless of what profit I’m making. For the first response, I can appear to be a moocher living frivolously; for the second, a persistent worker who completed a goal.

Either way, I am the same person.

So, if it seems your job isn’t bringing you credibility equal to what you’re actually doing, look at your goals. Are you making progress toward them? If you are, then you have all the credibility you need. And if you’re not finding the encouragement you’re looking for, reach out to those you admire and those who have traveled a similar road. These are the kindred spirits who know a person cannot fit in a pigeonhole.

Feeling Motivated (Even when We’re Not)

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On school days when I was in seventh grade, my mom would wake my sister and me at 6:00am so we could exercise before getting ready for the day. I vividly remember half of me trying to wake up and the other half falling back asleep until my mom called again, this time with one of our exercise tapes queued up. Her loving but insistent “second call” voice did the trick to get me out of bed.

These days I’m the one queuing up a YouTube exercise video to start my workout. My motivation for exercise has become internally driven. I have taken charge. Thinking about this change in my life makes me realize that self-motivation is part of the maturing process.

I needed this internal motivation during my college years. College requires students to become their own boss in ways that life may not have required before. I certainly needed motivation to select a course from my degree plan, find the appropriate credit-by-exam test, and then study. I also needed motivation when I felt like I might never finish my degree because of the number of tests left to take.

Pulling from chapter 7 in College Without the Campus, I’m going to share a few of my favorite ways to kick start my day and find motivation to get things done.

    • What motivates me?

      Perhaps writing down why you are working your tail off will help you to press onward. I find periodically writing down long-term goals helpful for reorienting my outlook on life. I’ve seen some inspiring Instagram posts of goals written in bullet journal style.

 

    • Kick procrastination to the curb.

      Procrastination is quietly deadly. It kills my creativity and focus. When I’m procrastinating, I rarely feel satisfied with the work I get done in a day (because I’ve left off doing what needs doing most!). This dissatisfaction leads me to dread the next day of more stalling—which doesn’t make for a happy attitude to wake up with. Fortunately, procrastination can be quickly killed by simply attacking the problem. Note that I say quickly, rather than easily. 🙂

 

  • Use positive habits to nurture your self-motivation.

    Sometimes moving to a quiet area to complete a project can help, as can capitalizing on the morning hours. One of the more drastic measures I take is hiding my phone. Having a break from this distracter can be unsettling at first, but freeing in the long run. Probably my all-time favorite motivating strategy is to schedule a reward for completing a goal. There’s nothing like having a coffee date or a ice cream trip in my sights to make me buckle down. One final point is to pray. Without the purpose of something greater than myself, I wouldn’t continue fighting everyday battles. If I talk to God about these problems, I can find peace and even joy to bring into my life struggles.

Though I completed my degree in 2012, I’ve continued to use these motivation techniques to keep me on track toward reaching new goals. Even during the final week before Christmas with all the last-minute errands, the final preparations for gatherings, the buying and wrapping gifts, motivation is crucial. Something inside has to give me the will to move forward, especially when I might rather just sleep in! I hope these tips will spark ideas on what motivates you!

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