Oh my goodness – so sorry friends! It’s been a bit [unusually] busy the past few weeks, but I’m back. We’ve taken a few life journeys, and now that we have settled back in, our regularly scheduled-unscheduled life can resume.
We recently celebrated our little one’s first birthday. To say the celebration was amazing would be an understatement. I’m sure the party was made a much bigger deal in my mind than anyone else’s [as it should] but the milestones she reached in just the first year of life are constant reminders to me that anything is possible. Bear with me as I might get slightly sentimental.
The amount of growth and change that occurs in that initial year of life rocks any challenge that I might experience in my adult life. Seriously. To mention only just a few, she has learned to roll-crawl-cruise-walk in that first year, she knows/recognizes close friends and family, eats almost everything like a champ [tries new things without fussing], soothes herself at night, handles milk like a boss – better than her mama, and just has the best disposition. She pretty much handles any situation with a giggle and a smile. Truly blessed.
So, on that little personal note, I wanted to share a few inspirational reminders that I came into contact this week that helped reaffirm our life decisions or provided that added dose of inspiration that we can all use once in a while.
For the Soul
Erin from Design for Mankind reminds us that our perception of balance might be, well, unbalanced. Take a page from her book and just breath. Everything has its own way of working out and striking that magical balance. Don’t get hung up on trying to make it happen. If you do, it won’t happen. And there comes the stress.
For the Career
Tom Searcy wrote about the four ways to improve your marketing. Great points. Number two stuck out to me the most. We have that go-to phrase of “Don’t take this personally,” or “It’s just business,” but in reality how that comes across is, “You’ll probably take this personally,” or “I’m going to tell you something you did that I do NOT like.” This sets a negative tone for an already no-so-pleasant conversation. So, the meeting will be less productive, minds may even be shut, and opinions are seen as criticisms. Instead, think of the entire strategy of a campaign or creative piece, whatever is going to get the “It’s not me, it’s you,” speech, and look at where and when things went off course. “Structural elements” make up the campaign, so figure out the weak spots and fix it. Take out the “Why?” and replace it with questions centered around the “What/When/Where.”
For the Home
Love me a good DIY. The lovely ladies at A Beautiful Mess never disappoint! [Shout-out to those fellow Missouri lovelies!] It’s all about the memories, and they have captured a few interesting ways to showcase those lovely square photographs that we all can’t get enough of nowadays. Already thinking of a few things inspired by this post, but adding a photo gallery really creates a dynamic space, swapping in new memories and retiring old ones to a journal/scrapbook/basket.
Hope everyone has an amazing weekend! See you next week!
