“Joy is the ultimate reward in life.”
― Sunday Adelaja

January is almost gone and with the month ending, reflection begins on the New Year’s resolutions, intentions or goals. Am I still doing what I set out to do or do I need to look for ways to keep the momentum going?

Just like the quote says, “Joy is the ultimate reward in life”, so when the resolve starts wavering the joy gets lost. Would more time or a different way to do things help?

Here are my thoughts…….

Knowing there was a reward waiting for me when I finished an extra workout, write an extra blog post, clean out a drawer/closet, would help my momentum but not necessarily my joy.

So I decided to switch it up and get the reward first……you know the saying “Eat dessert first.”

For me, I have found if I rewarded myself first, “I’m going to take a walk with the dogs and then I will sit with my project for the next 30 minutes,” my 30 minutes would last longer before my attention span hollered for the next reward/break.

Now I know for some this may seem like a bad idea, you may wander down a rabbit hole and never get your work done, which may be true unless you set a time limit for your reward too.

And that’s the key, your reward has to be on a time limit to balance out the benefit of reward first then work.

Tiny steps will move you forward in both reward and work balance, giving you the ability to get more done without feeling like you have to put your nose to the grindstone before you get to take the reward break.

Give it a try, switch up your reward system and see if there is more “joy” in your life, the joy in knowing that your New Year’s resolutions will survive in the long run.

“Baby steps count, too, as long as you’re moving forward.”

~Chris Gardner

I have been struggling with something, and maybe you can relate. A couple of years ago, I declared lots of white space in my calendar after hitting the wall, HARD, and burning down and out. 

Last year, I still set no goals or agendas, letting things free flow and waiting for something to drop from the sky: a project, an agenda, a reason to focus and work. 

Nothing! 

Okay I thought, I will still allow white space and time, letting the Universe tell me what I need to do.

Still Nothing!

Let me stop right here and say, I’m not a proponent for busy just to say I’m busy because creativity and ideas do need white space and time for things to take form. But what I have discovered this new year, is you need to take action in the form of movement for the Universe (aka Muse) to take you seriously. 

Baby steps to let the Universe know that you are ready to move forward, that you are welcoming what it may bring your way and you are ready to receive. 

During my morning meditation the message I received from my Sacred Path cards, was Warbonnet, which means Advance. Here’s one of the questions from the card’s description:

“Am I willing to be a pathfinder and to explore the possibilities of my future creations by boldly taking action now?”

Small steps, revisiting some creative ideas, tweaking some projects, setting a simple agenda to start working on some of these things I’ve started dusting off. Showing the Universe that I am here and I’m ready once again.

So I ask of you, “Are you ready to take that action, to move forward with baby steps, and explore your future creations?”

I hope you will join me in not being busy for the sake of doing something but moving toward that project, idea or thought that keeps dogging you. See if it is worthy of your time and energy or if there is something beyond that old idea that needs more of your attention. 

2019 is our year of putting things out in the world that the world needs. That “need” is YOU, your ideas, energy and how you show up for others.

Peace, Love and Tiny Steps!

P.S. I was interviewed Monday by a local writer, here is the article.

If you are on FB, you can find it here. Feel free to share and show this writer some love by following. Thanks!

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” ~ Mary Oliver

(disclaimer: this article is not intended to “shame” anyone who is still on FB or Twitter, it is about my journey and what I have learned this past year.)

My Independence Day is actually on July 19th, 2017, when I declared my independence from Facebook and Twitter by deactivating both accounts. As I celebrate my one year anniversary, I want to share with you what I have learned.

Let me begin by being completely honest, I still have an Instagram account that I visit maybe every 4 or 5 days, sometimes less frequently, so I do have a social media connection, but Facebook was my biggest addiction, with Twitter jumping in from time to time.

One year later and yes I documented the day to see how long I could go without the lure of FB and Twitter, life continues to go on, the world is still turning, and my ability to connect is stronger than ever!

What???? You can connect without social media (yes you know this already but let me remind you)

I have had lunches, dinners, and coffees, catching up with people who I have not seen in years by reaching out with emails, calls or letters and been more “social” in the last year since ditching social media than ever before.

I am doing more reading and writing, even starting a series here on Zen Chick called Spirit Moon Notes, delivered before the new and full moon of each month. Each note, explains the energy associated with those moon phases and gives a journal prompt to help you process that energy.

My creativity and intuition are better because I have more time for them both and I can listen more closely to them. I’m more connected with nature and the natural rhythms of life.

Now, before you think that its all been rainbows and unicorns, it has not, the first week, I got itchy, wanting something to distract me, like social media. There are still times when I get my addiction other ways, like the news feed app, which I recently deleted from my phone and iPad. And I do catch myself reaching for Instagram too often at times so again; I deleted the app.

My “monkey mind” is a busy little thing and I have to direct that cute little monkey to things that are worthy of my attention. It’s a process, and as long as I have a phone, iPad, and computer, the temptation will always be there.

But the difference I see in my life right now and the fact that I don’t miss FB or Twitter, keeps me moving forward with my “independence.” And for me, that feels good.

Let me hear from you in the comments; is there something in your life (not necessarily social media) that you have let go of that has given you a new sense of freedom or independence?

Sharing is caring, so please share because we all learn from each other.

Peace and Love!

“Because I know that at the end of my life, sharing pics & quips & LOLs & emoticons & working diligently to create a “presence”  on social media networking platforms & eagerly seeking “likes” & “shares” & “hearts” and so forth is not a time investment that I will feel proud of. To the contrary, it’s one I will probably regret.”

~ Alexandra Franzen

It happened once again but this time it was expected, the signs were there and I had been ignoring them for a while. The lost time, the anxiety, the dilemma of what to do or not do, the anger and frustration.

Now it’s done and it was simple, to the point and not really messy at all. (okay it was a little messy)  It’s only been a few days but I feel free, light and my new life resides in the “clueless” realm.

My break up was with Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, with Instagram hanging in the balance. I also broke up with all of my news feed apps and right now am living mostly “clueless.”

What pushed me over the edge? A single email from a beautiful soul named Alex that arrived in my inbox, asking these questions: “Do I have to?”, Do I need that?”, Could there be another way?” and my all time favorite, “What would happen if I just stopped?”

You won’t find Alex on Facebook, Twitter or any social media sites, she doesn’t run her business or life that way but is a powerful writer and has been hired by some of the best, besides writing her own books.

Okay so back to me and my choice, once I asked those 4 questions, I knew that my time, (which I could easily lose on one of those sites), the ease and joy of my life, and my creativity were all suffering from information overload. Simple is what I want my life to be and complicated is what it had become from too much information.

Which leads me to clueless. You see for information that I need or want, interactions with my friends, a lunch date or Saturday morning trip to the farmers market, does the work better than clicking on an app. I am making a conscience choice of whether or not I want to ask the question about what is happening or choose to be clueless.

Let me stop here and say, I’m not putting anyone one down for being on Facebook or any social media sites if it works for you, rock it on! But this is my third round of going off and I wanted it to really stick so I went for broke by deactivating them all.

So if you are already a part of my fantastic Zen Chick community, I will still be here, listening to and writing for all of you. If not and you are reading this, please join us by subscribing below this post. I will be around on my farm enjoying the beauty of nature, my hubby, and our animal family or at my business helping people feel better about their bodies and possibly their lives.

Peace and big love!

Dear Facebook,

I’m trying to be fair but you are not playing nice. So I think it’s time for a separation and possibly a divorce. This is no longer working for me. 

I know how this goes, I’ve been through a divorce and it was ugly, painful and long. Separating from you, Facebook is turning into a long, ugly divorce too with all of the power lawyers on your side. 

The children in this disagreement are two business pages which at this point I’m willing to split, Facebook you can keep one and I get the other. Again painful but it can work.

And on it goes, my personal struggle with a social media giant that is suppose to be at the very least, SOCIAL!

Not feeling the social love here Facebook.

What’s the reason behind this breakup you ask?

There were no haters (you know “haters going to hate” thing), no mean comments, no hijacks of my pages, just me being very tired of a long list of what I call, cattle calls;

“Look I’m at the gym”

“I just checked into Wal-Mart”

“Grab this coupon now”

“I don’t like or you shouldn’t like…….”

“Check out this cute puppy video” (btw I love cute puppy videos, but I digress)

And I could go on but you get the picture, you see all of this too in your newsfeed. And is it really news?

Now don’t get me wrong there were times that useful information came through those cattle calls but overall if it was something I really needed to know someone had already called, texted or emailed me.

But now I want out, delete, deactivate my personal page and keep my two business pages up and running.

“NO” said Facebook, “you can’t do that, we need to “know” who you are, where you are and what the hell you might be doing.”

Seriously???????

What you are really saying Facebook is you want to track my likes, dislikes, throw ads and other pages at me. Follow my friends and see what they are up to too. Put me in a demographic group so you can throw even more stuff my way.

And then there are the business gurus making me feel guilty if I don’t have a social media presence. “You could miss a lot of business exposure, your target audience or worse yet another “LIKE”, they proclaim.

For me, Facebook, you have really been a huge disappointment and now you want to punish me for wanting to leave you?

Well I may not win the whole battle and you may get custody of one or both pages but I will keep my sanity and have a whole helluva lot more time to do the things I want to do, like writing this blog post about you.

As the separation proceedings continue my dear community and if I leave Facebook then know that I’m still right here, sending you my thoughts through my writing on living a life you love. And unlike Facebook, when you get tired of my stuff you get to unsubscribe guilt free with no hoops to jump through.

And if you want to keep up with the Facebook drama, stay tuned to the Zen Chick page or follow Zen Chick on Twitter.