Start And End Your Day With Inspiration - Art For Your Room

A few weeks ago I started looking into the feng shui of my house to see what I can do to increase the positive chi or energy in my home. I found a lot of things that were "off" and set out to rectify or improve what I could without breaking the bank. One of the things I decided to do was create a motivational piece that I  could wake up to every morning and see before I go to bed. Now, you don't have to believe in the whole feng shui business, but I think that this is a good idea for anyone. Sometimes we just need a little reminder. So pick a quote or even a single word that means a lot to you and put it on a canvas.

One thing that I have learned is that I have a greater control over my emotions than I thought. Emotions are a choice and we can find many things in our current lives to satisfy the choices of how we want to feel, but we may not conscious of these choices. If we want to be angry, it is easy to find something to be angry about. If we want to be happy, we are bound to find happiness somewhere if we are willing to look for it and be open to it. It can sometimes make us vulnerable, but vulnerably is what makes us real. I wanted to remind myself of this everyday and I wanted it pretty immediately so I went right to my craft room and had at it.

It's not the most artistic piece of mine, but it's the message that counts right? :) Just pick your favorite colors and get a wide brush and blend them for the background. In my case I had a tiny brush, so it took a bit longer. Then, write your message in a contrasting color. My walls are a light minty green, so I picked calming colors that went with my wall and bedding. When I see it, it makes me smile.

Quick Tips For Your Next Presentation

We've all heard that most people fear public speaking more than death itself. Do you feel the same when you are put in a situation where you have to talk in front of people? I am a bit shy and awkward as it is sometimes! I have given some decent presentations throughout my college career and do get some sort of adrenaline rush out of it. I have a certain amount of confidence when speaking in front of my college peers only because I know that each and everyone of them will be in my situation. However, speaking to my professional community frightens me terribly. I decided that the only way to get over this fear is to actually DO IT and PRACTICE. This is where my personal and career development goals kick in...

I was nominated and accepted to be a Diversity Ambassador for my work and my main responsibility is to provide internal and external presentations about the diversity efforts, programs, and potential within the company. I am one of two individual representing the IT department and there are a total of thirty Ambassadors. Once I become fully certified, I will need to make presentations regularly. I was hesitant to accept the nomination because I didn't want to speak in front of people at work. It wasn't until the last couple of hours of my acceptance window that I finally decided that I needed to challenge myself and face one of my biggest fears. Someone believed in me and I needed to learn to believe in myself too. I had to attend a series of quick courses on presenting and jotted down a few key points. Here is a link to my notes that you may find helpful: Presentation Tips.

I was at a work conference last weekend and I was really in awe of how well my CEO and the attending SVPs and guest speakers presented. It's easy to think that all these individuals were born with the skills to speak in front of a large audience, but they admitted that very few were good at presenting from the beginning. Here is where I go off on a small tangent... Seeing where they are in their careers now and understanding their dedication and hard work to get where they are was an eye-opening experience. We may not all have exactly what it takes to be a CEO no matter how hard we try, because there can only be so many... However, as long as we are realistic about what our potential is given our circumstances and environment, there is only one thing or person that can absolutely stop us on our path to personal success. US. If we decide that we cannot do something, we may not exert enough effort to be able to do it. If we decide that we don't want to do something, we may not do it at all. Our most immediate limitations are ourselves. Persistence and dedication will take us to the furthest point of success, while apathy and complacency leaves us at a standstill.

Challenge yourself to be better at something!

Quotes and Inspirational Images

When I have nothing to do or I need a little pick me up, I like to google images with inspirational or fun quotes to get me back in the right state of mind. Here is a collection of the ones that I have saved and which I will keep updated. I hope you guys enjoy them. Have a happy Thursday!

Quotes and Inspirational Images

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus

Most of us have heard of the book Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus for some time now, or at least have heard that phrase thrown around a bit in the last decade or so. I recall hearing about this book on Oprah a long time ago, but hadn't paid any attention to it. A good friend of mine had loaned me her copy of the book and said that I could benefit from reading it. It sat on a book shelf unopened for over a year. I thought it was corny and I didn't want to bother with it. A couple of months ago, my friend had insisted that I try to read through the book from finish to end because some of the things that I had been experiencing in my relationship were issues in most relationships. The first few chapters were hard to get through because it was a bit cheesy. However, the more I read, the more I could identify with what the author was saying. That got my attention. It ended up being an easy read once I became open-minded to it. I am glad that I read the book, because it made me see things in a different light and gain perspective. If I can choose only one valuable lesson I learned from this book, I would say that I learned that there are certain things that I just shouldn't take personally; there are inherited difference between how men and women communicate and interpret messages and neither parties can help it sometimes. I think that I can see why so many marriages end in failure. :O Relationships are a lot of work and they always will be. I urge all of you to read this book. Not all the concepts apply to everyone, but I think enough of it will relate to most people. I bought my own copy of the book and it became a gateway book. I came across a PDF of it that you can use for a preview: Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus. Please purchase a copy of the book if you enjoy it.

DIY Fortune Cookies With A Personalized Message

My friends and I love fortune cookies. We don't ever eat the cookies, but we like to read the fortunes. I thought it would be a good idea to make my own (non-edible) cookies with my own fortunes and messages. I made one with a thank you message to my friend for helping me feed my kitties while I was out of town and made another one with a fun message for someone else. They are very simple to make and my tutorial can be found on my crafting blog, www.cupofthreads.com. Click on the picture below to go directly to the tutorial. If you want a cute way to say thank you or tell someone that you are thinking of them, give this a try!