Manifesting True Success-Blogging Challenge Day 6

Love

 

Yes, it can be scary to do what you love. 

When I first typed this sentence, I stared at it for a long time. I have that feeling every day. Every day when I sit down to write a blog post, take a picture, review a product and connect with others on social media, I think to myself I'm doing what I love, but will I ever make a career of it?! Am I wasting my time doing what makes me happy?! Will I ever be a success?!

Manifesting True Success Through Meditation 

I'm doing a meditation program with Deepak Chopra and Oprah.  It's a 21 day meditation program called Manifesting True Success. Doing these meditations every day will give me the power to  stop doubting myself and discover the greatness within me. I started late with the program, so I'm only on day 3. Here's what people are saying about the meditation program.





 Let me know if you are taking the meditation program. What do you think of it?! Does meditation help you in your daily life?!  Please let me know in the comments below.

Blogging Challenge Day 5: The Beauty Outside Our New Home

Today we visited our new home to take some measurements and just to remind us what we are buying.  I think we will be happy in the new home. I took a couple of pictures of the trees outside our home.  I'm trying to take more pictures of things that catch my eye.

This tree is going to be so beautiful when it blooms!

The tree is over our deck and the sellers told us that it provides some great shade during the summer.

Someone besides the sellers was there to greet us!

The sellers told us that the frog comes with the house;-) We are looking forward to moving into our new home. The last home we bought was in Chicago. When we left Chicago we said we wouldn't buy another home until we are officially settled in a city.  I guess Toronto is it!

Blogging Challenge Day 4: Failure Is An Option

"Failure is a stepping-stone to greatness."-Oprah Winfrey

I don't know when I subscribed to her email list, but I've been getting emails from Oprah every day for the past couple of weeks.  These emails contain some thoughts of the day and self improvement tips.  I have heard Oprah say many times to listen to the tiny whispers and that failure are God's little whispers.

Failure Is A Prerequisite To Success

Life Coach Erica Diamond Editor-In-Chief of Women on the Fence was interviewed in an OWNShow video called Tiny Invisible Signs You Are On the Wrong Path. Here are some of her tips.  Listen to your instincts. They are the tiny whispers Oprah talks about. Use your gut along with the intellect. So many times people ignore that gut reaction when they shouldn't. And my favorite, failure is a prerequisite to success. So many of the most successful people in the world have failed many times and that just makes them stronger and more determined.

“Failure is an option, fear is not." -James Cameron

A second video that comes on immediately after the Tiny Invisible Signs Your On The Wrong Path is called Reasons People Keep Failing At Resolutions. Interviewed during this video are  TV Host Leeza Gibbons, Olympian Carmelita Jeter and Comedian Erin Darling. Each of them had some great tips for approaches to setting goals.

Writing them down month by month.

Visualize your success. Another way to say this is "Claim it!" Whenever I told my mother I wanted something, she would always say "Claim it!" Make it yours and it will happen.

Have fun and just let it go.  Don't beat yourself up when something doesn't go the way you wanted it to. I have trouble with this one.

Some tips on how to reach your goals are:

Take them week by week or day by day. Slow and steady wins the race,

Have small and realistic goals. Don't try to do too much at one time. You will be overwhelmed and will then give up.

Be patient because sometimes it will take longer than you want to get to your goal.  Another one I have a problem with. 

Failing isn't permission to give up.


I'm so glad I watched these videos.  Accomplishing your goals is definitely a process.  I have to learn how not to beat myself up, be more patient and just let go and have fun. You can watch the videos here.

Do you believe that you have to fail to succeed? Do you believe failure is an option? What steps do you take in achieving your goals? Are any of them listed here? Please leave me a comment below.  I would love to here your story.

Blogging Challenge Day 3: Is This My "Aha Moment?"

I think I this is my "Aha moment!"

I can't believe it actually happened but I submitted my first article to Midlife Boulevard. When I read the email from them saying they approved my application, I read it several times and then did the Snoopy dance. I'm already looking forward to submitting more of my work.   And then I realized that this is what I have to do to build up my brand and make myself more visible.. My "Aha moment!"

The article I submitted is from my other blog Beauty, Fitness & Health Oh My! called Living In A Decaffeinated World.  BFH was originally a blog about my weight loss journey.  Now it's about my journey through menopause and also I talk about some of my favorite products I have found along the way.  I plan to also submit post from this blog too.

Hoping that this is the beginning of a new career.  I'm liking the path I'm on now with my writing and photography.  I have been looking for more ways to express myself creatively and I think I have found it.

Have you had an "Aha moment?"  I would love to hear about it. Please feel free to leave a comment below.

Blogging Challenge Day 2: Good Morning!

Woke up this morning and saw this image on my wall.  I just had to take a picture.

I'm really enjoying taking pictures again.  I remember when I was a kid, I wanted to be a photographer when I grew up. It's nice to show my creative side. Have a great day!

Blogging Challenge! Getting More Blog Traffic!

I'm always up for a blogging challenge.  I read a good way to get more blog traffic to your website is to write more content. So the challenge is to write 30 blog posts in 30 days.  Starting today until April 16th, I will try to do my best to post everyday!

I'm starting to get into photography.  I took a great class today from Skillshare called Mastering Mobile Photography: A Practical Guide. Check out the class here. It was short, but just enough to give me some good tips. Today was the second day of spring break with the kids and we made a cake! I took some pictures of us making the cake using the VSCO Cam app. I'm just starting out, but I really would like to take my own pictures for my blogs.  Here are the pictures I took down below.

My son trying to make an action shot with the batter

The first time my daughter spooned the batter out like this I didn't have the tablet available and it looked like an amazing shot with the shadows and light. Tried to replicate it, but I don't think I was successful. 

My son said "We need a shot of someone stirring the batter!" Here it is!

Tried to get a good shot, but too much sun. I still like it though!

Aaaand here's the finished product!

I really like spending time cooking with my kids in the kitchen.  Here is my first post for the blogging challenge! I'm already thinking of what to post for tomorrow.  It's fun getting the creative juices flowing, right?!

My World Revolves Around SEO and My Head Is Spinning!

 

Learning SEO basics remains supreme in my world! 

 

I've been dreaming about long tail keywords!  I remember reading about SEO a few years ago and didn't pay any attention to it.  I didn't think I needed it. Now every time I see an article or a class on it, I'm interested.

 

This week in SEO education began with a great course from Skillshare.  

 

The class is called SEO Mastery. The instructor Vladimir Raykov is very thorough and explained things well.  He's so thorough that I felt overwhelmed and decided I can't do every thing he suggested, but I will do a few.  Including making sure my photos on my blog posts have alt tags, using subheading in my blog posts and to be smart when link building. If you're interested in the class you can find it here.

 

Renae Christine's SEO webinar had similar tips. 

 

It wasn't as lengthy as the SEO class from Skillshare. She introduced me to SEOBook and showed us her strategy of getting more traffic to her blog by using SEOBook and Google Adwords.  She also suggested using Google Trends as well. 

Let me just stop right here! If you have an Etsy business or any type of handmade business and you need help with getting traffic to your website or just marketing the business, Renae Christine is for you!  She has a Rich Mom University which is a lot cheaper than Market Impact Academy or Marie Forleo's program, but her focus is definitely Etsy and other handmade businesses.  Renae Christine has opened up registration for her Rich Mom University.  You can find out more here.

 
I wrote her to ask if she ever thought of expanding her brand to moms who don't want to sell homemade items, but would just like to learn about how to market any type of business. Never heard back from her.  And that's ok. She has her niche and is sticking to it.

 
I have learned so much about SEO and keywords in the past month.  At this time last year I didn't have a clue.  What about you?! Do you have any good tips for learning SEO basics?!  Let me know in the comments section below.