- Well hello there, it appears it has been a while! The past couple of weeks have saw me on the road and really what feels like this, there and everywhere. I proudly became an aunt on April 2nd to sweet baby Claire (congrats Justin and Meghan!). I can’t believe what this year has brought for our family #Blessed
- If your in southern Ontario this weekend, your probably experiencing the same freezing rain/snow storm we are, which has had everyone indoors for the past 48 hours :S We are actually now currently siting here without power which means all our candles are out and lit up. Its actually quite romantic for a Sunday evening 😉 But really, where the heck is #Spring?!!!!
- I’ve been meaning to blog lately but I’m been finding it hard after the Humboldt Broncos tragedy that took place last week in Saskatchewan. I’ve sat down so many times to try and put words down and for some reason, I can’t put the words together to express my emotions and the emotions of so many of us Canadians after seeing something like this shake our country to its core. But I want too and I will this coming week. At least I know one thing – we are truly an incredible country after seeing how we’ve rose collectively as a country in a time like this #United
- One thing that the Humboldt Broncos tragedy reminded me to do is check my organ donation status after one of the players, Logan Boulet saved 6 lives through his organ donation. I checked tonight and I was already signed up, thankfully. Sign up today to give the gift of life #BeaDonor
- Keeping in the hockey spirit, now that the NHL playoffs are here, we’re cheering on our favourite team #GoJetsGo
- I recently finished this book and it is hands down, one of the best books I’ve read. I’m now on to this book.
- Today, I listened to this podcast on Oprah’s Super Soul Sunday with Gretchen Rubin (Author of The Happiness Project). So many good lessons in this one, it wanted me to pull back out my Happiness Project book and read it again. The biggest take-away? Happiness is like a muscle, you must work at it and exercise it. It was a perspective I needed to hear and be reminded of right now.
Motivated by Inspiration #AskHerToRun
I have a new found love relationship with Saturday’s. Saturday’s, for some time, have been my least favourite day of the weekend. I love the feeling that Friday night’s give me of the excitement for the weekend ahead. And if you’re a regular reader, you know I love my Sunday’s, period.
It wasn’t until recently that I’ve tried to learn to re-love my Saturday morning’s – whether it is taking in a quiet morning with Blake and a cup of coffee; walking through the dairy barns back home on the farm; listening to the Top 40 countdown at the cottage; or attending an event that tugs on my inner nerd personal development heart strings – I’m slowly learning to fall back in love with my Saturday’s.
This past weekend, I attended the first-ever #Guelph Women’s Campaign school, aimed at enticing women to learn more about politics, especially municipal politics, with the goal of motivating more women to run in politics. It was my type of Saturday morning– a little early morning action to talk politics surrounded by like-minded women #MyJam.
It was a day full of learning with so many great key messages and take-aways, and such tangible resources were shared for those interested in potentially running in politics and/or those who want to help support more women to run.
To say I left inspired by my profession of politics and motivated to want to do more is an understatement.
When the sold-out room of 50+ women were asked, “who was interested in running in the upcoming Ontario municipal election?”, more than 15+ women stood up. The other half of the room stood up when asked if they wanted to help a fellow women run. Throughout the day, we shared ideas on why more women should run in politics, how campaigns work, what the rules are that govern something like a municipal election, and talked communications strategies. It was a brilliant day for those who may know nothing about the political process or for those who needed that little bit of kick ass inspiration to push them to run.
My 4 big key takeaways from the day were:
- It is healthy to attend events like this, even if you think you know everything about politics. You never truly stop learning about the political process. It is an asset to understand how our political processes work at all levels of government.
- The proper campaign has purpose – platform – people – and a plan.
- Find your reason WHY to run – it the basis, foundation and purpose for everything you do in politics (it also reminded me to re-read Simon Sinek’s ‘Start With Why’).
- Men are assets for women and want to help and support us in being successful, if we ask for their help in the first place. It was why the hashtag #AskHimToHelpHerRun was started the day of our event!
It was one of those Saturday’s that reminded me of why I chose to work in politics – why I am so passionate about wanting to make a difference in public service and the lives of other especially now that I have a son.
It was a Saturday that gave me all the feels – I left motivated to want to do more, thanks to the inspiration that a room full of brilliantly smart and motivated women left me with. A special note of thanks to Ashley, Maureen and Alicia for a super fun Saturday together 😉
[Photo Source]
Get Comfortable with the Uncomfortable
November has been an eventful month. Both unexpected and welcomed news relating to life and work has made being uncomfortable somewhat of a new norm.
Oh and just throw first-time parenthood into the mix.
I think this is something millennials get criticized for often. Perfectionism. Wanting to always do things ‘right’. Not wanting to fail. Not wanting to step outside of our comfort zones to deal with the uncomfortable. Our predecessors think this is unrealistic of us.
I say this is just human nature. We all want to be comfortable.
And the more I’m realizing, regardless of age or gender, people don’t like to be unconformable.
Its why:
- We don’t leave our jobs, even if we may not like doing them.
- We may talk about the same thing over and over again, because we are familiar with the content.
- We like to eat the same thing for breakfast every morning, because it becomes part of our daily routine.
- Its why we vote the same way every time, even though we may not understand why we really continue to vote for them.
- Its why we continue to listen to the same music from the generation we grew up in and don’t welcome new music. (Its why I’ve also heard so many people say they don’t like Taylor Swift’s new album because people weren’t ‘expecting’ her new sound. I think its killer).
Its why a lot of people don’t go out on their own to pursue their side hustles full-time.
Becoming your own boss is a perfect example of being uncomfortable. Knowing you are inevitably the reason you fail or succeed is all on YOU. Yes, there are going to be times of being uncomfortable when you’re your own boss. Things like being turned down for opportunities, approaching new clients for work, not making what you had budgeted or ruffling some feathers from a tweet or post.
These are things I’m still learning to get better at accepting everyday. And the more books I read and the more conversations I have with people, the more I realize this is NORMAL.
Being comfortable gets you no where. Being too comfortable leads to complacency. Its why I love being a millennial because I think we’re pushing the boundaries. Some may think in a good way, others may think its too much. We’re talking about the things that previous generations found uncomfortable to talk about. We want to pursue change at a faster speed than most can handle. Remember, no great ideas or actions were done in a place of complacency or being comfortable. Steve Jobs said it perfectly when he said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
The most healthy, successful, optimistic people, both in work and life, know to expect the unexpected. They are resilient to what comes their way, both good and bad, expected or unplanned. They’ve learned to roll with the punches.
They are comfortable with being unconformable.
And sometimes, when we least expect it and we’re forced to deal with something that makes us more uncomfortable than we could have ever imagined, we surprise ourselves by how we handle it. We become comfortable with it.
I’m learning to be better at being uncomfortable every. single. day. Try it with me.
[Photo Source]
Talk Is Cheap
Do you ever read someone’s tweet that is getting a lot of attention or hear an idea your colleague has shared in a meeting and think… I already thought that?!
You came up with that same idea or thought days earlier or even months/years ago, yet you didn’t do anything with that said idea or tweet?
You wonder why the hell you didn’t speak up earlier, tweet the thought out or share your idea so you could get the praise that someone else is now getting?
Yup, it happens to all of us.
What is the difference from you did with the idea/thought and what the other person did? They actually DID something with it. They took action. Spoke up. Stepped out of the comfortable into the uncomfortable to see where the idea or thought would land, unsure if it would ruffle feathers or land well with others.
And that is where the difference lies.
We’re all capable of thinking big things. There isn’t a copyright on coming up with new thoughts or ideas. Unless of course, someone has patented the idea and then well, you’ve out of luck. I’m sure some of the best inventions were thought of way before they actually were invented. Like Otto Frederick Rohwedder of Iowa who in 1912 actually DID something with an idea and thought that slicing bread was a genius, convenient idea that would be the next big thing… and of course it sure was. Its why we continue to use the phrase, ‘The greatest thing since sliced bread.”
I joke about this often with Andrew. If we were to write down all the ideas we had in a year in a little black book and look back 20 years from now to see if the ideas were invented, maybe we’d be upset with ourselves that we hadn’t actually did something with those ideas #Millionaires? #OhWell
I’ve been experiencing this on Twitter lately where so many of my tweets are sitting in my draft folder, doing what? Nothing. And I wonder why I didn’t share them if others are talking about things I had thought of tweeting about ages ago.
It makes me think about my #Blog452 goal I set earlier this year for my blog. It hasn’t been an epic fail but I certainly haven’t stuck to my commitment of blogging each week for 52 weeks of this year.
Where am I? 34 posts this year. So if we were evaluating this like a calculus test that you need to pass to get into University, I would have got a 65%. A pass but not great.
Today’s lesson on the blog – Talk is cheap. Its what you actually DO with your ideas and thoughts and the action you take that will separate you from the rest of the crowd.
What is my goal now for the rest of 2017? See if I can fulfill this damn #Blog452 goal I created for myself because what’s the point of creating a goal if you’re not going to stick to try and fulfill it?
So what’s one of the first things I also did today that I haven’t done this entire year? I started AND finished this blog post – writing, graphic and all – in one sitting. So excuse any grammatical or writing errors that you may find, this new mama is just happy she accomplished another first in 2017 and actually stuck to doing something from beginning to end #FeelingAccomplished #HappySunday
Sunday’s are for Thanks
Sunday’s for me are a day of reflection and for gratitude. I realize everyday we must be grateful but Sunday’s in particular allows us peace, calmness and clarity to see through the busyness of life to realize how fortunate we are. I think we all struggle with gratefulness in some form or another – especially in the social media age of keeping up with everyone’s perfected instagrammed lives, it can be hard to keep our brains focused on what it is in our lives that is good.
For the first time in a while, we weren’t road warriors this weekend with Blake. We stayed put and enjoyed the things that we love about the city we live in. It made me appreciate the small things we did that had such a big impact on why our weekend was so awesome. Here is just a sample of our weekend that has me full of gratitude….
- The best news from friends
- Catch ups with friends by a fire outdoors, reminding us of the last few summer weekends we have
- Free tomatoes from a stranger/neighbour down the road whose garden was too plentiful… something I think many gardeners experienced this year with their tomato crops
- Trying this alternative version of a 7-layer dip from Alberta Milk that was super quick to make (still haven’t tried it, its chilling in the fridge!) and a new chocoloate zucchini bread recipe (baking in the oven as we speak!)
- Sunflowers to brighten the kitchen table
- Watching your newborn discover new sights and sounds in the most simplest things
- Prepping for an upcoming social media presentation this week and loving every minute of it!
- Working on an exciting social media project that captures the social media usage of Ontario agriculture stakeholders.. its in its early stages but the results are going to be interesting to say the least (have I mentioned how much I love figures and stats when it comes to social media?!)
- Reading Magnolia Journal on a Sunday morning with a coffee in hand and a sleeping baby in my arms
- A bike ride on the most gorgeous Sunday evening… this weather couldn’t be more perfect!
- Fulfilling my promise at the beginning of the week of blogging every day this week which I am happy to report I did.. 7 for 7! And the best part?! More ideas are a brewin’ so watch for more to come!
I’m trying my hardest this year to practice gratitude, its why I’m proud to have kept up with my commitment and one of my goals for this year of writing down one thing each day I’m grateful for. Let’s just say that my #365DaysofGratitude jar is overflowing. I can’t wait to read them all at the end of the year.
A line from the latest Magnolia Journal said it best, “Gratitude turns what you have into enough.” Amen to that. Happy Sunday!