I found an awesome article titled, "Want to be more successful? Revamp you Mornings"by Jessica Stillman, which gave some great advice that can be applied to all your goals and to your lifestyle:
"Seizing your mornings is the equivalent of that sound financial advice to pay yourself before you pay your bills. If you wait until the end of the month to save what you have left, there will be nothing left over. Likewise, if you wait until the end of the day to do meaningful but not urgent things like exercise, pray, read, ponder how to advance your career or grow your organization, or truly give your family your best, it probably won’t happen," Vanderkam writes."
On other notes, I was recently at a party and my friend referred me to a site called pinterest.com, which is full of really interesting recipes, shopping, etc. One recipe that my friend made this weekend was chocolate chip cookie dough dip! It was so good. I asked her what was in it? and she answered, "Uhh, I don't want to tell you, just eat it." I was like. "I don't care if it is made out of a pound of butter..." she answers, "it is made with garbonzo beans!" Ha! It was fantastic!
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Dip- goes great with TJ Animal cookies or for a healthier alternative try putting it on fruit!
Ingredients
1 can organic garbanzo beans, drained
heaping 1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup almond butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup chocolate chips
Directions
Add all ingredients except chocolate chips to a food processor and process until smooth. Chocolate Covered Katie says not to use a blender. Mix in the chocolate chips.
Eat by the spoonful and let me know what you think!
Source for recipe
It has been too long of not writing to you all. Life has definitely gotten busy, but not without growing in so many ways and furthering my knowledge base in the field of health and wellness. The early 20's is definitely a time, compared to other ages I have been so far, of highs and lows and many changes constantly. However, one tactic of mine in order to maintain motivation and optimism in all these changes has been to develop a positive mindset and attitude of success no matter what adversity presents its self. True, this epiphany has not come without reading some great books, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck and Be Quick But Don't Hurry by Andrew Hill. What I have taken home from these reads and my experience is to view each day as an opportunity to further myself even if mistakes are had. Although small failures along the way cause setbacks they also inspire growth. Dweck discusses a fixed mindset versus an growth oriented one. The fixed see their life as "I must avoid failing, failures are bad and nothing good comes from them" and a growth oriented individuals views a failure as a learning opportunity and and inevitable consequence of taking risk sometimes. Similarly, Wooden's definition of success: "Success is peace of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to become the best of which you are capable,” illustrates how success is relative. The key is taking the results from your actions and learning and applying the new skills to the next goal and to keep moving forwards. Turning my mind to a more growth oriented one and understanding how to interpret success, in this way, has helped to create a more positive and motivating environment to keep achieving versus viewing some outcomes as failures, which leads to dead ends.
For Summer 2012, it is essential to adopt a growth oriented mindset to get out of your comfort zone and push yourself to reach new heights. We all can do it. For instance, when it comes to your health, it is time to put the excuses to rest and enter these goals with the attitude that "I will be successful" and although, failure is possible, it is the challenge that will be exciting and the potential great outcome that supersedes the risk of failure. Instead of avoiding all situations with a smidgen of failure- embrace them.
