live from your heart, uploaded by deb did it, found via kind over matter

I’m posting way later than I usually do today because, well, I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that I need some blog changes in 2010, & I’ve been a wuss in admitting it to myself. To lay it all out for ya in all honesty, I think I’ve been playing it safe here for the past few months, & I don’t like it. When I Grow Up: The Blog has turned into a Series Blog, what with Motivation Monday, Tough (Question) Tuesday, & Grown-Up Gigs making an appearance every friggin’ week. I feel like I’ve been copping out on “meatier” posts (the articles you’ve seen lately have been reruns from my newsletter), & I don’t wanna do it any longer. I want to be more valuable to you all, as I get so much value from you in return.*

So I, Michelle Ward of When I Grow Up Coach, do solemnly swear to you, my extremely attractive readers, to:

• continue Tough (Question) Tuesday on a weekly basis, as it rocks
• run Motivation Monday & Grown-Up Gigs as I see fit (aka not weekly/whenever I’m inspired to)
• give you my thoughts on a creative-focused book every month
• run a Link Love post at the end of each month, regardless of how many articles I have left to read to get my Google Reader down to 0
• to not run anything I see as “filler” (aka anything I feel like I “should” put up)
• to put more personal posts up, like what I’m doing day to day & how I feel about it
• to share any challenges I’m going through that I think might be helpful to said extremely attractive readers

(more…)

Do Your Best! sold by The Poster List

It’s the holidays. It’s the end of the year. Your mind is a-buzzing. Be nice to yourself. Doing your best is doing exactly what you should be doing.

hold on, originally uploaded by .neha. & found via kind over matter

It’s the end of the year – ain’t there a whole lotta whirlwinds going on? It seems everyone I talk to have things to do do do & places to go go go. I know that my head, for one, is spinning spinning spinning with all the things I want to accomplish this month. Usually, hearing the phrase “hold on” means that something is slipping away, out of my grasp. But now, with all the things I want to put in place in order to open up a whole boatload of new, exciting, jump-up-&-down possibilities, I’m thinking that I need to hold on to what’s most important & be nice to myself for what doesn’t get done. Hold On being my anchor, and allowing the other stuff to float away.

How are you seeing this end-of-the-year crazy-busyness?

Choose Joy by SharpGraphicArt, found via kind over matter

Because it’s just that easy, & it’s so easy to forget…

#294 on Things We Forget

Home Is Where Our Story Begins by vol.25

We’re here, everyone. We’re home. We moved in on Saturday & are still in shock from the sheer happen-ness of it all (as in, “It happened. It really happened”). We’re living amongst our boxes & didn’t get to redo the floors without moving all of our stuff in first, but we don’t care. It’s not important. This is our first home, and the view is spectacular.

I wrote the paragraph above two  weeks ago, when we thought everything was gonna go “smoothly” & that we’d be in our new home with all of our stuff by now. But, I’ll have to save it for next week, because we’re closing today, redoing the scuffed-up floors (that’ll look so pretty when they’re done!) & moving in on Saturday. (Insert happiness sigh here)

I wanted to take a 2-wk break after the move to unpack & paint & buy furniture, but things are so nutso in my head with the closing, changing our address, scheduling things, yada yada yada that my brain will just not work today. So, I’m gonna take away the stress of having to write sensical posts (sensical posts seem to be well-liked, for some reason) & start the guest bloggers tomorrow! Keep swinging by or checking your email/reader, because good stuff by Charlotte Dauphin, Aidan Donnelley Rowley, Laura Neff, & Jen Curran is coming at’cha this week. Next week brings us Cory Huff, Jeremie Miller, Lisa Hedben, Tara Lutman Agazayak, & Lindsay Christensen. (more…)

It’s not who you are that holds you back by valentinadesigns found via kind over matter

JUST HANG ON by dazeychic

This is a message to me: my mantra for at least another week, maybe longer. Last Thursday we got the news that we might not be able to move into our new apartment as soon as we were lead to believe, & now we hafta wait. And possibly be “homeless” (we’ll have places to go – our friends & family have been amazing – but it won’t be our home) for two weeks. I’m so sad but still know that it could be worse. And that it’ll be tough & sucky but it’ll all work out. I’m just gonna hang on.

What are you hanging on to? Commiserate with me. It’ll make me feel better.

Who Sang Best by spreadthelove

What song are you not singing?

Not all who wander are lost by thewheatfield