Friday Carousel — 01.01.10

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Happy New Year! Welcome to the first Friday Carousel of 2010. The start of a new year is so exciting, isn’t it? Everything is fresh & full of opportunity. Each of us has the chance, once again, to make this year the best year of our lives to date.

This week’s Carousel contains lots of great posts, ideas, and sites to empower you to get your 2010 off to a fantastic start. Ready? Let’s go!

“One imperfect action is better than no action at all.” —Unknown

1. Ommwriter.com: This website is a simple text processor that allows you to clear your mind and focus on what you sit down to write. It helps to minimize distractions and therefore helps you to be more productive.

2. 11 Ways to Gain Clarity: In this post, Steve Pavlina teaches us how to use clarity and focus to decide what we want, and then pursue it with passion and energy.

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Find out what makes you come alive and go do that.” —Howard Thurman

3. Inventory of Normality: Another amazing post from Paulo Coelho. In this post Paulo talks about all of the ways that people assimilate into modern society, lose their personal, identities, and eventually stop living consciously. I was pretty amazed when I found myself guilty of some of these behaviors. It is an awesome wake-up call and a great way to start off 2010 with eyes wide open.

4. On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas: This post was, hands down, one of the most inspirational things that I read in 2009. Jonathan Morrow was born with a debilitating disease. His doctors told his mother that he would not live past the age of two. This post is about how his mother fought for him and how he then fought for himself. Truly inspirational and moving.

5. 11 Questions That Lead to Gratitude: This is a great post from Good Life Zen that helps is to look back over 2009 and count the many blessings, lessons, accomplishments, and even failures that will propel us into a successful new year.

6. How I Stay Thin Despite my Neurotic Aversion to Intentional Exercise, and Obsessive Love of Desserts: Weight loss is one of the most popular New Year’s Resolutions out there. If it is on your list then I encourage you to check out this post. Lots of good ideas and common sense practices to move toward a healthier you.

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” —Henry David Thoreau

7. 6 Questions That Can Help You to Make 2010 a Simpler and Lighter Year: This post teaches us how to find the opportunity in every situation and how to make our lives, simpler — two great ways to start off 2010.

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  • Carousel — 02.19.10

    sunset, lake

    Oh, what a week! I’ve been busy catching up after my recent trip to South Carolina last weekend. (Thanks for all of the positive energy that sent my way—the presentation was a great success.) For the past two days, I’ve spent 14 hours participating in new database training, so that’s been… interesting. On the bright side, I learned a lot and it’s been exciting to see my company transform as we implement this big change.

    I couldn’t be happier that it’s Friday. I have lots of lovely adventures planned with family, friends, & loves this weekend. So let’s get the party kicked off with this week’s Carousel then. Shall we?

    1. self hatred: beneath sugar-coated criticism + self improvement: Danielle lays it all on the line in the post about how we degrade ourselves with little insecurities. The first step to stopping it, is admitting that you do it.

    2. Phoning It In, The hidden power of a gift, and Frightened, clueless or uninformed?: Three excellent posts from Seth Godin. How have I not discovered this brilliant man sooner? A couple of months ago, I won Seth’s book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us in a Twitter contest. I finally made the time to read it this past weekend during my flights to & from South Carolina. OH. MY. GOODNESS. The book was brilliant. Now I am head over heels for Mr. Godin and of course, have since subscribed to his blog.

    I’ll be posting a review of Tribes in the near future.

    3. Nine Things You Can Do Every Day – Even When You Can’t Do Anything Else.

    4. The Only Problem Standing in Our Way: I loved this post by Marc. It teaches us why sometimes the only problems standing in our way are the ones that we create in our heads.

    5. A panorama of tea: At Vagablogging, Colleen Wilde explores the drink of philosophers—tea! Her lovely descriptions of delicious tea across beautiful cultures warmed my heart.

    6. Giving Up TV and 8 Changes I Experienced After Giving Up TV: A few years ago, I moved out of my parents house & out on my own. One of the first decisions I made at that time was to opt out of cable television. There are a lot of things that I dislike about modern television: glamorization of sexism, violence, addiction; in-your-face ridiculous marketing, etc. I find that I am much more productive without the distraction of television—I read, write, create, love, and live more without it.

    In these posts, Steve talks about his initial decision to take a break from TV and his subsequent decision to give it up altogether. I think it is something that we should all consider. Currently, my partner & I have basic cable which is great because I only watch it once in awhile for programs that enrich me (cultural documentaries, environment/wildlife, home &garden, etc). And it’s a good compromise because he can still tune into his favorites, like Family Guy, while I graciously opt out… most of the time.

    7. “The View” of What’s In a Name?: Dr. Oz talks all about names. Why do some names evoke images of strength & beauty? What things should we keep in mind when naming children, or even pets? What does your name say about you? (I now this isn’t exactly self-improvement; but I’ve always been a fan of names. We’ve all got one!)

    8. be inspired: the “special problem” of strong women looking for love: Sarah Wilson writes about dynamics in man/woman relationships and how it is often necessary for men to be the “stronger” ones. I thought it was interesting & it made me ask questions about the dynamics/expectations within my own relationships.

    9. 8 Helpful Ways To Deal With Critical People: Lucky for me this isn’t much of a problem. I genuinely like criticism— be it constructive or even harsh. Criticism serves as a catalyst for me to be better myself or remove unkind people from my life. For me, criticism is a win-win. However, it hasn’t always been this way & there have been instances in my past where I could have used the good advice in this post.

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    That’s it for this week’s round up. Have a great weekend, friends. Remember to spread love & light wherever you go.

    P.S. I am super sore (in a good way) from a fitness class I took at New York Sports Club last night—Will Power and Grace—I highly recommend it if you have an NYSC in your area!

  • Carousel — 04.02.10

    Every Friday, I post my favourite links, posts, & resources from around the Web. Expect to learn, grow, & be inspired.

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    “Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” —Lao Tzu

    1. The Rebel’s Manifesto: “1. Do the opposite of what you were taught in school.” This is just chock-full of superb advice.

    2. My Running Mantra: What lovely inspiration!

    3. 18 Tips on how to pack for a trip, how to travel light, how to have fun in airports (where “trip” also equals “life”): This post delivers precisely what the title promises & then some…

    4. Post Secret: If you are one of the ten people left on Earth that isn’t following Post Secret, then I suggest you start now. 😉 PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard. It is completely ad-free & gets updated every Sunday. It’s incredible.

    5. A critical message about food. Yes, it is a bit lengthy, but worth every moment of your time.

    Additionally, last week I watched Food, Inc. and to say that my perception about food is drastically altered would be a catastrophic understatement. Every single person living in the USA (perhaps others, too) must watch this film.

    6. A happy mayor: “Not only is Mayor Hazel McCallionhappy of the City of Mississauga in Canada happy at work, she is also 88 years old, has been elected 11 times, has a 91% approval rating AND has kept her city debt-free.” Dear Heaven: Give me a fraction of this woman’s health, enthusiasm, and spirit! I’ll be set forever.

    7. The Crushing Problem of Student Debt: Excellent post about the growing problem of student loan debt faced by so many Americans. This is an excellent follow-up to my two part series about my own financial journey.

    8. Overcoming Fear: I write about overcoming fear quite a bit here; but every now & then it is nice to hear someone else’s perspective on the subject. I really enjoyed this post about overcoming fear, particularly Jared’s personal story about where he allowed fear to take him in his own life.

    9. 25 Beautifully Illustrated Thought-Provoking Questions: “Are you holding onto something that you need to let go of?” Get prepared to think.

    10. Renegade Health Care Reform: Don’t worry, I haven’t gone all political on you! Just click it. I’m sure you’ll agree, no matter which side of the fence you’re standing on.

    11. The Ultimate Minimalist: 5 Powerful Lessons You Can Learn From Gandhi: Really simple, really powerful. This is the most inspired I’ve been by a “minimalism” post in awhile (and I read a lot of them, friends!).

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    To all of my friends that celebrate Easter, may your Easter be filled with love & light. To all of my friends who do not, may your weekend be full of passion & grace. xo

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