Everyday I'm Hustlin...

Yard Sales. I literally loathe yard sales, garage sales, estate sales, you get the idea. My mom’s family on the other hand, LOVES yard sales. Which is likely where my personal hatred for yard sales began. As a child, you would really rather be doing ANYTHING on the weekend besides selling all your stuff for 25 cents. First, we had to clean out our entire closets, then the garage and the rest of our (in)valuable possessions. Stay up late on Friday placing small stickers with tiny prices on each item. And then, as if staying up late wasn’t enough, you have to wake up at 4 am to get everything outside and setup for the professional 'yard-salers' that arrive pre-sunrise. I don’t even remember if I got to keep my own earnings, or if I even sold anything at all. A lot of my childhood is like that…a big blur.

Fast forward 20 years…

Tyler and I are taking a Dave Ramsey course, Financial Peace University (FPU), through our church. I’m trying to rid myself of $40,000 of student debt in less than 15 months…ambitious, I know. BUT it’s possible and I’m making progress each day. Part of our debt snowball plan (see: FPU class lingo) included a yard sale. Yard sale. I cringed.

I knew I had stuff I could possibly sell, but would it be WORTH it?! Would it be worth the flashbacks to my childhood of haggling over $.50 cent items?! ….really, just take it.  Would it be worth scouring the house to find anything we could sell and then trying to figure out what it’s worth to OTHER people?! This proved to be a challenging task. And would it be worth waking up at 5am on our only sleep-in day to maybe sell some things?!

The answer was an astounding YES. And while it took a lot of motivating self-talk the week and night before, we did it. And it was SOOO worth it. Not just because we literally sold out of items, but because we actually had a lot of fun.

Tyler and I rounded up a few big items and a few small ones the week (and night) prior to the sale. We thought about how much they were worth to us…and then usually had to cut that in half if we were realistically going to sell it at a yard sale. We got up early Saturday morning (okay maybe we were still 30 minutes late) and headed over to the church parking lot where the yard sale was happening. We set up all of our stuff next to our FPU classmates. I was even selling a table and bench so we used it to put all of our items on, then sold that too.



Managing our inventory and sales department!

 

There are about 10 families in our FPU class…4 showed up for the yard sale (including us). We all still had A LOT of stuff to sell. Between the 4 families we had over 12 tables of items! Come on yard sale professionals! Come buy our stuff! And they did. They bought EVERYTHING that Tyler and I brought. And most of the other families were close to selling out too. Between the 4 families we made over $950. Not bad for a few hours on a Saturday morning.

This was an encouraging testament that if you plan and prepare and you SHOW UP…you will be rewarded for your efforts. Showing up was essential to making money that day, but how many times do we plan to do something and not follow through? How can you reap the benefits if you do not show up? Maybe you even had good intentions and did all the preparation, but didn’t have the stamina to follow through…only those who show up and follow through will reap the rewards of their hard work.

Proverbs 20:4 The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing.

Church contributed with a post-yard sale nap/snuggle session.

The money wasn’t even the best part. I had the best time laughing and fellowshipping with our FPU friends. We feel so blessed to have found a group of supportive people that are constantly working to lift us up. Surround yourself with positive people and you will see a change in yourself. Jim Rohn said “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” This makes sense according to the law of averages. Look around you…are you impressed, inspired, supported and encouraged to be your best self around your five people? If not, maybe it’s time for a change of scenery.

You may say that I'm a dreamer...but I'm not the only one.

I’ve always called Church my daydreamer. The boy loves staring out of a window. I even open the blinds for him when I leave in the morning because I know that’s what he wants; he’s a dreamer, a visionary. Okay, maybe that’s a little excessive. But I do always find myself enamored by his ‘imagination’. And I find myself thinking about all the thoughts that are running through his sweet mind.

 

Does he dream about being out there, playing and smelling every scent? Chasing squirrels and rolling in the grass? Does he dream about the breeze running through his ear fur and over his back? Does he dream about the last time we went to the dog park and all the new friends he met? Does he dream about where those friends are now? Does he dream about me walking through the front door looking like the goddess he thinks I am? (No really, he always looks at me with these eyes that say ‘you are amazing and beautiful’. It’s a great self confidence booster). Or is he more imaginative than I give him credit for and he’s dreaming about being an astronaut and exploring other planets? WHAT IS HE DAYDREAMING ABOUT?! Maybe he’s just blankly staring, but I refuse to believe that.

 

Either way, knowing that even Church E. Bear is a daydreamer encourages me to do the same. Our jobs and days can become mundane. We have to dream a little, actually we have to dream A LOT. And we have to dream BIG. Get inspired by your daydreams and make them come to life. The thought of everything staying the same frightens me, so that must mean I have to dream up something bigger, and then chase it.

Dreaming BIG can be challenging. What is the thing you dream about doing for a living, and then you reduce yourself to thoughts that it could NEVER happen? Well, stop. Take that dream, it’s yours and you’re entitled to live it out. If your dream seems impossible, you’re dreaming BIG and that’s exactly where you should be!

Tips for dreaming BIG like Church E. Bear:

«  If you knew you couldn’t fail…what would you be dreaming and doing? What is the one thing you can't not do?

«  Tell someone! You’re more likely to attempt your dreams if someone you know and love knows about them.

«  Don’t get stuck on the path. Sometimes to reach a dream you have to go a different way than planned…and that’s ok! Getting from A to Z can look many different ways, accept that, keep moving towards Z.

«  Create bucket lists and a passion journal. Goals are much more likely to be accomplished if you write them down and check them off one by one! And what better way to self-discover than to write down things that inspire you.

«  Find a tangible representation of your BIG dream. Something you can look at and it reminds you of why you do what you do on a daily basis. You need something to hold on to.

«  Be willing to take risks. BIG dreams will lead you to scary and insecure moments and chapters in life, but they will be worth it! If you wait until things are PERFECT, you'll always be waiting. 



Night dreaming too...I bet after this he started daydreaming about snow.

Church may never live out his daydreams…but you CAN and SHOULD live out yours!

 

Feeling Alone In a Crowded Room

I failed to properly introduce you to the family. Rude. What an uncomfortable feeling, right? Not knowing anyone. You walk into an event, you know no one, yet you're suppose to magically connect with everyone here by the time you leave. You're an awkward introvert when it comes to these things. You've always been conditioned your entire life to be afraid of strangers, and now you're expected to befriend all of them!

Networking is hard…and awkward. You’re thinking “I don’t even know these people, how will I hold a meaningful conversation for more than 3 minutes?!” Make networking more personal. There has to be a human element to it. We ARE human. I find that talking about something I know and love (i.e. dogs) makes the conversation more natural, and usually leads into getting to know the stranger better.

Now for introductions…

Here are the men of the house…Tyler and Church E. Bear. These two have stolen my heart. Church is a major momma’s boy, but as you can see here, he is pretty fond of his dad too. Church is our gentle giant. He wants to sit in your lap, literally he wants to sit in ANY lap that will allow it. He'll be 2 years old in January and has just taken up a hobby as a therapy dog (bless his big heart!).

Tyler and I work together, so he’s a forester too. But he’s really a financial planner in his heart and he inspires me to be a better human…daily. It’s been an incredible, risk-taking journey for us to be together. I love him more today than I did yesterday and I’ll love him more tomorrow too.

And now for our newest addition…Airy, also known as Air Bear. We rescued Airy at the end of August. Drove over 12 hours round trip to pick her up! We think she is about 10 months old. There is only one word to describe Airy at this point…firecracker.

So that’s my crew. And if I’m at a networking event, they’ll know about them too. Executives and VP’s at my company know Church by name and ask for photo updates…I am obviously not timid when it comes to talking about what I love. 

It’s okay to ask personal questions that aren’t TOO personal. Here are a few examples that are usually my go to’s:

1.  What do you like to do for fun? (outside of work that is)

2.  What’s your biggest challenge right now?

3.  Have you always been passionate about (insert their current job role here)? You will be surprised how many people have ended up in a field they never initially knew they had a passion for!

People like to talk about themselves, so let them! But listen, REALLY listen, so that you have a personal experience of your own to relate or a follow up question when they finish. People connect better through stories, so don’t be afraid to tell stories about experiences you’ve had, both personal and professional! Being personal and sharing your life is a part of LIFE! Who wants to work for/with people that you can’t even talk about your giant lap dog with?!

Happy Weekend Y'all!

There's dog hair in my lunch...per usual.

Our 100lb Bernese Mountain Dog, Church, has a problem. Well, he doesn't really have a problem with anything now that I think about it. WE have a problem. Houston, we have a BIG problem. There is dog hair...everywhere. It's on our clothes. It's on the floor. It's in the truck. It's in the bed. It's on the counter. It's in our coffee cups. It's in my lunch (which by the way he was never even in the same room with since I was at a restaurant). We brush him daily. We use lint rollers. We sweep, we vacuum, we wash. It's still there, like we never did anything to combat it in the first place.

I guess this is part of the problem...

That's not the real problem though. I'm not telling you this so that you'll provide advice on how to rid my life of dog hair (but I'd take that too). It was something I actually signed up for, I think. My boyfriend, Tyler, on the other hand...did not sign up for dog hair. Our family has grown and changed and everything that I "signed up for" has now also been added to Tyler's life.

I didn't recognize the problem until this week. I wanted to ask Tyler some questions to make sure we were communicating appropriately. I asked him this one first...

             "What concerns do you have that I do not seem interested in?"

"DOG HAIR!" he says.

I thought, 'wow, what a great and insightful response'. I was expecting something along the lines of balancing dual careers, or you know something way more complicated. Dog hair.

He was right though. This is something that does not bother me, it's part of my life. I accepted that in exchange for the love and joy that Church brings to my life on a daily basis. BUT that does not mean it is not an important issue, I need to be interested in dog hair.

This question opened my eyes to an opportunity to do better in my relationship, not because I care now about the excessive dog hair, but because I care excessively about Tyler.

Relating this question to your career is just as important. Does your manager have concerns that you're not interested in? Do you even know what they are? How can you find out? (hint: ask your manager the question!)

There are many tasks, both at work and home, that are not my favorite thing to do (see: clean up dog hair) that are essential to maintain the balance of the relationship. Showing my partner, boss or coworker that their concerns are very important to me builds a relationship that will open the door for more opportunities.

Find the JOY and LOVE in the 'dog hair' parts of your role...and clean it up so that your boss knows you DO care.