Why are you procrastinating?

It’s okay to procrastinate on some of those things on your to-do list. Especially things you don’t particularly like to do. I HUGELY procrastinate on putting my clothes up after I’ve washed them. Most of the time, my clothes just lay on the floor until it’s time to wash again. L I’m working on it! I really am. But one thing I don’t understand is procrastinating on your dreams. Why? Why are you putting the things you need to do in order to live a fulfilled life on the backburner? Why are you waiting until tomorrow just to be upset at for waiting? Why are we complaining about our life when we have the ability to control it? I have so many questions that need answers! (I know not to ask Sway, jk)

I’ve heard of few people around me talk about who they want to be, where they want to go or how much money they want to make, but I’m not seeing any true steps forward in an effort to make that happen. I see people get overwhelmed by their dreams and let that stop them from fighting for the life they want. It’s heartbreaking. We’ve got to stop getting overwhelmed by the bigger picture and focus on the smaller steps. I had dreams of going to college, but I first had to pass twelve grades one by one. I had a dream to start a women’s group but I first had to define what’s the purpose of the women’s group, start a website, have an event, spread the word. I had to do all of that a little bit at a time. Oprah had dreams of having her own television show, but first became an anchor and became the best anchor there was.

“The most important key to achieving great success is to decide upon your goal and launch, get started, take action, move.”

Those steps could only happen because we stopped procrastinating and made it happen. We could only achieve our larger goal, by achieving our smaller goals because we stopped procrastinating. We stopped letting the size of our dreams scare us, and start letting it fuel us. We stopped thinking about the destination, and focused on the journey. We focused on the how. It’s okay to have BIG dreams, matter of fact, you should have BIG dreams. But don’t let them overwhelm you, don’t let them stop you from getting started. You’re only hurting yourself.

Are you procrastinating? Are you letting your dreams overwhelm you? Today, I encourage you to stop. Stop procrastinating and focus on the smaller steps you can take. Focus on the one thing you can accomplish today. Go ahead and purchase that domain, today. Email your mentor in your head, today. Go to that gym class you’ve wanted to go to, today. Today, right now, is the best time to do it.

This makes it all worth it

Only 5 weeks left in the year! 5! That’s crazy.

This past Friday, I had an opportunity to speak to some students at North Carolina State in the College of Sciences: Office of Diversity and Student Services. (Thanks to my wonderful mother who is an Administrator in the Department) We spoke about one of my favorite things, being who you want to become. Achieving your dreams. Living lives you truly love.

About 10 girls came to join the conversation. Originally, I was going to do a presentation, but I love conversations. Conversations spark ideas. They also give us a sense of responsibility when we speak our dreams out loud. We spoke about the importance of being daring, being creative, and being intentional when it comes to living a life we love. It was so much fun! Each and every person in the room participated in the conversation. They shared their dreams and they shared their fears. But in the end, we came up with action steps that will put us all a step closer to being who we want to become. I definitely plan to continue this conversation with this group. They were amazing!

I don’t have a full-time job. I’m still trying to figure out EXACTLY what I need to do to get where I want to go. I don’t have any definitive streams of income coming in, but I’m happy. I’m living a life I love. Keyword: I. Listening to these girls talk about their dreams and how they’re going to get there is beautiful to me. But to hear them say that they enjoyed the discussion and look forward to more like, makes this life I’m living all worth it.

Do something today that makes you happy. The keyword there is: YOU. I promise it will be worth it.

What Best Man Holiday taught me about love

I usually don’t care to see movies when they first came out, but thanks to my girl, Fatiana, I had a chance to see Best Man Holiday this weekend. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, you know it’s a tear-jerker. I really love movies because they put me in a different place, a different world and this movie, put me in a loving place.

I’m already a hopeless romantic, (that’s an understatement) and Best Man Holiday probably made me even more hopeless. Check out my thoughts and make sure you share it 🙂

Let me know what you think! And if you haven’t seen the movie, you should definitely be purchasing your ticket.. right now.

It’s actually going to be okay

It’s like life laughs at you when you make all these plans for your future. You plan to be the first female President of the United States so you study past presidents, their journey, politics, women’s rights, tell all your friends, and you even fly to D.C. to take a tour of the White House, just to, 3 weeks later, randomly become interested in sewing?

“Wait, now I want to be a fashion designer? What’s going on, Life? I need to talk to you.”

That’s happened to me plenty of times. A year ago, I wanted to be a photographer and a marketing maven, but today,  I have a women’s empowerment group, called Pledge To Be Bella, a blog, and a YouTube channel dedicated to empowering teens & 20-something women. It’s safe to say, that last year, life was definitely laughing. Hard. However, I’m learning to take life a day at a time and no matter what the dream is, in order to achieve it, I will be intentional with every day and every moment. Our dreams will always change, but what we have to understand, is that it is okay for them to change. It’s okay for us to be a designer, a president, a marketing maven, and a social entrepreneur, as long as, we’re doing each passionately and living every moment intentionally.

That’s the only way we’ll be happy and successful (whatever your definition of success may be) on this journey.

2 Ways to Live a Stress Free Life

The past few weeks have been a bit more dramatic than I would have liked. However, I do understand, my dear Father only places obstacles in my path that HE believes I can handle. Between praying and my Pledge To Be Bella book club read, The Untethered Soul, I’ve got a tiny grasp on how to deal with life’s stresses. (The sooner the better, right?)

And may I add, they’re pretty easy concepts, it’s the follow through that’s the most difficult These ways amazed me so much that I haaad to share with you all. Let me know what you think.

How do you deal with life’s stress?