Hot Off The Press! The Best Blog On The Internet!

The first blog I started to follow (and still to this day is my favorite) is a blog titled "The Daily Love" The Blogs creator Mastin Kipp, started writing while going through personal issues as a form of therapy, and it turned into something much larger. It began as a feed of quotes sent to Mastin’s friends, and shot to fame after receiving an approval tweet from Kim Kardashian. (WOW KIM, he must be a big deal.) Further, Mr. Kipp has been hosted on Oprah's weekly show "Super Soul Sunday" titling him as an “up and coming thought leader in the next generation of spiritual thinkers.” 

Mastin’s mission is to "Connect people back to what makes them happy. Happy people make better choices, and better choices make for a better world." The blog features guest writers and weekly contributors that touch on the topic of self love, self development, relationships, self help, finding inner peace, as well as personal and mental growth. Every post is perfectly crafted and forces the reader think and reflect.

In reading through the daily postings, I came across a post titled "TWENTY-SOMETHING DOES NOT HAVE TO BE TWENTY-EVERYTHING!"  The content of the post is extremely relevant to the topics I touch upon in Destination Happiness. 

The post writer, Christine Hassler is writing to remind the "twenty-somethings" that even though during our twenties, or as she puts it: "our quarter-life crisis", we experience an incredible amount of pressure, expectations, confusion, and anxiety while embarking on the decade where we think we need to "figure it all out." But if you take step back and look at the bigger picture, we actually don't have to figure it all out. Life is a constant journey, and if you are willing to remove societal and self expectations about figuring everything out on a certain timeline or according to a certain check list; that your twenties will be a time of great discovery, freedom and exhilaration. 

The post goes on to discuss different interviews she held with a bunch of over 30 thought leaders and experts. During the interview she asked them "What do you wish you knew then, that you know now?" A few themes seemed to arise again and again, including: learning from your mistakes, being true to yourself, getting in touch with yourself and your emotions and developing your personal brand.

I'm going to share with you a few points I found particularly helpful:

• There is huge value in “oh no!” moments. The things that don’t go according to plan are often the biggest blessings in your life–sometimes it just takes time to clearly understand what the blessing is.
• Youth does not make you invincible but it does give you the amazing opportunity to create habits for healthy living NOW.
• Answering the question, “What do I want to do with my life” is more often a process of elimination rather than a lighting bolt of inspiration.
• Write down what you want to be known for.  Make a list of your professional and character values and never sell out. Develop your personal brand–remember your passion makes you unique!!
• Your thoughts are creating your reality so you are either attracting things to you or repelling them from you.  Be mindful of your thoughts!
• Adopt a “what can I give” versus “what can I get” mindset.  That is how you truly make an impact on the world.
• ALL relationships teach us valuable things about ourselves and are a catalyst for growth.  Even if they end, they are a success if you are willing to look at what you learned about yourself.

Christine closes by reminding the reader that "In order to create a life of meaning, you have to live it."

The advice Christine shares sparks a sense of initiative and makes me, an anxious "twenty-something", feel normal. The post reminds me that although putting an extraneous amount of pressure on myself will create external results, it could potentially cost me a lot of joy, peace, play and presence during this time of exploration. It reminds me to allow curiosity to lead me, and not be so hard on myself. (We are all our own worst critics.) 

I recommend the blog to everyone, no matter your interests. I guarantee you will find something that touches you, or helps you reflect on your inner most thoughts.

Remember: Each step is moving you forward, even if you feel like you are moving backward.

The Seven Day Happiness Challenge Pt 2.

Hello! Welcome to part 2! In part one I provided a general synopsis on the key elements of happiness and began to briefly explained the steps  of the Happiness Challenge! [For your reference, here is a Link to Part 1] As promised in part one, I am going to provide a list of simple, yet over looked kind deeds one can do during the challenge in hopes to get your ideas flowing! I am also providing you with a Happiness Challenge Record Book I created for you to print out and use to track your progress for the duration of the challenge. (there's a preview at the bottom of the post)

How To Use This Record Book

Each day I have provided you with a quote that pertains to happiness, kindness or gratitude. How you chose to reflect is ultimately up to you, but I included these quotes that truly spoke to my heart  in hopes that you may spend some of your thinking time reflecting upon them. What do they mean to you in your life? What could you learn from them or put into practice in your everyday life? 

Mindful Reflection: Simply circle ‘yes’ or ‘no’ if you reflected that day. 

Act of Kindness: Be sure to record what kind deed or word you put out into the universe for the day!

Gratitude: List 3 things that you are grateful for that day. If it’s one of those days it can be as simple as ‘I’m grateful I woke up  today.’

Happiness Level: Circle a number from 0-10 that represents your overall happiness level for the day. Remember that circling ‘0’ does not necessarily mean you were depressed or sad, but maybe just devoid of any happiness. Think of ‘0’ as neutral and ’10’ as finding out you won the lottery. 

After downloading the Happiness Challenge Record Book, you can plot your numbers on the  scale and visually see your happiness increase each week!

Here is a list of kind deeds for you to implement:

Give up your seat 

Hold a door open for someone 

Give a (sincere) compliment 

Make someone laugh 

Give someone a hug 

Take time to really listen to someone 

Make someone new feel welcome 

Give directions to someone who's lost 

Have a conversation with a stranger 

Pick up litter as you walk 

Tell someone they mean a lot to you 

Let someone have your parking spot 

Read a story with a child 

Offer your change to someone struggling to find the right amount 

Treat a loved one to breakfast in bed 

Offer to help with someone's shopping 

Tell someone if you notice they're doing a good job 

Pass on a book you've enjoyed 

Say sorry (you know who to) 

Forgive someone for what they've done 

Visit a sick friend, relative or neighbor 

Buy an unexpected gift for someone 

Bake something for a neighbor 

Do a chore that you don't normally do 

Help out someone in need 

Offer to look after a friend's children 

Offer to mow your neighbor's lawn 

Donate your old things to charity 

Give food to a homeless person and  take time to talk with them 

Visit someone who may be lonely 

Give blood 

Get back in contact with someone you've lost touch with 

Organize a fundraising event 

Pay for the person behind you (toll, coffee, fast food,…)

Put a coin in an expired meter

Every time you buy a new clothing item, donate something

Send flowers to someone

While driving, let someone out/merge into your lane

Bake some healthy treats to bring in to work

Leave an extra generous tip

See what donations are needed at a local pet or women’s shelter

Invite someone over for dinner

Treat a friend to the movies or coffee

 Create motivational quote cards to leave in places

Sign up for a charity 5k

Ask for donations to your favorite charity instead of birthday/anniversary gifts

Text someone a motivational quote, funny joke, anything to show you are thinking of them

Call your parents and tell them you love them

The 7 Day Happiness Challenge

Wednesday on my half day off,  I watched the documentary "Happy" on my commute home from work and immediately knew I wanted to implement  the principles they discussed into my everyday  life. After spending the rest of Wednesday and part of today with my mind racing, reading into how to find (and keep) happiness and reflecting on what happy people do differently than those just "going through the motions" I developed a simple plan and a week long challenge that I hope will divulge the true meaning of happiness.

I am posting the challenge I created  to invite my readers to do the challenge with me! I'm starting Monday (because aren't those the days we need happiness the most !?). The challenge can be done with zero financial costs and shouldn't take more than a half hour each day.

The challenges primary focus is on these three things:

1. Mindfulness

2. Gratitude

3. Kindness and Joy

Mindfulness	Gratitude	Kindness and Joy
Do less, notice more. Many of us spend too much of our time focused either on the past or on the future, paying very little attention to what is happening right now. Practice being still for five minutes a day. When we're mindful we become more aware of our thoughts and feelings and are better able to manage them. Stay in the moment, meditate; reflect on yourself, and reflect on your compassion for others.	Be grateful: it’s about much more than saying thank you, it’s about not taking things for granted and building a sense of appreciation for all things in life. Take a minute at the end of each day and write down 3 things you are thankful for. In doing this, even on your worse days you will realize there is still positive to focus on. Express your gratitude and appreciation for the wonderful being that you are, for the many wonderful people and things that are present in your life—for being loved and loving.	Do kind things for others, as the saying goes, "if you want to feel good, do good." Do one kind thing for someone every day. This could be a compliment, a helping hand, a hug, a small gift or something else. Whatever it is, do it with a full heart. Ideally your acts of kindness should be different than the kind things you already do on a regular basis

I am attaching a template I made to track your progress on part 2 of this post, along with some recommendations for daily acts of kindness you can do. Many studies show whether it be a happiness journey, weight loss journey or academic journey, keeping records improves the likelihood of a goal's successful completion.

At the end of the 7 days, I'm going out to celebrate my accomplishment! Do you think you can make these practices part of your daily life? Are you willing to give happiness a try? I'll post a reply and let you know how I did!

Smile on!!!

What Is Your Career Development Plan?

To succeed in your career you need to take an active role in your learning and professional development. No one else will do it for you. This post is more instructional than most, but it is a topic I feel strongly about and one that is close to my heart. Planning and mapping is something my peers under utilize that can really help pave the way for self growth, achievement and happiness

The information I am relaying to you I learned from a book that changed the direction of my college career for the better, and I am confident when applied to my life as a young professional, will bring equal amounts of greatness. The book is titled "Never Eat Alone: And Other Secrets to Success, One Relationship at a Time"  By Keith Ferrazzi (it sounds like a desperate dating book, but I assure you it's not. I just advise taking the book sleeve off when reading it in public to avoid weird looks.) The book provided me valuable networking insight, and career development strategies, one of which I am sharing with you in this post.

So how do you set a professional development strategy? Just like companies and teams set quarterly growth targets and business development goals, set aside some time to take a holistic look at where you are now versus where you want to be 6 months to 1 year from now. Working through the areas below will give you focus, help you be more proactive about setting your own direction and will make you an incredible asset to any team.

The first step or "The Vision" is to help articulate the big picture for where you want to be one year from now. Step two serves to further narrow your focus in terms of knowledge, skills, talents and experience.


Step One: The Vision

Before getting into specific tactics and details, spend time with the big picture. Whether you are an entrepreneurial spirit working on a start up, or if you work for someone else, think about what really excites you. What 2 or 3 key improvements would truly put you ahead of the pack? What key development areas, if you were to make significant progress in, would make you most excited and engaged with your work and add value to your team or company?

Step Two: The “What”
There are four key categories that your professional development strategy should focus on: knowledge, skills, talent and experience. Only the first two are within your direct control, but all four are worth exploration.

Knowledge – Knowledge is directly within your control. Learning more about a subject takes time, but it is generally a very straightforward process. Blogs, books, podcasts, videos, interviews, classes–the resources available to you are endless. Commit to learning and being a sponge for knowledge; it will set you apart and make you an invaluable resource to any team.

• Key Questions to ask yourself: What will it take to become an expert in your field, or in one specific area of your field? What topics of focus would be most beneficial to you? What knowledge or expertise do you want to have one year from now? 

Skills – Skills are things that you are good at; things you have picked up over time that transfer to job related success. Some examples of general skills include time management, project management, and prioritization. You may also have specific skills related to your job or industry, such as marketing, sales or web development. While some skills may come more naturally to you than others (see talents), you can generally improve your skills through repetition, attention, self awareness and feedback.

• Key Questions to ask yourself: What skills do you already have? Make a list of ten. What new skills would take you from average to an absolute rock-star? 

Talents – Talents, or gifts, are skills that come naturally to you. Talents light you up, give you energy, make you feel like you are “in the zone” when you are fully utilizing them. You may be talented at organizing information. Someone else might be talented at singing. Personally, I am talented at organizing, motivating people and simplifying complex problems. Tapping into your talents and your natural strengths will make you infinitely more successful in your role, happier and more engaged. There are several online assessments that will help you uncover your natural strengths; one I have tried in a few of my classes is the Myers Briggs Personality type test.

• Key Questions to ask yourself: What skills or tasks come naturally to you? When do you feel most “in the zone”? What talents are you under utilizing? How can you better use your talents in the job you have now? 

Experience – Experience comes with on-the-job learning, and unfortunately we can’t manufacture it. Particularly for us post graduates “lack of experience” can be an exasperating reason for not landing a job or position you want. Even without years of experience under your belt, you can work to understand what types of experiences you will need to be successful later on in the future. Schedule lunches, or meet for coffee with people who have the experience you need or want. Ask what they have learned in their role, what surprised them, and what you can do to get to where they are in the future.

• Key Questions to ask yourself: What job related experience are you lacking and how can you develop those skills another way? What aspects of that experience can you learn from others?

Step 3. The “How”
If you haven’t yet written down your answers to the questions in Part One, I emphasize grabbing a pen and paper! It is very important to write these type of things down. This strategy is nothing if you can’t refer back to it frequently.

Now we get to the how–time to write some measurable goals and come up with a plan for how you’ll research and achieve those goals. I relay the following five steps:

• Choose three key areas of development. Make sure they are broad and aggressive; don’t sell yourself short or let yourself off easy! Think big. 
• Write a mini one year vision statement for each area. Write as if you have already achieved success or made significant progress; for example, “Time Management: I am extremely efficient. Each morning I focus on completing my biggest task before answering emails. I prioritize my work on a daily and weekly basis..." you see what I'm getting at. 
• Set benchmarks for yourself. If the development areas stretch over one year, what do you hope to achieve six months from now? Brainstorm a list of resources or an action plan to reach your benchmarks. This may include any of the following: 

            -   Resources (blogs, books, videos, podcasts)
            -   Training/Education (classes–online or in person, formal education)
            -   People to Talk to (mentors, Professionals you know)
            -   Other (journaling, scheduling weekly time for reflection, etc.)

• Develop a system to track your progress, personally I use a template I made on excel and write in my  progress 

• Engage others. Ask for feedback regularly, partner with someone who also wants to develop in one of the areas you have chosen. 

I cannot recommend the book enough, I make all my friends read it, and they all give it a strong "buy" recommendation as well. You can find the book especially cheap here at Walmart.com. I can almost guarantee you won't regret it!
                                                             

Navigating Post Grad: Stop Thinking and Start Doing! 10 Questions To Help You Refocus

Whether you’re a senior in college or a recent graduate, you’re likely trying to figure out how to make a smooth transition from the world of textbooks and exams to the world of work. It’s a challenging time, and it can be intimidating to step into the unknown. However, this is also an exciting time where you get to shape your own career and life as an independent person.

Aside from the many questions that come with graduating, or starting a new job, many of my peers seem to be at a pit stop: "What career do I want to pursue?" "I don't know what I want to do with my life" "I don't want just any job" "I don't want a desk job." And hey, that's all fine-until you have 20$ left in your bank account, you cant put gas in your car, your summer bucket list comes to a sudden halt and your parents don't seem to feel as bad for you as you do for yourself.

Then what?  (Besides beating yourself up for procrastinating.) You know you have to gather your thoughts, but you don't know where to start, the questions about your future are still there, and they are weighing heavier than ever.

You have to stop THINKING and start DOING!

For those of you still following, start by grabbing a pen and paper and find a place where you feel comfortable and relaxed. Close your eyes and think of a a tough decision, a big question or problem that you are weighing and would like an answer to.

You might be tempted to just skim this post and pretend you have a topic, but don’t keep reading until you have a topic or idea in mind that is so-big-it’s-scary (but also exciting).

When you have the topic, jot down your thoughts, ideas and answers on a sheet of paper.

10 questions to help you stop THINKING and start DOING

1. When you think of [topic/idea], what are you most excited about?
2. How does this [topic] fit in with your vision of your greatest self?
4. What’s holding you back / What are you afraid of?
5. What support do you need to move forward?
6. What one next step would make the biggest impact to move you forward (or help with your decision)?
7. What would achieving this get you?
8. Close your eyes and ask each major decision-making system for advice: What does your head say? What  does your heart say? What does your gut say? How can you reconcile these?
9. Dig deeper. What do you really want?
10. What are you waiting for?

After you've reflected on the questions above, take a minute to answer the million dollar question: Reflecting on your answers above, what are you willing to take ACTION on, in the next week?


This exercise can be used for any and all the big questions you may face during your transition. In taking time to reflect and think thoroughly, your job search, apartment hunt and finance managing will become much clearer! This process will help you  figure out exactly what you want, keep you organized and allow you to begin prioritizing your goals as they relate to your career!