Be great…like Oprah

oprah-wasnt-built-grey

 

I’ve been on mental overload as of late, as many things around me have inspired me to act.  What this typically looks like for me is that something will happen (such as the recent occurrences in Ferguson) that will lead me to develop loads of ideas.  Some of those ideas actually make it to the production stage, where at minimum a gmail account is created – and if I’m feeling particularly motivated a domain name will be reserved on godaddy.  I’ll proceed to share these ideas with others, and use the support from others (or sometimes the lack thereof) to continue to fuel the developing stages of the new project.  But over time, things seem to change and that exciting new idea becomes less exciting as life settles in, time and/or resources become limited, and the awesome reality that I originally envisioned seems farther and farther away.  That idea eventually fades into the background, only to be replaced by a new idea, and then the process repeats itself.  I had a ‘Come to Jesus’ moment on the drive into work this morning as another idea managed to seep its way into my brain.  Only this time, the initial response wasn’t excitement as usual.  No this time I became noticeably angry and frustrated that I keep having ideas, many of them I believe to be great, but haven’t been able to see many of them through.

oprah you mad

Then I came across an article on one of my favorite online spaces (Clutch Magazine) which featured the above graphic tee, and I was reminded that greatness takes time and effort.  While I believed I had (and still have) great ideas, I was allowing impatience to steal time away from working at my ideas and allowing them to develop.  So I’ve issued myself a challenge, and that is to change my strategy and to work smarter (and more patiently) towards achieving my goals.  This idea-generator that I call a brain will be put into good use, even if what it produces does not quite reach Oprah level success.  I will be perfectly content strategically working on ideas that are most important to me, and hopefully while inspiring others to do the same 🙂

 

Source for the tee, and original article by Clutch Magazine on other cool statement graphic tees

 

 

Get Your Life – Christmas Spending

14 days til christams

Today marks exactly two weeks before we are to be visited by the fat man (allegedly) and Christmas will be upon us!  I am so not ready for the holidays, lol, and don’t even have my little fiber-optic tree up yet, smh…..get it together Angie!  But one thing I’m happy to report that I have accomplished is my Christmas spending plan.  I am a strong supporter of the real meaning behind Christmas *cue the Jackson 5’s rendition of ‘Give Love on Christmas Day’*, but also want to provide my loved ones with some small token of the love that I have for them…..without completely annihilating my budget in the process 🙂  Thanks to my bff Google, and newer companions like Pinterest, Tumblr & various blogs, I have come across some very inspirational (and low budget) Christmas gifting ideas.

I’ve convinced my immediate fam and close friends that we should do a Secret Santa gift exchange, to avoid having to get gifts for multiple individuals.  We’ve also placed a price cap on our gift exchange, to foster creativity and conscientious-spending.  If you’re friends & fam aren’t in the same area, sites like SecretSanta.com can help make the gift exchange process a bit easier.

The kiddies in my family (and there are a lot of them now…..6 total under the age of 7!) will be getting a S’mores gift basket from their Awesome Auntie, complete with a kid-friendly book that they can read with their parents whilst eating their S’mores.  I love S’mores, takes me back to my days as a Girl Scout 🙂  HGTV gives a really cute instructional on creating your own S’mores kit.

And lastly, coworkers of mine (the core team) will be gifted with a coffee mug and a nice set of coffees – courtesy of Target.  I plan to divide up a mug set among the six of them, and nicely package each set in gift wrapping.  This Pinterest also contained some amazing DIY gift ideas for coworkers.  Tis the season to show love whilst expressing creativity!

I hope you all enjoy this holiday season, including the gift-giving process.  I would like to leave you today with the soothing sounds of JD & Turk as they talk/sing the Christmas classic ‘Baby, It’s Cold Outside’…..love these guys 🙂  Have a fabu day!