Happy Birthday To Motivated Sista

Do you know what today is? Its OUR ANNIVERSARY!! *throws confetti*

That’s right y’all, today is Motivated Sista’s first birthday!!

I wanted to make a video to thank everyone for reading, subscribing and supporting my blog… but then I realized that I left my power cord to my camera at my Mom’s house in Florida….(boooo!) So we’ll just have to settle for a lil ole post…

I cannot begin to express how happy I am today. How happy I am that y’all even read this blog and that its doing so well. I’m immensely grateful for every comment, every retweet, every time you share a post on Facebook, and every time you like a quote or something I post on the Facebook Fan Page.

Here’s how the blog is doing as of today:

206 Total Subscribers
995 Facebook fans
35 Google Friend Connect friends
113 Posts
332 Comments
18,058 total views!!! (what?!! wow!!)

So now that I have a year of blogging under my belt, I want to make Motivated Sista even better for my Motivated CEOs and Boss Ladies. To that end, I created a survey and it would be a huge help if you completed it. It’ll take you less than 3 minutes. Here’s the link: http://bit.ly/motsis

We are truly destined for greatness. Thank you SO MUCH for coming along on the ride with me. The best is yet to come!!

Are You Still Getting It In?

So many of us were determined to ‘get it in in 2010′. In January, you could literally feel the excitement and enthusiasm for a new year and a new decade in the air. I started off this year by choosing a theme for the year and the principles I would work on. You can review that post here. Then, after 3 months, I reviewed my progress in this post. Continuing the analogy that I’m the CEO of Me, its now time for another quarterly review.

This review is even more important, because half of the year has passed. I had several intentions at the beginning of the year – namely to lose weight and incorporate healthy eating habits into my life, take my business and blog to the next level (two specific goals are to become my own boss and write an ebook for Motivated Sista), start a committed relationship, and improve my cooking skills.

How Far I’ve Come

Taking stock of exactly where you are, how far you’ve come and how far you still need to go is integral to your progress. How can you progress if you don’t know which direction you need to go in or what adjustments you need to make? I think this is one of the biggest reasons for failure, besides lack of self-confidence. We either don’t take action or continue to take the wrong action, and then wonder why we’re not where we really want to be.

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Recognize Who You Really Are

This morning, I listened to a few minutes of the Tom Joyner Morning Show on my way to work. Holly Robinson Peete was a guest on the show, and Tom and his crew asked her questions about her experience on Celebrity Apprentice. They congratulated her on winning a particular challenge, as she not only won but set a record on the show for raising the most funds. She then commented on receiving a cold reception from the other contestants at the beginning of the show, because they did not really know what qualified her to be there. She also joked about being called a b*tch so many times that she probably set the record for that too.

Apparently, Holly has a reputation for being a fundraiser, and it seems that that reputation didn’t precede her onto the show. That conversation sparked thoughts in my own mind about how often we’re underestimated in life because people don’t know who we really are.

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Are You Still Going Hard?

My intention for this week was to video blog every day…yeah um… didn’t quite make it. Here are videos of Day 2 and Day 4. Let me know where you are with your Go Hard goal, and how you’d like to finish out your week. I’m rooting for you and hope you’re rooting for me too!

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Are you ready to GO HARD?

May 1-7 is Go Hard Week here at Motivated Sista. I’ll be video blogging daily on staying motivated to make your goals happen and recharge your desires. You can use this week to restart older goals that have fallen by the wayside, kick start new goals that you’ve been contemplating, or find new goals to pursue. If you’re in, you and I will take 7 days to give 110% of what we have. I suggest you put all your efforts to one goal and really get on your grind, but you can handle this challenge in any way that you wish.

So who’s with me?

1st Quarter Reflections

I’m the CEO of Anilia, Inc. and its time for a quarterly review of my ‘corporation’.

My personal progress

I had several intentions at the beginning of the year – namely to lose weight and incorporate healthy eating habits into my life, take my business and blog to the next level – become my own boss, write an ebook for Motivated Sista, start a committed relationship, and improve my cooking skills. I was supposed to focus on weight loss first, but that was the goal that fell by the wayside. I feel that I’m in a good place with growing my blog audience and learning effective ways to generate enough income from other online ventures to become my own boss. I made several Sunday dinners to improve my cooking skills. And I’ve been slowly and surely working on my ebook.

But I didn’t make much headway with regard to changing my eating habits, working out more or dating. It was easy to make excuses for not going to the gym, blaming my lack of progress on having issues with my car, or not knowing what to eat to be healthy, on and on. The excuses don’t really matter, its how I react to the realization that I’ve been making them that’s important.

One huge setback I had was during the snow storm we had back in February. I indulged myself in vacation-mode thinking during that time, to my detriment. The difference between a vacation and those days we had off is that when you’re planning a vacation, you plan for your absence and know the precise duration that you’ll be away from your tasks. What I did, however, was immerse myself with unproductive habits for an indefinite period of time. As a result, I derailed my fitness and healthy eating habits, my sleep pattern and even my writing flow for Motivated Sista. Even though it was only a week and a half, that mindset definitely wreaked havoc on my goals. Now it’s time to get back on track.

Faith, Focus, Persistence and Determination.

Since I felt uninspired to change my eating habits, I relied on meal plans from Oxygen Magazine. There is a 3-month series that promises to change your body and the way you eat. This is the end of my first week on the plan, and so far I’ve been doing great. This shows me the importance of not only relying on the expertise of others, being open to ideas that don’t sound appealing, but also to make things easier for myself – in essence, ‘work smarter not harder’.

Multi-tasking doesn’t work for me. I need to fully focus on one goal at a time. Because what ends up happening is distraction – the goals that are not currently in front of me get forgotten as I’m fully absorbed in the tasks that are before me. And I don’t feel there’s anything wrong with that, I just need to work with my unique personality and habits to get to where I’m trying to go.

As far as dating, that’s a goal that has a few layers for me. I’m not timid about going out by myself, but I feel anxiety when among a group of people. It doesn’t matter if I know the people around me or not, group settings rattle my nerves. But I have to get over it if I’m going to succeed in meeting new people. The advice I constantly hear is “do what you love and you’ll meet people that way”, so I’m planning to attend new events to not only participate in activities that I’ve been dying to participate in, but also to meet new people outside of the circles I’m already in.

So how is 2010 shaping up for you? Take an opportunity to review your progress on your goals, improve the areas that need improvement, and pat yourself on the back for the progress you’ve made so far. How will you revise your approach to reach your goals, based on your self-reflection?

Whats Your Theme for 2010?

What’s your theme for 2010? Did you come up with a sentence to motivate you to reach your goals, something catchy that you’ll use to help you keep focus?

Alot of people are going with the themes “Get It In In 2010″, “Here to Win in 2010″ or a similar variation to those. At first I chose “Get It In In 2010″ also. I sat down and reviewed the events, goals and intentions I had in 2009 and changed my theme to a phrase from the recurring observations I wrote in my journal.

How I Chose My Theme
Faith was one of the principles I focused on in 2009. If you’re a religious or spiritual person, you can never have too much faith, and I wanted to grow my faith and really trust that the things that I need and want will manifest into my life. Its one thing to pray for assistance or release your intentions into the Universe – but if, deep down you don’t believe and expect to receive what you’re asking for, then your asking is pretty much in vain. So this was an area I consciously improved last year, and want to continue to improve. More specifically, I will prepare for the intentions that I’m asking for, which will build my expectation and trust that they will happen for me.

If motivation is the boost you use to get started on a particular goal, then focus, persistence and determination are the principles you use to ensure your success. I find that when I’m working toward more than one goal at a time, focus is essential yet I often try to juggle too much at one time. Its hard to focus on one thing well when I have too many balls in the air at one time, so this year I intend to focus more like a laser beam than a lamp. I will concentrate more on each goal instead of trying to keep them all in my view at the same time.

Once motivation fades, and you’re knee-deep in the work of reaching a goal, thats when you turn up your persistence. The difference between persistence and determination, in my mind, is that persistence is continuing to move forward, putting one foot in front of the other and doing the work, regardless of the results you’re currently seeing. Determination is not moving from a decision that you’ve made, once you’ve made up your mind; its not taking no for an answer, staying fixed on your intention, not wavering in your resolve to succeed.

I feel that I need these principles in 2010. There were times where I focused on too many things at once, like the bootcamp I started. There were other times when I focused on one thing at a time, but my persistence wasn’t up to par and I stopped short of my goal. And still, there were other instances last year where I didn’t stick to my guns and keep going for something – I wasn’t as determined as I should have been.

A Niliarific 2010
My real name is Anilia and I will be switching to that name here instead of Prosechild. So now you know where the ‘Niliarific’ part comes from =). I have several intentions for 2010: lose weight and incorporate healthy eating habits into my life, take my business and blog to the next level – become my own boss, write an ebook for Motivated Sista, start a committed relationship, and improve my cooking skills. For the next 3 months I will focus on losing weight and learning healthy eating habits, and my posts will probably reflect that. Losing weight is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions, so if you’re on the fitness bandwagon also, I’d love to hear from you!

What is your theme for 2010? How will you utilize your theme in your pursuit of success?

Four Ways To Deal With Burn Out

Now is the time of year that colds, flu and sinus infections run rampant. On top of having a lowered immune system due to the weather, motivated sistas also have to cope with the stress of pursuing goals, taking care of their families and the modern-day workplace. Whenever the weather turns nasty I usually get a cold and I have only myself to blame. Its usually caused by me not getting enough sleep, not eating properly and not drinking enough water. What usually cures my cold and my burn out are a week of adequate sleep, my grandma’s home remedies and listening to my body.

You may or may not get ill but you’ve probably experienced burnout – prolonged exposure to stress that causes you to feel exhausted, mentally depleted and overwhelmed. You lose motivation, become irritable and your production decreases. Now stress and burnout aren’t the same thing – usually you’ve been dealing with stress for a while and then feel burned out. Once you reach burnout, you start not to care about your commitments because you’ve been tired for so long. No one likes to deal with burnout and sometimes we feel helpless to prevent it. Here are some tips to alleviate the symptoms of burnout.

Start and/or end the day with relaxation

When you feel burned out, your body and your mind start to feel worn down. Beginning and ending the day with a few minutes of “me” time can help to recharge your batteries. Use this time to pray, meditate, write in your journal or take a long, hot bath. Taking time for yourself, even if its only a few minutes, goes a long way in boosting your mental and physical endurance.

Get back on track with healthy diet and exercise

If your increased responsibilities have caused increased stress, its likely that your workout routine and healthy eating habits have fallen by the wayside. This is common because as we get busier and try to handle more responsibilities, we usually sacrifice the time we devote to ourselves in order to get things done. Try to squeeze your workouts back into your day. When you feel energized and refreshed, you can accomplish more and it’s a powerful investment in yourself. Eating fresh fruits and veggies also help with brain activities and your energy level.

Tap back into your creative outlets

Just like with healthy eating and exercise, we often neglect our creative outlets when we’re strapped for time. But your hobbies allow you to disconnect from the work day, give you a break from career and family responsibilities and allows your mind to rest while you are involved with something fun. Again, a few minutes each day goes a long way.

Slow down

If you’re dealing with too much, then scale back where you can. There are core responsibilities that we can’t give up: our jobs, our families and our homes. But there are some that we don’t want to give up but aren’t essential to our lives. I’m sure the church committee that you chair or your volunteer coordinator can find someone just as competent as you who isn’t burned out. In addition, cutting the amount of time and energy you spend on external activities will free up some time for you to recharge your batteries, relax and follow your creative outlets.

What ways do you alleviate burn out? How do you prevent the symptoms from coming up?

Goal Check-In

Lately I’ve been having a love/hate relationship with technology. I’ve been searching for a solution to the formatting issue I’m having with WordPress. When editing Motivated Sista from Firefox, none of the paragraphs show up. It’s fine sometimes in Internet Explorer… But what if I’m not using Internet Explorer? Oy vey.

On the flipside, I’m writing this post using the WordPress iPhone app. I installed this app a while ago, but never used it. @IndieBusiness mentioned the app on Twitter, so I thought I might as well give it a shot. So there’s one example of how technology can make your life more difficult, and one where it can simplify your tasks. How do you feel about technology? Has it made your life easier or more difficult?

Anyway, I digress….

I write alot here about goals, dreams, and goal-setting. I figured it’s as good a time as any to share with you what my dreams and goals are.

Business goals
I started Black Girl Tees as a way to combine my love of t-shirts with a way to promote black women, while uplifting our self-esteem and standard of beauty. My overall goal is to generate a full-time income from my online endeavors, including this blog. Specifically, for Black Girl Tees my goal is to generate at least 30% of my online income from t-shirt sales. I was immensely inspired by Tim Ferriss’ book, The 4-Hour Workweek, and my business model is based on his recommendation of a business that you can run remotely and live anywhere in the world.

That anywhere for me is Paris. I love the city (who doesn’t?) and my vision is that I spend at least half of the year there.

Career Goals
While I’m busy blogging and promoting my t-shirts, I’m also studying to pass the bar exam. The next accomplishment I want to make is acceptance in an International Law LLM program. I have a school in mind (that I won’t mention) so please cross your fingers for me. I also want to attend conferences given by the American Bar Association’s section of International Law. Eventually I plan to pursue licensure abroad.

Personal Goals
I am very proud and happy to be 30 years old and I think this is the perfect time to improve my health. My goal is to lose 30 pounds. Whenever I share that goal with someone, frequently I’ll receive the reply, “you don’t need to lose that much” or “you look fine how you are”. These replies are flattering but sometimes can be exasperating. I know that people mean well but the last thing a person wants is criticism of their goal. And sometimes these kinds of statements can derail you. After hearing “you look fine how you are” and “girl, you don’t need to lose weight”, you start believing that.

It’s not about vanity for me, but about attaining a healthy, active lifestyle. When I’m not active and I get winded easily, I’m embarrased and a bit disappointed in myself. This is perhaps the hardest goal for me to attain, because of the learning and constant motivation necessary to reach the finish line. But I know that I can do it!

I also want to learn French, be in a long-term relationship and improve my credit scores. Talk about having my work cut out for me!!

I would love for you guys to comment and share your goals with me. Even if you think it’s something small (I don’t think in terms of size with goals; what matters is that we’re moving forward), it serves as motivation and inspiration for me and the other readers of this blog. So go ahead, don’t be shy!

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