Nesting

I have been in serious nesting mode this week.  It’s been hard for me to focus on anything else.  I’ve got all the baby’s clothes washed, folded, and in the new dresser.  The crib is set up, and the car seat is installed in the car.  I’ve got the bags for the hospital packed as much as they can be.  I’ve sewn some burp cloths, and have a diaper basket ready. The only loose ends are my desire for muslin swaddle blankets and my dirty house.  Unfortunately that new years resolution hasn’t held on well during the last part of my pregnancy(consistently keeping my house clean).  I am not a fantastic housekeeper.  I will be some day, but right now, it’s not a fight I have time for.  Being a mom and starting up a business is difficult to manage.

Did you ever see the triangle for college students? 

Well, moms have a triangle as well. Network marketing is uniquely compatible with being a stay at home mom, which is the reason many moms choose to go this route.  As I’ve had the opportunity to talk to many moms within network marketing, they all have some trouble balancing these three things.  I am not an exception.

Obviously, as a mom, your top priority is always your kids, but you also want your business to succeed, and you don’t want to live in a dump either.  I guess you know which two I have chosen lately.  When I come up with a perfect solution, I’ll let you know. Haha.  Anyway, I’ll be 38 weeks on Sunday.  I’ve never actually gone past 38 weeks, so hopefully he comes soon!

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

Strawberries and Cream

I just came back from a breakfast with some other women in my neighborhood, and it felt so good.  I am in a great mood. 🙂 We had strawberry short cake as a little “birthday party” for all of us with birthdays early in the year.  We just ate and chatted, and had no kids.  It was held at the church across the street, so I walked.   As I walked, the sun was shining, and the birds were singing.

Spring is in full force.

On the way home, I talked about business with a friend of mine.  She is in a different network marketing company, and she was talking about how much she loves the products, but doing things online can be hard and confusing.   I was really excited to be able to tell her about our Facebook group.  Before I came across this drastically different approach to network marketing, I felt the pressure that she is under.  She was brave, and offered the products, and asked if I wanted to host a party.

I have felt the stress of feeling like you have to make every conversation into a business opportunity.  I have separated my social life with my business life, and it is so freeing.  I can actually talk to people and not have to be concerned about talking about my opportunity all the time.  The funny thing is, since I’ve taken the stress out of those kind of conversions, it’s actually easier to talk about.

In network marketing, they talk about being “free” all the time.  “Quit your job so you can finally be free!”  But that kind of stress of looking for an “in” for my business in every conversation feels like prison to me.  I finally found a better way to do things, and I got to share it with a friend today.  I wasn’t pressuring her to join my business, but I do get to show her a better way to do her business, and truly helping in that way feels fabulous. 🙂

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

You Are Enough

I generally have a pretty high self-esteem.  I like who I am, and I’m confident in who I am.  We all have our weak moments though.  Yesterday I struggled with being good enough.  I worked, and got things done, and took care of kids, and talked to business prospects.  I made lunch and went to a midwife appointment.  I picked up a kindergarten registration packet, and dealt with a child’s diarrhea problem.  I made dinner, and produced content for our marketing strategies. (not necessarily in that order)

I worked, and worked, and worked, and through all of that, I consistently felt like I wasn’t doing a good enough job.

Late afternoon, I finally sat down to have a good cry, release some emotions, and a have a good pity party.   Thirty seconds into it, my pity party was cut short with a phone call.  I put a brave voice on, finished the call, and continued through my day.

The thing is, I don’t even know why I was feeling all of this.  Maybe I can chalk it up to pregnancy hormones.  Maybe it’s lack of sleep.  Maybe it was just a busy day.  Regardless of the reason why I was having issues,  I think we all need to be reminded from time to time to be kinder to ourselves.

I am enough.

It’s important to remind ourselves of that everyday.

Remind yourself of what you are good at.  Practice positive self-talk.  Be confident in who you are, and be proud of the things you have accomplished.

I am a fantastic mom.  I am succeeding in attracting people to talk to about business.  I am a supportive wife.  I am great at teaching children, and I’m a good musician.  I’m a good cook, and I am an optimist.  I work hard, and I don’t give up.  I am a good artist, and have a creative mind.  I really love others around me, and I’m good at making friends.

I don’t say these things to brag to the internet.  I say these things to remind myself, and you should too.  Tell yourself what you are good at, and if you are having a hard time thinking of things, hopefully you can talk to someone who loves you.  The people in your in your life are in your life for a reason: they see value in you.  Ask them to tell you about what they see in you, and it will change how you view yourself.

The opposite can be true too.  People who don’t know you, see how you view yourself.  What is in your mind is the kind of person that is attracted to you.  Be confident, happy, and positive, and you will attract confident, happy, and positive people.

The most important thing is to take care of yourself.  Love yourself.  Don’t be your own bully.  Be kind to yourself, and you will be happier.

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

 

 

 

Failtastic

Yesterday was a pretty failtastic day. I’m almost to 37 weeks in my pregnancy, and I was uncomfortable, and in pain from overexerting myself the previous day.  Because of that fact, I hadn’t slept very well, so I was exhausted to top it all off. I was teaching preschool again in the morning, and pretty much wiped myself out by noon.

I tried to post something on the blog, and it fought me, and wouldn’t work right. The tags were in a weird place, the video wouldn’t play, and half my text was missing, so I deleted it. Sorry.

I didn’t blog. I didn’t touch Instagram, I didn’t update my Facebook group. I didn’t talk to anyone about business related things.

FAIL.

Despite my great failure to accomplish anything, I’m not going to let it get me down. I’m getting back up today, and working hard.

I just wanted to acknowledge my failure, and announce that IT DOESN’T MATTER. I feel just as driven to succeed in life and business. I recently created an image that has great context in this situation.

My progress is slow, and some days I don’t accomplish anything at all, but I am still progressing.  One bad day is not going to ruin everything.  It won’t be my last bad day either.  I’ll have a newborn soon, and then things will get really interesting. Haha.  I don’t plan on giving up any time though.  I’m still slowly plugging along. 🙂

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

Persistence or Talent

The summer before my sixth grade year, I got to meet with the band teacher to try out instruments.  I was so excited, and imagined how great it would be.  I thought the horn or the trombone might be a good fit for me, but I got there, and was discouraged from the horn because so many other students had chosen that instrument.  We tried the trombone, and he showed me the spit valve.  I was super grossed out.  We tried the flute, and I naturally got a beautiful sound to come out.  The teacher praised me for my natural gifts, and encouraged me to go with the flute.

Flattery is hard to evade I suppose.  I chose the flute.

I was very pleased, as I went to group practices, that I was better at it than all of my peers.  In fact, I was better than most of my peers through eighth grade.

Here is where the problem came in.  I never practiced.  I wasn’t persistent about it.  I wasn’t especially passionate about it.  I just liked being successful at something.  Around ninth grade, an interesting phenomenon happened.  I was assigned to be a second flute player, and there were many better musicians around me.  They actually practiced.  They created good habits as they continued through school.  They loved what they were doing.

This is me and a couple friends on a high school band/choir trip.

I learned a valuable lesson.  Hard work, persistence, passion, and good habits always win out over natural abilities.  It doesn’t matter how talented you are, or what kind of natural gifts you have, if you never do anything about it.

It’s something that I learned pretty early on in life, but I still have to continually remind myself.  It’s one of those things that I know logically, but don’t always put the concept into action as well as I should.

I want it to be something my children understand as well, so I look for opportunities to praise them for their work, or on their persistence when something is difficult for them.

I never did become a master floutist, but I did learn a valuable lesson, so I am grateful.  As I work through my business, most of the skills required are abilities that I have not been naturally gifted with.  It’s hard for me, but as I am persistent, I become better at it.  I have gotten really good at skills that I never thought I would be able to do.  I often surprise myself at what I can accomplish.  My personal development has skyrocketed since becoming an independent business owner.  It is a wonderful feeling to be good at something after a lot of work to get there. Talent is lovely to have, but it is not as important as it is made out to be.

So I’d like to hear from you!

What kind of lessons did you learn at a young age that have helped you throughout your life?  What kind of skills have you gained through hard work, rather than natural abilities?

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

Perfection leads to Procrastination

Preschool is a high energy activity.  At 36 weeks pregnant, I do not have high energy.  In fact, I was having regular contractions until about 2:30 in the morning.  I thought, “Is this it?  It seems a little early.”

It wasn’t it.  I’m still pregnant, but the potential anticipation kept me awake.  When I woke up, I had to get ready for the preschoolers to come over.

Here is where my title comes in.

Let things go.

Life doesn’t have to be crafty or beautiful all the time.  Four-year-olds don’t notice or care that the kitchen and bathroom are gross.  I do not need to have focused engagement for every second of preschool.  Their snack doesn’t have to be some creative thing that has to do with the lesson.  It’s OK to get out the bag of pretzels.

We learned about Picasso in Preschool today.  These plates were the most involved thing we did today.

Life isn’t perfect, and you don’t have to be either.

When you learn to let the idea of perfection go, and just get started on things, you’ll be surprised at what you can get through, and how much you can get done.  I have had to keep reminding myself of this more and more as I get further along in my pregnancy.  I don’t have as much energy.  I don’t feel as strong or as capable as usual.  Prioritizing the most important things, and letting the other things go, is how you avoid procrastination.

As a college student, I would have said that I was a “professional procrastinator,” as if I were proud of such a title.  The thing is, it makes life so much more stressful and complicated to have something constantly hanging over you, that you have to get done.  I always wanted my projects to be perfect and beautiful, and better than everyone else’s work.  This often resulted in me stressing about it, and often, not even turning it in.  Can you tell I was a really great student? Haha. We all have our times of growing up. 🙂

Don’t procrastinate.  If all you are thinking about is how impressive your end result will be, you are asking for procrastination and stress.  When you need to get a lot done, don’t try to focus in on the whole project.  Just focus on your first step.  Don’t get distracted from that first step.  When it is finished, move on to the next step.

Do yourself a favor, and let yourself be imperfect.  We are striving to be better.  No one is asking for perfection, so don’t demand it of yourself.  I hope you are all having a beautifully, imperfect day.  Don’t get too down on yourself. 🙂

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

Choose Happiness!

Today I want to talk about being happy.

We often blame others for our unhappiness. I know I was doing that very thing this morning.  My four-year-old woke me up this morning earlier than usual. Most people know that I have never been a morning person.

To make it worse, he was whining, and demanding a cheese sandwich and an apple.  I make breakfast for the three of us every morning, but the fact that he was practically yelling at me to get out of bed and make him food was not cool with me.  He continued to whine, and tell me that I wasn’t moving fast enough.  He was pretty much acting horrible.  I told him off for whining, but I was crabby all morning.  I just felt negative, and grumpy.  I didn’t want to do anything for anybody, which is an especially bad attitude to have when you have little children to take care of.

I told myself that I wanted to have a good day.  I wanted to be happy today.  I listened to an affirmations recording that I recently found.  At first I thought it was kind of goofy with its new-agey music, and a man with a Texan accent.  Today was different though.

I listened to the content of the words, rather than the silly music, or the man’s accent.  After I listened to it, my day was completely turned around.

I am the only person that has control over my mood.  I am in control of my life, and I am the person that gets to choose when I am happy. So, I did the best I could.  I put a smile on, got the boys dressed, and we walked outside.  The sun was shining, and it was a beautiful spring day.  I let the positive affirmations and the sunshine affect me.  I chose to forget about my bad morning.  We sang some songs together in the car, and I’ve been in a good mood for the rest of the day.

I can choose which of my surroundings will affect me.  Negative things around me only have the power to affect me if I let them.

So I say to you: Choose to be happy today!  You can’t control your surroundings, but you can determine your reaction to them.

Choose happiness. 🙂

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

When You Just Want to Nap…

This week I’ve been trying hard for consistency.

It’s hard.

The hardest part is doing something productive when I just want to take a nap.

I’m 35 1/2 weeks pregnant.  If this baby comes at the same time that my previous baby did, I will have a baby in 2 1/2 weeks. Yikes!

I don’t want to give myself excuses though.

Monday, I naturally felt energized and productive.  I got so many things done, and felt on top of the world.  It’s impossible for everyday to feel like that though.  It’s not a great triumph to do something because I feel like it.  I want to be able to get past “I don’t feel like it,” and I felt like yesterday was a great success with that.

On Tuesday, I was exhausted.  I needed to clean.  I needed to get some business stuff done.  I needed to take care of my kids.  I wanted to nap.

The thing that has helped me the most during those days are little things.  I don’t put pressure on myself to get the whole world in order.  I started with little things.  I started a load of laundry.  I posted a picture quote I had created a previous day to Instagram.  I wrote a post to my business group.  I worked my way up to talking to business prospects.  It was a lot harder to do than it was on Monday, when I wanted to do all those things; when I had energy.

I didn’t get as much on Tuesday, but I am so proud of what I did accomplish, because it was so much harder to do.  I am working to be consistent in my good habits.  Good habits are what bring me closer to my goals.  That is where I want to be.

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

 

Work

Today I worked hard!  I’m very proud of myself.

We ordered some chairs from Ikea, and they came at the end of the week last week.  Ikea takes their packaging seriously.  We assembled chairs all weekend, but ended up with a really trashed house.  Somehow the rest of the house followed suit.  Today I caught up though.  Yay!

I also got a lot of work done as far as business is concerned.  I spoke to a lot of people, and got a lot of content made.

As I was looking for material for my Instagram, I came across this quote.

I really liked it.  It’s important to continually look for opportunities in life, and most of the time those opportunities include a lot of hard work.  So go find a great opportunity and get to work! 🙂

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.

Family Videos!

I just wanted to make everyone aware that Evan has been doing daily vlogs!  They’re just little snippets of our daily life, so I welcome you to watch them if you’d like to get to know our family a little better.

Here is yesterday’s video:

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If you would like to learn more about our business or how to market your own business online, you can email me at candidnetworkmarketing@gmail.com or find us on our Facebook group.