Some positive energy...

We all have it tough, we all have lost a job, we all go through heartbreaks, and we all lose someone close to us, but this should never affect your life. You have to be strong and willing to move forward. These are challenges that are put in front of each and one of us to test our strength. 

Motivation is literally the desire to do things, it’s what helps you get up every morning and help you throughout the day. It’s what controls us from setting and attaining our goals. We are the ones that can influence our levels of motivation and self-control. The best advice anyone can give is figure out what you want, power through the pain period, and start being who you want to be. People don’t notice but motivation has to do a lot about how we get through the day and daily obstacles.

Motivation comes from people around you and within. To start, begin with those you are surrounded by, are they good and honest friends or are they dishonest and troubled acquaintances that you call friends?  I really believe that the one’s surrounding you make a difference of where you will be headed. If you are surrounded by negative energy then that’s exactly what you will receive and feel all the time. The first thing I personally do is make sure that my friends I have are positive minded and inspire me to be better in life. For example, my 2 closest friends I have are amazing and I am extremely blessed to have them to keep my head up. In my hardest times in life they are there to push me forward and push all negative thoughts out of mind. It is important to have at least one person like this in your life.

Now, besides having friends and positive environment, you have to believe in yourself. Well, I am sure you are asking how do you this and how do you stay motivated in the most difficult times? Believe in yourself; focus on the positive aspects in your life. Sometimes in the hardest times we have a hard time seeing the good and we just feed on all the negative energy. Well don’t! The way I think about it, is by focusing on how blessed I am and comparing myself to those that might not be as fortunate, always remember there is always someone else going through the same pain or worse. Breakups: see it as a lesson and that there is someone better in the future for you coming. Fate works in mysterious ways and you have to trust that things happen for a reason.

Just remember that happiness comes from positive thoughts, motivation, and inspiration. You make the choices to better your life, so start today and make a difference and don’t be afraid to take risks and make choices. So, whether you wake up earlier each day, start eating healthier, get a new job, concentrate on school more, you need to just do it, don’t think about it. I’ve learned that a lot of the reasons we don’t get things done or we get frustrated easily is because we over think everything, we don’t just do it. Our minds are a powerful thing and we need to stay in control of it. A great guide to staying focused in life is writing your daily tasks down and then checking them off as you go. Also if you feel you are getting frustrated, find one thing that can be your stress reliever, whether it’s writing, singing, running, or other hobbies that you love that make you relaxed. If you incorporate this in your life more often I promise it will help and make a difference. My personal stress reliever is running, anytime I feel anxiety or overwhelmed, I take a 30 minute jog around the neighborhood. I release all my negative energy and automatically feel better and want to focus on what I was doing.

Today’s Inspiration:

“The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.” Brian Tracy

Whats to come...

What my future holds is honestly the unknown, but I know the choices I make and the path I choose to take is in my hands. Once I have graduated from high school I will be focusing on building my business. I will start with creating a proposal and finding ways that will best market my business. I will have the business planned out by end of the summer in 2013. I will be figuring out a good growth structure for when my business decides to take off, from personal research I have learned that business that takes off too fast could be as bad as too slow if you can’t stay in control or handle it.  I will have a strategy for investing, inventory, marketing and growth. The name of my business will describe how I feel about it and where I want to go in the future. I will give you a little idea of what the company has to bring, it will encourage people for change and motivate them for a better future.
My company will be a fitness line that presents to the fitness community introducing comfortable fashionable quality clothing at affordable prices. It will introduce exclusive products for those fitness passionates. My company will not only be an introduction or a motivation to the fitness world as a clothing line, but making an actual change along the way. I always go by “small steps speak louder than small ideas.” Once this hits the market and revenue is building in approximately two and half years, around 2015, I will be opening a gym that will not just include the best workout set-up but it will have a mini store in each gym with my fitness line. There are several new ways that I have learned in the past several months that I can use to market my business. First off, by being involved in the social media world, marketing my business the proper way through Facebook, blog and an instragram that would provide latest sales and motivations. Once things are steady for the company and moving up I will consider traveling to different cities in Florida and organizing booths during events in each city. This will be recognized by new costumers and other companies that will be interested in purchasing my products. I will also have sample class of what my gyms will provide and if they bring it to their city the first 100 sign-ups will get a life membership discount.  I am extremely excited of what the future holds and the next 3-5 years will be hard, life changing and worth every minute to make it the most successful future.
My business will start out small but very strong, I will make sure that I use social media to generate new business and connect with customers. With over millions of small businesses competing against each other I will make sure that my Facebook, stands out most.  This being the leading network as well as LinkedIn they will broaden my network to spread my company all over the world with advertisements, pictures, videos and blogs. I have learned that social media has become an essential marketing tool, but many small businesses are not taking full advantage of its potential, I want to make sure that my business takes a big part of this. Below I will provide how each of social media areas will impact my company:
Facebook: Will be a more descriptive sharing with users, sharing when they visit, comments about the company and sharing events and updates.
LinkedIn: Will provide short status of the company for sale updates and changes in the company. This will make it easy to advertise the company since it an open relationship that anyone can follow and view my tweets.
Instagram: This will be for motivational pictures and sale advertisement that will be available for everyone to see and comment.
YouTube: This will be for all of our events, video workouts and mini commercials of new products; they will be organized by date and purpose.
            The future holds a lot of good things, right now I will focus first on my business and by the time I am thirty have a partner and 2 children. When I am 40 I will have already had my business going and it will be managed by other employees that I will hire and that I have grown a strong trustworthy relationship. I will be the one cutting checks onlyJ. I will still be working part time in a tax company, to always have secure income coming in for my children that I can use towards their college one day. Once I am 50 and up and getting close to retire, I will start teaching my kids about the business and showing them the strings of how it needs to run and how I want them to keep the company original but emphasize importance of the company and stay up to date with today’s technology and social media.
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I am ready to walk!

Is it finally here? It has been 3 ½ years of school between my AA and Bachelors and I am finally walking May 13. I can’t wait to wear my cap and gown, I could not be prouder of myself. It has been such a magnificent experience at Daytona State College and I am so happy I chose this school. I had the best guidance from teachers and adviser and I am so blessed to have had them. I am originally from Miami and moved out for college because I wanted the whole independent college experience and Daytona State was truly able to provide this to me. I had a scholarship and a loan to pay through school and I worked full time and I at one point had two jobs. I went to school full time and managed my time very wisely. My school always came first and I always did what I had to get things done. I am finishing with 3.45 GPA with honors and on the Dean’s List. It feels great that I was able to overcome this under a short time even with all the up’s and down’s of life. If you focus on what you want nothing can get in your way. My last semester has been the hardest for me. I had to move back down to Miami because my family was struggling and needed help. Luckily I had found a great job prior to moving down and the school was very helpful with providing books and the things I needed to get through the semester. I am just blessed that I can pass this semester because I was really concerned juggling work, 4 classes and family. But I get to say I did it and when I get handed that diploma there will be nothing but a smile.

I encourage everyone to choose and go to the school that best fits them; it doesn't always mean you have to go to the fanciest school. I feel I have learned and met more amazing people here at this small local college. To be honest everything was so much easier, if you needed a teacher, counselor, adviser, or finance help they had some always available to help unlike bigger schools you have to wait or make an appointment. The classes were small and included diverse classrooms of ethnics and ages. There was a lot more one on one with teachers and it just felt that teachers really loved their jobs here.

Prince charming you need to wait!

There are times in your life that you realize what you need to concentrate on and right now it’s me. I had been in two long deep relationships that had caused a lot of heartache. It has been 9 months now that I have been single. I have realized now that I need to concentrate more on me and live life a little. I had been settling for 6 years and ignoring my needs. I don’t want to date and meet random men every weekend. I want my soul mate to find me when the time is right. I realized that I settled for simple and comfort because I thought that was love but love is so much more. After several months of being on my own for the first time I have learned that love and relationships have a way deeper meaning. My mother says I am rare bread and it is important that the right person catches me and is willing to sweep me off my feet. Everyone deserves love and it needs to go both ways, relationships need to be an equal partnership. I am young and I want to travel the world and experience life and right now it seems that I am supposed to do this on my own and not with someone. I have learned so much about myself recently and I still have much more to go. I have met amazing people everywhere because of my experiences. So the rest of this year is dedicated to me and getting ahead. I want to buy a car and start my business. This requires my time and dedication to achieve these goals. I will make it happen and maybe along the way or after I will meet that special someone.

I think people forget about themselves. We get obsessed with are relationships or partners that we forget about what we want and ourselves. I know many girls that have done bad in school, gained weight and lost friends because of their boyfriends and that’s just not right. The same way you dedicate time to him, you need to dedicate time for you. Your partner is supposed to be your best friend and a true friend would not let you fail school or lose control of your life. Ladies it’s okay to feel lonely and feel you need someone but don’t be shallow, stay in control and keep your head up. Prince charming is out there he will come when you’re ready not when you need him.

Because we all want BUNS of STEEL

Have you felt that you work out and you get sore anymore and your body has just stopped improving? This happens when your work out pattern stays the same. Everything in life requires change so that we don’t create bad habits. In my personal workout routine I am constantly making changes. I have learned that you have to find a workout that best suits you, the gym, crossfit, yoga, aerobics, and Zumba does not work the same for everyone. It has taken me several years to finally find a workout that works best for me. I have tried all the ones listed above and in the beginning I felt I was getting results but then i felt my body stuck. I invested in some simple machines and weights from 5-75 pounds to put in my backyard and create my own workout and gym. I created a schedule and a display board that will make my workout more efficient. I created a list of all workouts with a picture example of the workout. We all forget certain workouts so it is important to have some sort of tracker and guidance to go by. I also recommend to take a before pic as well as take measurements. Make sure that you are not just keeping track of your work out but the foods you eat.

My personal work out is as follows:

Become a Cheetah one Monday at a time

My focus on Monday is cardio, I will run as much as I can for 30 minutes. Every week I will increase this by 10 minutes. The focus on this is to concentrate on stamina. It is important that you increase your heart rate and there is no better way to do it than running. All of you asthmatics, this is actually amazing for you in my opinion. I was asthmatic for 10 years and now I never wake up feeling congested or that nasty morning phlegm. I feel that running has helped me really break down everything in my lungs and help my breathing. My doctors saw a difference and where impressed that running really was making a difference.

Get the wine bottle look but make it tight and cut

Abs: Monday through Friday and no excuses. If you want to have that flat stomach or those perfect abs then you will have to work for them. I have a list of ab workouts that work best for me, I choose 3 ab workouts. I choose different ones everyday so that I am never working out the same muscle. This works the same for arms except I only do arms Tuesday and Thursdays. I personally don’t want a muscular upper body but I want to feel and be strong.  Once I chose the workouts I am going to do I will do 3 sets of each for 2 minutes. (Meaning do as many as you can under that time without stopping.) It doesn’t seem horrible and painful but I promise you will wake up the next day feeling sore every time. By doing different workout everyday it will confuse the muscle and always keep it working and you can also increase time or add weight to build muscle. The same thing goes to arms, don’t forget!

Now those buns of steel I told you about. Well they work out every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This is my biggest focus. I combine cardio, weight and repetition. I follow the same workout routine like above except it is 4 different workouts and weight 5 pounds of weight are added every week. My favorite leg work outs are squats, one leg dead lifts and my specialty that I call “Don’t kiss the ground. This specific workout is like doing a lunge but instead of going on one knee you go down on both legs and back up and you alternate which each leg when you go down. This honestly works out every single part of your legs. I promise after two minutes of the first rep you will be crying and don’t forget your holding weight too.

Doing these workouts has shown me a major increase in muscle. I did lose inches but gained a lot of muscle. I have always been petite but now I am fit, strong and feel great. You guys are more than welcome to use any of my tips and if you want to find out more details about my workout leave me a comment. J

To feel...

 I remember waking up to you every morning and you running your fingers down my back. I remember that tingle you gave me and how it made me smile. I remember feeling you stare at me deeply while I slept, that made my heart beat faster....  But one day I lost that feeling and ever since it hasn't come back.

I'm healing....I will be ready to fall in love again one day... I cant wait to be overwhelmed of the feeling. 
Maybe one day I'll feel the un-explainable, LOVE and maybe he will feel it too.

lost my train of thought...but ....

Word of advice, don't let anyone have the power to take love or emotions away from you. We all go through heartaches and I know it gets to a point that we can't even feel anymore, we lose are way. It's a horrible feeling that puts you in dark places and makes you do things you didn't really think you would do. It's like I rebelled because I became strong and cold like a rock and it felt great except when you're at that point that you should feel those butterflies and there not there. You wonder what's wrong with you, well it's all those heartaches you thought you had overcome, well it caught up and now it affected your heart. You closed it completely because it's easier to defend when your shield are up, but you can't live life like that. You have to let fate take you on your path. You can't lose the opportunity to love or be loved. Mistakes will be made regardless but being happy along the way and falling in love is necessary for us to evolve. Follow your gut and everything else will fall into place.

Where are you putting your $$$ ?

It is neither the governments nor the industries fault for why the economy is the way it is. There is honestly no one to blame but ourselves. We have caused are own economic headache. This past week I realized how much people disappoint me about these issues. I totally understand that we all have a home, family, medical and other bills to pay but where are we really investing are money. I pass by my neighbor’s house that has a sign stating it is owned by the bank and it is in foreclosure but then you see   three fancy 45,000 cars parked at the front. Umm, seems a little off to me. People have forgotten what priorities are I guess brand new cars come before shelter for your family. It really upsets me when I see this because they know they don’t have the money to pay for their mortgage but then they go spend money on unnecessary things. When did people get confused with toys being more important than necessities? I have realized ever since this electronic world blew a couple years back that people are worried more about what phone they have rather than how they will pay for the phone bill at the end of the month. People need to learn to manage their money if they expect to make it out of this economic downfall. Money is extremely important to me because I was always surrounded by people that acted rich but always had an empty wallet with maxed out cards. Since I was a little kid I saved money, I always had a little hidden stash and when I wanted to buy something for someone I had the money to do it. Over years of watching people let go of their money, go bankrupt, lose their homes and cars, I have learned little tricks to always have cushion in pocket even in the hardest times.

My Advice:

-          First, stop being lazy and stop whining for a problem you have caused.

-          Calculate your monthly bills and your weekly bills.

-          Track your expenses-

• NO EXCUSE! You can use a paper, pencil and a calculator or you can use those little fancy gadgets you invested in and take advantage of Excel or download an app that tracks everything for you.

-          Don’t do groceries every week.

• Make a list and do groceries twice a month, majority of food will last a week and half. Major groceries only once out of those two times. This includes paper towels, water, canned food, etc. Things that last for a couple of months or more. At first it might seem like you are spending more but you always save more in bulk and save gas having to drive to the grocery store every week. Also use coupons they are there for a reason.

-          Limit Going out

• Try going out to eat only once a week. We all deserve a night out to try new foods but remember this is a minimum of $15 dollars per person, this will add up. Use the internet not just for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, there are websites that provide coupons, discounts and dinner specials every week. Living social, Groupon, Retailmenot, the restaurant websites directly and sign up for email specials these are all great ways to do what you want with a budget.

-          We all want nice things

• The best way to get that nice car, nice house, that long cruise or vacation to Italy is to save. I know it’s hard. But you can do it. The best recommendation is save cash; don’t use a savings account for this. Because if you see the money you will spend it. It is a lot easier to swipe a card than to hand someone a $100 dollar bill. If it is hard for you at first start with small bills, put $10 dollars every week and then continue to increase how much you put every month. Then when you are ready for that toy, the money will be their ready. Another little tip, when you feel like spending money calculate how much your spending by how much you get paid in an hour. This always works for me and prevents me from making unnecessary silly purchases. For example let’s say I make $15 an hour and I want to buy a $45 dollar dress, it takes me 3 hard working hours to make that. When I do this it really makes me think about how much I really need this.

-          Stop buying TOYS

• Electronics come out with a new design, software or model every couple of months. Buying the new one every time just to be cool is ridiculous and unethical. Buy things when you need it, take care of your things, and appreciate what you have. While you are saving in your piggy bank you can save extra money to get the best TV or the most efficient car. Do research and choose things that have better quality and life spam even if you spend a little more at least you will be anxious to buy new things.

-          Extras

• Get rid of those extra things that=costing you unnecessary expenses. Get rid of cable and get Netflix more movies and listen to the radio or use the internet to hear the news. You honestly don’t need cable and it just makes you lazy and brain washes your mind. Turn off lights when you leave the room, buy energy saving light bulbs, wash once a week(not every day), if you can get rid of the dryer- ruins clothes, energy killer, and electric bill killer. We all have back yards and fans that we can use to dry are clothes. You would not believe how much you save just doing this!

I hope this has helped. I truly feel people need to get their acts together, start focusing on better futures and stop getting comfortable with what you have because you are not helping your families, kids, and the economy. We need to take the first step to become happier and debt FREE!