Distractions : MTH Challenge Step 2

NOTE: For those of you who just joined us, I am interrupting the blog for some business owner confessions. We all have dreams, mine is to own a successful boudoir photography business. This is my journey through the Make Things Happen Challenge, I hope you will challenge your self and follow your dreams!

Make Things Happen Challenge : Step Two

We all have our weaknesses. I have a weakness for cupcakes and ice cream. Foreign Accents. Anything involving French culture. These are all healthy weaknesses, but I also have to admit I have an unhealthy weakness for social media. Hi, my name is Laura and I’m addicted to social media.

I am nothing but grateful for social media. I have gained a lot from facebook and twitter that I am nothing but grateful for. I have reconnected with old friends, networked with other professionals who inspire me and free cupcakes! Social media even brought me Make Things Happen, but social media is also a big fat distraction.

In the challenge for day two it says to list your top ten distractions.

1.Twitter

2.Facebook

3.Email

4.Pintrest

5.My Day Job

6.Brain Junk

7.The food network

8.HGTV

9.School

10.Discouragement

Instead of focusing on what really matters to me, being a photographer. I am wasting my time on all these distractions!  Are you guilty of taking one more peak at facebook instead of doing the things that are truly important to you? Not only am I guilty of letting it distracting me from my dreams but also my family. My boyfriend Matt is my family, he is the boy I want to marry and create a family with. He is also the one I’m ignoring when I’m buried in Twitter updates rather than meaningful conversations.

So this weekend I’m cutting the cord. No Twitter, No Facebook for Saturday through Monday. Yep I’m adding an extra day, since it’s the fourth of July. Connecting with people through a computer is wonderful but connecting in person is A MILLION TIMES BETTER! A few months ago I decided to take twitter beyond 140 characters and meet with one Erin, the owner of Theda Bara Vintage Lingerie. It was so empowering to connect with someone face to face! At first I was scared of meeting with “strangers”, afraid I would sounds stupid and they might reject me.  But after facing that fear I was given the best reward, encouragement! Then I did it again with Erica from Colorado Occasions. Meeting with other people that share your interests is so encouraging and it’s great to know you’re not alone. This is one of the main reasons I decided to put all this personal business stuff on my blog… I hope to encourage others to go after their dreams. It doesn’t have to be photography or wedding related, you could have a dream of being a doctor (my boyfriend’s dream), learning something new or being president and it all starts with these small steps from the Make Things Happen Challenge that will lead you to BIGGER, BETTER, GREATER THINGS!!! (Explosion of excitement) BUT we have to turn off the distractions. After reading the challenge post for day two I turned off all the notifications that constantly pop up on my phone through out the day, I unsubscribed to all the sh*it email lists that clog up my email and I am also taking a vow to not only turn off social media this weekend but also every day after 7pm to 7am. It’s time to respect my dreams and myself. As much as I love all my lovely ladies I chat with on twitter every day I would much rather have a glass of wine and talk about our dreams in person.

What the junk : MTH Challenge Day 1

NOTE: For those of you who just joined us, I am interrupting the blog for some business owner confessions. We all have dreams, mine is to own a successful boudoir photography business. This is my journey through the Make Things Happen Challenge, I hope you will challenge your self and follow your dreams!

 Make Things Happen Challenge: Step One

Day one of the challenge is clear the clutter. The first thing that came to mind when I read this was not just physical clutter in my home, but mental clutter. My mind is like a hamster on a wheel, constantly spinning with to do lists, ideas or did I remember to turn the curling iron off this morning (thank goodness for the self timed safety feature).  I found the exercise of downloading everything on your mind to be refreshing. Ten minutes I sat down with my business journal to write… the first three minutes I was fine. Words, lists, a few sentences, there are no rules to what you do in those 10 minutes. Then… nothing. Suddenly my hamster wheel of a brain stopped moving. Clearing the mental clutter I feel is just as important as clearing physical clutter but for me it’s not just giving your self time to write everything going on in that big beautiful brain, but also to not think.

Just days before getting the invitation to do the challenge I had came back from a vacation to Thailand. Besides being amazing beautiful I learned something in Thailand, to relax. Part of downloading for me is clearing all the ideas spinning around in my head by writing it down but also just sitting quietly for a while to think of pure nothing. Before my trip to Thailand I rarely ever stopped, constantly I ran a marathon in my brain but in Thailand I finally stopped. I sat down. I did nothing. An entire day I would spend listening to the turquoise ocean waves, watching the clouds roll by and watching the little crabs be crabs. This may seem like a step backwards, but for me it was a huge step forward. Thinking of nothing actually allowed me to think of new, fresh, better ideas. Now you don’t have to go to Thailand to download. When I’m home I still watch the clouds, I just admire them looking at their shape, texture, their color at sunset or how the sun shines through them. I also download by listening to music in another language. Edith Paif is my favorite. I know some French but I don’t try to translate it, I just get lost in the beauty of the music. I don’t focus on the words because the purpose is not the think (which is why I choose something that isn’t English). Go Tan Project is another foreign music group that is amazing to just get lost in!

Good luck clearing the physical and mental “junk” in your life. Of course beautiful ideas are not “junk”, but if those beautiful ideas are locked up and getting lost… A beautiful mind is a shame to waste.