Pumpkin chocolate chip bread recipe. It's my turn to bring a baked good at ECFE (mommy + me playgroup) on Monday and this is what I plan on making. Yummm.
[2] LAUGHS
Okay, okay Jon Stewart is nothing new for me but he is the cutest dude that could totally be my dad and he is hilarious and wise as an added bonus. If you don't watch The Daily Show we probably can't be friends ;).
[3] HALLOWEEN DECOR
Just some indoor inspiration. I've seen this effect a lot this year and hopefully I get ambitious enough for something like this before Halloween gets here.
[4] ART
I've been on the search for a nice big world map for my gallery wall. I love the gold foil on the black background.
[5] QUOTE
"All the effort in the world won't matter if you're not inspired" - Chuck Palahniuk (author of a couple of my favorite reads, Fight Club and Choke)
I wanted to do something different and fun so I made a set of my makeup favorites. Most of these are products that are fairly new to me within the last 6 months to a year. (I wasn't really into makeup in college and the only thing I cared to splurge on was mascara). I've read rave reviews about the Buxom mascara so I tried it out. I also bought the Better Than Sex mascara by Too Faced on a whim just to try something new and I must say I would place that one far above Buxom and I hadn't even seen any reviews about it.
I recently started contouring, using a setting powder, and a liquid eyeliner and it's all actually really fun. The setting powder gives my skin a more airbrushed look than traditional powders, the liquid eyeliner just gives a more dramatic effect for the eyes, and contouring gives my face some depth instead of looking so flat. I only contour when I'm feeling really ambitious, though. Lips. I do like the Nars lipstick because it is very subtle but has a bit of a rosy colored shimmer and the pixi tinted lip balm is barely noticeable color-wise but is the smoothest stuff ever. I've used the cc cream for a long time now, I got it in a birchbox almost 2 years ago. I've used that revlon brow pencil since before I can remember, probably 5 years ago. It's a much cheaper option than the Anastasia brow line at sephora. And I've played around with different shimmer powders but this hourglass kind (I received it as a sample at sephora so I haven't paid for a full size yet) is the finest shimmer powder I've tried. The shimmer is a lot more natural than others, it's more of a highlight. There you have it. You can click on the set for details.
You are only as good as the people you surround yourself with. The 5 people you surround yourself with, actually. Why? Because you become the average of these people. [link] Just like finding the median in math, I guess.
Take a look at your top 5. Do they inspire you? Are they supportive? Are they overall happy? If you can't answer this for any of them, you might want to reconsider your network. These people affect your success, your happiness, and personal growth. You don't want to end up mirroring negative people, and therefore, become that negative person. You are allowed to be selective of who you spend your time with and should not have to apologize for choosing to remove certain people from your network. Don't let someone bring down your average.
I find that the best people to have around you are ones that share similar goals, dreams, values, or are overall on the same journey as you. For me, it's people who inspire me to do the things I'm passionate about: to read more literature, to be educated in all subjects, to want to move forward in my career, to workout at the gym harder, to eat healthier, to be informed on world news, and to be courteous and understanding to those around me. Sometimes I ask myself, "Is there someone's average I'm bringing down?" This motivates me to be the best version of myself for someone else. Don't bring someone else's average down, and choose your own top 5 wisely!
My goal for the new year is to focus on myself and my family.
The one thing, the one single thing that makes me lose sight of what I have is comparison. Comparing what I have to what others have, and 99% of the time it's comparing myself to people that I don't even know in real life. It's people that I've seen on tv, or on a popular blogger's instagram, or in magazines, or a friend of a friend of a friend's facebook profile that I stumbled across. I compare my house, my looks, my career, and any other materialistic thing you can think of. Honestly I do think highly of all those things for myself, so why do I let people I don't even know take that away from me? I don't know what goes on behind closed doors, and for all I know these people I'm comparing myself to might struggle a lot in areas that I'm flawless in. Nobody is perfect, I know this. So why do I trick myself into thinking that they can be?
I made a facebook status a while back to remind myself to live my life at my own pace, in my own way, without watching how everyone else is doing it: Like doing yoga, learn to listen to your own body to dictate how your practice should look. By imagining there is no one else in the room, you can't compare your position or flexibility to others' and are completely fulfilled by where you are.
This is exactly how I feel and need to remember to follow this. With that being said, I need to remind myself of all the great things we have going in our life, and all the great qualities I have and Adam has. I'm gonna write them down in big bold letters and hang it up on the fridge if need be. This year I want to be more positive, and replace words of negativity and complaining with words of kindness, affirmation, and positivity.
So, I need to quit comparing, and to be positive about my own life. It's more important now than ever because we have a daughter now and I need to show her what she should be truly valuing in life.
We've all had our share of good jobs and bad jobs. There's likely been more bad than good otherwise we would only need to have one job our whole entire life.
I've had my share of jobs where I have been happy, miserable, needed it because it looked good on paper, needed to ditch it because it didn't, paid well, didn't pay well.... you get it. With every bad job comes a lesson, though, right? Even if the lesson is you should've listened to your gut and not took the job in the first place.
But seriously, lessons I have learned career-wise:
Managers or supervisors will sometimes make you feel bad for wanting to discuss your worth. Don't let them. You have every right to do so. If they don't like it, they are simply intimidated by you and you probably don't want to continue to work for this type of person.
Speaking of worth: on that note, don't let your supervisor/manager use anything other than a tangible, dollar-amount raise to reward you. Supervisors think they can get away with doing almost anything besides an actual raise to keep you around. A new, better job title being one of them, as well as other intangible things like "a bigger office", or more job responsibilities, or even gifts or other bonus packages. Those things just don't cut it. They are just a way for your supervisor to avoid having to give you a raise and it's not cool.
Don't let a job allow you to move backwards in your career. If there are no ways for you to learn, grow as a person, or move up, you probably took a dead end job that you are way too overqualified for.
You will have your share of difficult coworkers. In all shapes and forms. Ones that you will always, and I mean always have in every workplace:
The older generation colleague who pretends to have some type of power over you. They think they're the unofficial "office manager". And if you do anything that they don't like (like make the coffee too strong), they will run to your supervisor and tattle like a 5 year old.
The passive aggressive coworker who is secretly in competition with you. They probably have the same skill set and level of education as you do, so they feel they need to find sneaky ways to step on your toes.
The gossip. The gossip seems fun at first, but after a while you realize that they likely gossip about you too.
What do these types of coworkers have in common? They are all insecure. Insecure about their lives personally and professionally. The best thing you can do is just try and ignore it. Hold your head high even if it kills you. They only act they way they do because they know they're beneath you, remember that.
So as a PSA, or whatever you'd like to call it, I want to put together a list of what it means to be professional. Every job that I've had, none of these things were ever articulated to me, they were just learned over time. I think it's important that people brush up on professionalism in the workplace before they start a job. Saves everyone a headache!
Put the customer first. Make sure you are meeting their needs and don't jeopardize their confidentiality. Without these people, you don't have a job. Your income does actually depend on them, despite what you may think. I don't want to hear coworkers make fun of how "dumb" someone is or crack jokes at their personal information. This is extremely unprofessional.
Be accurate and consistent. If you don't have an answer for someone, please don't just "guess" or pull out random data that sounds familiar in your head. Take some time and look for the real answer. And don't tell one person one thing and then another person something different. It's a small world, people talk. It doesn't help you look very credible. It's just evident that you don't know what you're talking about. Be reliable and deliver the best you possibly can. Sometimes in order to do that, it takes a little bit of time and thinking. Don't be afraid to think.
Piggy backing off of the one above; don't be impulsive. If you are hosting or attending a meeting, don't just "wing it" with the materials you're supposed to share. If you are writing an email or leaving a voicemail, plan what you are going to say ahead of time, and make sure that it sounds professional and kind. No one should have to stop and wonder if there are sarcastic or condescending undertones in your email. Make a point to sound like you are actually being nice, it's not that hard. It may take a few seconds out of your time and a "how are you?" or a "thank you!". Heaven forbid you have to waste another breath or another sentence in your email.
Communicate. The best type of communication is obviously face to face. If your coworkers are housed close enough to you, you shouldn't have to resort to phone or email. That's simply just lazy. And if you have something to say, don't beat around the bush. Don't be passive-aggressive. Passive-aggressiveness is the one type of behavior that I find extremely unprofessional, but some people actually think it's just them trying to be nice. Wrong, wrong, wrong. "This paperwork needs to get done today, can I just set it on your desk?"...I think that's code for "I'm gonna try to send a message to you that I am more important than you, so I'm going to volunteer you to do a tedious task!" And piggy backing off of that, if someone is doing something that bothers you, pull them aside. Meet with them about it in private and tell them how they are affecting you. If that doesn't work, meet with your supervisor and fill them in.
Don't keep valuable information all to yourself. People get all these ideas in their head when it comes to sharing information. They start to worry that if they share valuable information or knowledge with their coworkers, they will lose job security. Hoarding information like a pack rat doesn't grant you job security, it just makes you look like an ass. Nobody likes that coworker who hides useful info from them. If you are talented and hardworking, there should be no reason you are worried about sharing tips and wisdom with coworkers.
Be proud of what you do and who you represent. Praise the company you work for and the people you work with, but do not praise yourself. Let your work speak for itself and stay humble.
Last but not least; appropriate attire, etiquette, body language, etc. Walk the walk and talk the talk. Look fresh and crisp, speak concisely and politely, give the impression that you are interested in the person you are talking to and are dedicated to helping them. Do not gossip, talk negatively about your job duties, and most importantly don't talk negatively about the people you work with. Nothing screams "unprofessional" more than that.
After TIME magazine slammed millennials (those born from early 80's to early 2000's) for being lazy and narcissistic, it seems like there's been lots of talk about millennials lately, both good and bad.
Everyone's a product of their environment. So when gen x'ers and baby boomers say that we millennials are lazy and narcissistic, they are ultimately saying that they raised us to be lazy and narcissistic. But, hold on, are we really lazy and narcissistic? If by lazy you mean we use technology to find all our information (we have the world at our fingertips, why wouldn't we use it?) or expecting a medal for something we received last place in (again: product of our environment; you guys are the ones who drilled into our brains that we should get rewarded for participation) and if by narcissistic you mean confident because we're fearless and creative and are not afraid to walk up to the CEO of our company and give them some advice.
Just remember, you baby boomers and gen x'ers were raised in a world where the economy was flourishing, the amount of hard work you put in was directly proportional to the amount of success you earned. It was a y=x world, bad luck only came from making bad decisions. It was pretty simple.
We are now part of a world where success only happens when the stars align; we have to not only be hard working (and even that sometimes isn't even a factor), but we have to be in the right place at the right time. Our world now lacks certainty and predictability. We don't know that the career path we chose will even yield us financial security. Yet, we see people like Honey BooBoo and the Jersey Shore cast make millions without having to put in any work to get them to where they are, they were just "found".
It seems that the baby boomers/gen x'ers think that the reason so many from our generation are jobless or in unfortunate financial situations are because they simply made bad decisions. It may be true for some people, but for most that's not the case. Millennials have just accepted the reality of the world we live in today. Now more than ever, successful millennials credit their success to luck or inheritances instead of actual hard work: http://millionairecorner.com/Content_Free/Young-Millionaires-Credit-Family-Connections.aspx.
So, basically, we get discouraged that we don't live in a y=x world. We were told by our parents for years that if we went to college, we would get good jobs, buy homes, live the good life. The reality is even if we do get good jobs, we are drowning in so much debt and usually the "good" job is having to settle for a salary that is beneath our expectation.
Call us whatever you want, but we're going to be taking over the world soon. We're the most innovative, diverse, educated, technology savvy, environmentally conscious, creative, fearless, (you get the picture) generation to grace this earth thus far. We aren't going to adapt to whatever job market is out there, we are going to make it adapt to us. It's not lazy, it's not narcissistic, it's just progressive.
