the company you keep.

They say you become like the company you keep.

So why not surround yourself with positive, energized, happy people. They always say the bad is so much easier to believe. And it's easy to get wrapped up in the negative thoughts and feelings and words. Especially if you surround yoruself with negative people, they are only going to bring you down.

The more you focus on all the things you can't do, you can't be...all the things you aren't. You're going to add up to be inadequate. I read a quote that stated "You always compare your worst times with everyone else's highlights." And it's so dang true!

So why not surround yourself with people who bring you up? Who inspire you and make you a better person. I want people who believe in me and believe in themselves. Surround yourself with people you like, with people that bring you up, believe in you and inspire you. Spend time with people you want to be like.

Surround yourself with good and you'll soon realize, life just got easier. Happiness is contagious.

Make a promise to yourself to walk away from anything that doesn't serve you, better you, inspire you or make you smile. Make this commitment to yourself, to be better to yourself, your life and world, because you deserve it all and then some.

Life sometimes takes you off course.

People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.

Sometimes things don't turn our how we expect them to. We create this big story of how our lives should be, how our parents have told us to act, the types of jobs we should be working each day....we create these big expectations, and when things don't turn out according to plan - we feel as though we have failed. Not only do we feel like a failure, but we feel like we've let ourselves down, our parents, our family and friends, anyone that believed in us. We've failed, miserably.

Do you ever realize it is so easy to focus on the bad things in your life? How easy it is to zoom in on the imperfections...the hidden insecurities.

Expectations come with feelings, emotions and they tend to be big and bold and heartfelt. We make goals for ourself, for our lives. We want to achieve, grow, consume and live. That's life - we need to feel as though we are moving up in the world in order to feel accomplished. But what is accomplished - to YOU? What do you want to have done - wish you had done - wish you had taken in school? Who do you want to be right now? Where do you want to live? Travel? What do you want to experience? Where do you wish you worked? Where do you want to be...right...now.

Life is so rich and full and it's waiting to be lived. We hold back when expectations don't get met, when the lives we think we should be living don't happen, we throw in the towel, give in and give up - and take in the negative. Negativity is so much easier to spread than the positive. Smile at a stranger - and you can watch and feel a positive action in motion. Little things count.

So with all of the expectations that people have drawn out for us - we build up a big wall, where we need to our lives to be, by when's and how to's. But what if life doesn't go according to plan - maybe you don't finish school, or travel for a year, don't get the job you went to university for. End up still in school after 8 years. So what?

No one defines your life but you. Right now is the time to start living what you want to be in this moment, right here, right now. What do YOU want to achieve? Put away all of the expectations and all of the emotions and try to think clearly. Are you going to let all of the let-downs and heartaches define your world.  Let all of the negative people you've let walk into your life, walk all over you and define the way you feel about yourself?

Hell no.

Don't isolate yourself from the world when things don't go according to plan. Stop right there - stop living life to everyone's else's expectations, to your own expectations. Just because you don't fit inside the dotted line that was created for you, that you thought was meant for you, so what? Be spontaneous, be free to be anything. Drop the emotions and just realize 'shit happens'. Life happens - and it's moving so damn fast that it's passing all of us by. We need to be present, to right here, right now and not let the past define us. 

Moving forward - committing to a new way of being - someone who is contagious, positive and encouraging. I want to believe in myself and everything I am capable of - so I will surround myself only with people who believe I am capable to. I have the ability to shape my world and define it to my standards, to my expectations - and if life doesn't sit true with what I had in store for me? Than I'll fly by the edge of my seat - work with what god gives me...

Life is happening, now and it is so beautiful. Don't let your expectations hold you back from what is available to you, from what is different than you expected.

There is true beauty in being different, in going off course...there is always new adventure, if you're willing to jump in.

Always be ready.

Life is short, isn't it?

I'm 23 years old and I feel like I've been through so much, experienced so much, seen so much...and yet, I feel like I know nothing at all. That I blink and my whole world is going by way too fast, and I don't have enough time to experience everything, meet everyone, go everywhere...do all of the things I dream about doing.

Life is too damn short. That's the truth. Experiences are everything. Memories are going to make up a life time of happiness, sorrows, heartbreaks and dreams. Life is a roller coaster...it's all these great and crazy and wonderful things. And it's happening so damn fast. That if we don't stop to appreciate where we are and what we have - it might soon be gone before we know it.

All those things you want to do? Go do them. It's a shame to wait until tomorrow to dream all of those amazing dreams, and achieve all of your goals. Dream big, be big and be bold.

Be excited about your life and go out and live it. Realize your life has meaning and it isn't going to start when you get things sorted out just as you think they should be. Life has started!  Don't wait for the bad things to go away...don't wait for the good things to come. Start living your amazing and powerful life, right now.

One of the best statements I've ever head - Always be ready to have the time of your life. Life is going to take you a ton of different places, you're going to meet a selection of different people and your going to experience the good, the bad, the ugly...it's all part of life.

So hold on and jump in. Don't hold back! Appreciate your life and the people in it. Show grattitude to your parents, grandparents and siblings for putting up with you and loving you. And love them right back! Give your friends a hug, go after the job you've always wanted, go back to school...just stop over thinking everything and worrying about the consequences and go for it.

It's this one life, all you have - make it yours and be bold. Are you always ready to have the time of your life? Get after it!

Just One.

            One positive thought.

                             It's all you need..

As I got home from work on a rainy day last week, all these thoughts kept running through my head of all the things I want to do before I’m 30. My bucket list, my hopeful thoughts, my wishes, my dreams…the list goes on and on. I’m one of the first people you’ll catch writing down my goals each month…something new to chase after and something different to accomplish. But then I was stuck – I couldn’t see what was ahead of me, what potential there was in each day, what I wanted in my life… just stuck.

There was something holding me back, something I was holding on to that wasn’t letting me see my life clearly. I wasn’t letting myself be here, be present, right here, be available to the people and things around me. What was it?

It could have been the negative clutter of thoughts I was allowing to stay in my head over the last few months. It could be the anxiety that I slowly feel is taking over my body and my mind each day. Maybe my worries about my job and my life and what I’ll never get to be when I grow up. The money I don’t have to buy a home I want in the future, the places I want to go to but I don’t and won’t have the money – hold up, what?

I’m worrying about all these what if’s, all these fears, all these goals I want for my distant future. There was a time when ‘I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grow up’ was ok. That feeling free and young was what I wanted, that even though I don’t know what I want, or I might change my mind tomorrow…that everything is just as it should be and I’m ok. I was getting wrapped up in a negative way of being and negative chain of thoughts…Then I realized: I need to start getting comfortable with the uncomfortable.

Shit happens. Things get in the way, and I was letting them get in the way of my life. I was letting all of my negative thoughts control my positive ones. All the sickness in the world, the heart ache…was actually creeping through my dreams, my thoughts, my every day reactions, actions and life.

"One small, positive thought can change your whole day. Realize the impact of this - the power you have over your whole world."

We get so caught up in what others want and think it’s what we should want. We think that just because we aren’t built a specific way or look a certain way that we aren’t perfect and that our lives aren’t perfect. This life, the one your living, you – it’s ALL perfect. We need to stop wanting and waiting for things to change. Letting the buildup of the negative hold us back and bring us down.

I was letting all of the bad things in my world bring my down and hold me back. I just needed, needed, needed….what? What is it that I need?

Happiness. A smile. A good friend to remind me that everything is going to be ok. The negative thoughts - they happen, the sadness – it comes and goes. Don’t give up hope.  Don’t let it swell your life and clutter your mind with the I can’t, I won’t and and it’s never going to happen, so give up, give in and throw in your white flag.

I’ll start my diet tomorrow, I’ll go back to school next year, we’ll buy a house when we start saving money, I’ll go traveling when my debt is lower….we keep pushing back life, with fear that we can’t have everything we want – the truth is, you can! Anything you put your mind after, you can achieve. You can build the life you want – just don’t give up on yourself so easily.

This life is created by us. We decide who belongs in it, what belongs it, what is going to define it…what we want it to be filled with.

So I need to stop and let go of all the negativity in my life that I’m holding on to. Stop letting it build up walls where there should be bridges…I just need to choose one positive thought at the start of my day…the domino effect. Believe in your life and all of its possibilities. You can define it and create it – don’t let the negativity swell up and take over.

You deserve happiness and you need to realize this. The good will come and the negativity will wash away – but you need to decide and commit to wanting more and being better. Treating yourself better. Believing in yourself more.

What do you want your life filled with?  Friends, family, memories, a pet, travels, experience…?

I know I want mine filled with happiness and love – and lots of it.