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30 Tips for an Extraordinary Life

posted 27th December 2010    Written by: Molly Mahar    CATEGORY: Life Lesson, Molly

This one is for you.   Yes, you.

I know that life can be frustrating and scary and overwhelming sometimes.  I know that pulling up the covers, or numbing the pain with one too many glasses of wine, or distracting ourselves by always being busy doing insignificant shit, is tempting.  I know that rousing ourselves to believe that we are enough and deserving of love can seem exhausting.  I know that having big, bold, audacious dreams can seem lonely sometimes.

Believe me, I know.

The thing is, gorgeous, that this is our life.  This is our shot.  This is our chance at being kind and brilliant and compassionate.  Our time to love hard, and kick our heels up, and create art, and change lives.  Our time to nurture family, and believe in the underdog, and dance naked in the moonlight.

You don’t have to be perfect.  You don’t have to be right. You just have to be as fully YOU as you can be, because that is your gift to share with the rest of us.

Just you.  You all of the time: in celebration, in pain, in joy, in acceptance.

And on that note, I’d like to share 30 tips to help you lead an extraordinary life by embracing YOU in all your glory. Get ready to glow, sunshine!

  1. Practice radical acceptance towards yourself and others.
  2. Stop trying to control everything.
  3. Laugh.  A lot.
  4. Balance your input (reading, watching, learning) with your output (creating, giving, leading).
  5. Take amazing care of your body: eat clean, floss, practice yoga, don’t smoke, breathe deeply, be mindful of alcohol, visit the doctor, eat less, move more, sleep 8 hours, get massages, and learn to listen to your inner signals.
  6. Celebrate your successes. Celebrate others’ successes.
  7. Embrace your strengths and stop worrying so much about your weaknesses.
  8. Tell the truth.  Even at work.  Especially with those you love. Most importantly, with yourself.
  9. Set boundaries with your time, energy and money.  Respect them.
  10. Be colorful.
  11. Create meaningful connections and nurture the heck out of them.
  12. Save a chunk of your money and give away another chunk. Use the rest on things, adventures, treats, and necessities that truly please you.  Be a conscious consumer.
  13. Stop freakin’ comparing yourself to others.
  14. Speak up, sing loudly, and raise your voice if something needs saying.
  15. Don’t be afraid to love with abandon.  Love is a renewable resource and yes, your heart is resilient.
  16. Go outside and play.
  17. Ignore the haters. It’s your life, your legacy, your choice.
  18. Explore your spirituality.  Connect with something larger than yourself.
  19. Share your story.
  20. Get clear on your top 8 values.  Honor them daily.
  21. Find your balance of deliberate action and spontaneous fun.
  22. Challenge the status quo.
  23. Be a hero to someone.
  24. Practice kindness.
  25. Stop taking yourself so seriously.
  26. Take your dreams very seriously.
  27. Act with personal integrity and be quick to admit mistakes.  Clean up your own messes.
  28. Cultivate mindfulness.
  29. Seek and spread inspiration.
  30. Fall in love with yourself a little more each day: treat yourself kindly, protect your passions, allow yourself space to grow, believe in your gifts, tend your gardens. Fierce love, baby, fierce love.

p.s.  Need a little jump start to putting all these tips in practice?  Why not join a 10 week session of awesomeness?  You + Me + 5 other wonder women will be starting group coaching over the telephone January 18th and 19th.   Whether it’s personal action or professional action you’re seeking, let’s knock it out of the park.  Extraordinary indeed!  MORE INFO + REGISTRATION HERE!

p.p.s.  Never considering coaching or group work before?  It’s time to reconsider.  Seriously, at least humor me, and check it out.  What if it’s exactly what you need to do for you at this moment?  GET IN ON THE ACTION HERE.

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What Do You Believe?

posted 27th April 2010    Written by: Nicole Antoinette    CATEGORY: Nicole Antoinette, Quarterlife Crisis, Season 2, Spirituality

Should religion be a taboo topic? I don’t know, but it is.

Probably because our spiritual beliefs are so intertwined with how we understand ourselves and our world that the line between different and intolerant is wispy and translucent. This line, the line between “I don’t believe what you believe but I accept you” and “I don’t believe what you believe and therefore you’re wrong” is so fine that it often gets swept away in the heat of feeling that what we believe is not just one choice, but the choice.

And I don’t agree with that, with the taboo-ness of it all. Just like I don’t think there’s only one way to love someone, one way to succeed, one way to learn, one way to give back, one way to leave your mark on the world, I don’t think there’s a single way to connect and express your spirituality.

You know what I do believe?

I believe you’re either a good person or you’re not. And if you are, if you treat yourself with respect and you treat other people with respect and you’re kind and compassionate and understanding, if you’re honest and you’re open and you live your life on purpose, then it doesn’t matter. You can go to church (or not), to temple (or not), you can meditate (or not), feel close to God (or not), and we can all still exist together and crash into each other in big and meaningful ways.

I believe that every single person can learn something from every single other person.

I believe in the interconnectedness of it all and think that every cause has an effect and every action a reaction. I believe that you get what you put out there and I believe that there’s an enormous and vibrantly dynamic universal energy and that throughout our lives, doors won’t open for us until we’re ready to walk through them.

I believe in creating your own reality, in taking responsibility for your happiness and not being passive in the flowing current of your life. I believe that there’s a difference between fair and equal, and that things don’t need to be equal to be fair. I believe in the power of creating your own set of beliefs and then living them, really living them, each and every day. I believe we’re not just capable, but powerful, far more electrically powerful than we ever give ourselves credit for.

I believe in giving yourself the credit you deserve.

I believe it’s up to us to lay the groundwork for who we want to be, to camp out in our souls and build and rebuild until the foundation we’ve created fully supports us. I believe in introspective reflection, in celebrating when we’re right and openly admitting when we’re wrong because we, each of us, are wrong all the time.

And I believe that’s how it’s supposed to be, that being wrong and tripping up and falling into the hole is how we learn, how we’re able to test the strength of that foundation we’ve built and fill in the cracks along the way.

photo credit: kevin dooley

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