This woman is TIRED! It’s been a full and incredible week…KICK ASS you might even say. So in honor of this week, I am going to celebrate myself by turning off this damn computer and having me some KICK ASS fun! How’s that for a Life Balance Coach setting a good example!
In a world where following the crowd can make it challenging to follow you heart, or even feel its pitter patter in your chest, today’s KICK ASS ME month shout out goes to Josh. Josh has decided to throw caution to the wind and at the tender age of just-about-34 (Happy Almost Birthday, Josh) he has decided to take the plunge and dedicate countless hours of his life to go back to school to become a therapist. Those who know Josh know he couldn’t be making a better decision.
So to Josh and all those other KICK ASS people who decide to follow their heart where ever they lead you I salute you and say thanks for being so freaking KICK ASS.
OK, I am so over talking about myself! Tonight I want to feature a member of the KICK ASS community, Amy Lehmann. Amy’s is the story of a hometown girl gone bad, Bad Ass that is…in case your wondering Bad Ass is the stage after KICK ASS. Today, Amy’s KICK-ASS-NESS got her work featured on the blog of none other than The Queen of Cooking Cuteness Herself- Rachel Ray.
Although Amy’s not a cook, the beauty of her creations will leave your mouth open in awe. You may have heard that a picture speaks a thousand words, well Amy’s amazing jewelry tells a WHOLE story. Not only did Amy take her vision and make beautiful custom made creations but she also made an inspiring business out of it. Now if THAT isn’t KICK ASS, I sure as hell don’t know what is.
And since I am sure you are just dieing to check out the goods, I invite you to peruse her collection at Amy Lehmann Designs.
WAY TO BE KICK ASS AMY!
KICK ASS ME month has really started off with a bang. It’s been a great reminder for me to focus on the KICK ASS things I do. It can be real easy for me to fall into negative self- talk and say things like, “Well that was good BUT it could be better.” So now I am reminding myself to stop before the mean, judgmental, party-pooper BUT and celebrate myself for the good work I have done.
- I am KICK ASS because I finished updating the copy for my new website.
- I told all the people who changed their Facebook status to, “I’m KICK ASS and so are YOU!” that they were beyond KICK ASS. Their friends agreed, thanking them for the reminders.
- I can see people are getting excited about KICK ASS ME month. Thanks Jeremy for being so KICK ASS and Jen, your making KICK ASS ME month practically viral. How KICK ASS would that be!!!!
Let me know how you’re doing with the KICK ASS ME Challenge of the week!
I hope you all enjoyed the first day of KICK ASS ME month as much as I did.
So as promised I am here to report back on how I did with this weeks challenge.
- I am KICK ASS because as much as I feel magnetically pulled to my computer most every minute of the day, I managed to get my butt out of the house and go for a refreshing walk
- I met an old friend for lunch who I hadn’t seen forever told her how totally KICK ASS a person she is.
- It was great to hear from Carol about how KICK ASS she is! Thanks for sharing!
I can’t wait to hear how KICK ASS you are too!
How exciting that February is our official month of remembering, acknowledging and celebrating our KICK ASSNESS!
So before the day gets away from you, and we all know how that happens, I invite you to go take the KICK ASS challenge now:
- Give yourself at least one pat on the back, LITERALLY, while saying something congratulatory and KICK ASS!
- Tell someone in your life why they are KICK ASS!
- Come back here every day and declare to the rest of us why you are so damn KICK ASS!
As much as I talk about this stuff, its hard for me too, so throughout this month I am going to take the challenge along with you and report back. Being KICK ASS together is really much more fun than doing it alone, so come on, I know you’re KICK ASS!
How exciting, KICK ASS ME month is finally here and I am ready to celebrate! How about you?
This month is dedicated to all of us who spend too much time berating ourselves and not enough time celebrating ourselves!
How many of us have ever grappled with feeling like we’re not doing enough? Or, maybe we’re dong a lot, it’s just that we feel like we’re not doing any of it as well as we would like. And even the things we do well, we feel like we’re not doing them as well as we should! Wow, that’s all pretty harsh!
Well this month we are going stop hating and start CELEBRATING!
Your challenges for the first week of KICK ASS ME month will be to, every day:
- Give yourself at least one pat on the back, LITERALLY, while saying something congratulatory.
- Tell someone in your life why they are KICK ASS!
- Come back here every day and declare to the rest of us why you are so damn KICK ASS!
Can’t wait to celebrate with you ALL!
Just when you thought the season to celebrate was over, I’ve got one more holiday for you and I call it “Kick Ass Me” month. At this time of year so many of us are preoccupied with making all kinds of resolutions about our future, promising ourselves to be all sorts of fitter, smarter, kinder, quieter, louder, better, stronger, faster. Our list of upgrades often sounds much more like the blueprint for the makings of the Six Million Dollar Man than a realistic strategy for our own self-improvement. Even putting aside our ever-rising bar, the real shame in our rush to be resolute with our oncoming year turns out to be that we don’t take time to celebrate all that we have already done, and even more importantly, everything that we have already become.
The poignancy of this truth came home to me recently when an inordinate number of my amazing female clients were refusing to accept their amazingness. (This can happen with men too, of course, but it was showing up profoundly for me with women). Instead of celebrating themselves on a regular basis they were mired in thinking about all the things they felt they should be by now and all the greatnesses they were adamant they should have already accomplished. And believe me, these women exemplify what it means to be exceptional. Besides the successes they have achieved in their careers as business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals, they also come off as funny, open, warm, sensitive people with rich, complex, exciting personal lives. And although I am honored to call them my clients, I am even more pleased to know they exist out there in the world just being themselves.
So I’d like to pose a few simple questions here…. Why is it so often easier for other people to celebrate us than for us to celebrate ourselves? What great harm do we think will come to us if we take a moment or ten to honor ourselves and everything that we are? How can we shift from berating to celebrating?
PRACTICAL PRACTICES
I invite us all to embrace this next month as “Kick Ass Me” month. During this time I encourage each of us to celebrate ourselves for our daily accomplishments, both large and small. Maybe you’ll want to celebrate yourself for the smile you bring to your son’s face or perhaps it’s time to acknowledge how hard you’ve been training for that marathon. Maybe now might finally be the time for you to formally honor all those many qualities about yourself that the rest of us have always known as simply Kick Ass. There are many ways to celebrate. Let me offer just a few….
- Say “Good for me!” This is actually a favorite of mine that I have been using for years whenever I do something that feels even slightly challenging.
- Treat yourself to something special. This will look different for everyone. For me, I might indulge in the guilty pleasure of reading People Magazine in the middle of the day. For a client of mine, treating herself to a personal chef became the perfect way to honor her efforts. For you it might mean a yoga class with your favorite teacher or a weekend away. It doesn’t have to be expensive, just special.
- “Kick Ass Me” Memo. Write yourself an ongoing list of all the things you like about yourself, goals you’ve reached, ideas you’ve developed. Make it a regular habit of yours to update and reread this list.
- Throw a “Kick Ass Me” party. Here, instead of setting New Year’s Resolutions and bumming yourself out, you can declare New Year’s Revelations about how Kick Ass you already ARE!
In the immortal words of Kool and the Gang,
“It’s time to come together
It’s up to you, what’s your pleasure
Everyone around the world, come on!
We’re gonna have a good time tonight
Let’s celebrate, it’s all right
Celebrate good times, come on!”
I come from a family that goes all-out for Christmas. The house gets completely decked out with holiday decorations.Each pre-Christmas day is filled with house-cleaning, food-making and gift-shopping. Christmas music bounds in around December 10th and isn’t silenced until the New Year bell tolls. The Christmas tree invariably climbs clear to the ceiling and presents stretch for miles at its foot. It’s really quite the celebratory affair. Throughout the years I’ve had my favorite presents: the guitar I received when I was about eight, or the IPOD I was given when I started my business–it just happened to have my company name embossed on the back! These gifts were lovely to receive. I’ve also enjoyed the gifts I’ve been able to give, like the scarves I knitted for my whole family or the rare moldavite meteorite I tracked down for my father. The joy I’ve gotten from giving and receiving has been nothing short of wonderful. But out of all the holiday memories I have amassed, the most poignant and lingering ones are those moments of family togetherness and presence. Moments like when my entire family took a walk on a rare white Christmas just after the snow had fallen. I remember my Dad’s then blacker hair turning white with snow after he made his first snow angel. There’s also the annual traditions, like wearing funny hats at dinner and me stretching to adorn the top of the tree with a star while my whole family clings to my torso in a valiant effort to ensure that the tree and I don’t come tumbling down together! I remember fondly many Christmases in my younger years lying with my head on my mother’s lap, her scratching my back as I drifted off to sleep to the sounds of people laughing and talking late into the night. As the economy proves to be a challenge for many of us these days, it can be invaluable to remember that the greatest gifts you can give don’t have to cost any money or cause you to go rushing from store to store, waiting in long lines. In my experience the greatest present you can give someone is your own presence. It’s the gift of making quality time for your loved ones, sharing a meal with family, taking a moment to sit down and listen to a friend, even reserving time to connect to your own self to learn what touches you most.
PRACTICAL PRACTICES: BE HERE AND NOW
I know it’s hard not to get caught up in, “I’d better get the latest Wii game or Billy will be disappointed” or “Let me try just one more store to get Aunt Bertha the snowman sweatshirt she’ll never wear,” but at the end of the day, when the holidays are over, the memories you will most treasure will probably not be those. They will be the ones with Billy laughing until his sides hurt because you were playing with him and of Aunt Bertha thanking you again for listening so intently to her story about her bridge club winning the regionals. So for the next month, I invite you to savor these times of togetherness by being fully present in each moment with your friends, family and loved ones. I’ve given you some ideas to try out but feel free to conjure up some of your own.
Ask one older family member, friend or loved one to tell you a story about their childhood.
Take fifteen minutes each day to reflect on your favorite memories of last year and look ahead to what you would like to accomplish in the new year.
Play a game with a child while doing nothing else.
Take a walk with a friend, family member or loved one.
If someone starts to tell you a story and you are doing something else, put down everything you are doing and listen to that person.
Call someone you haven’t talked to in ages but miss.
Share your gratitude with your friends, family members and loved ones by telling them why you are grateful for them.
Take ten minutes each day to write in a journal about what is most important to you.
Read a book with a child, making voices for all the characters.
Allowing yourself to be truly present with your loved ones, family members and friends, listening to them and sharing, will leave you with memories you will appreciate long after the Wii has broken down and the snowman sweater has seen its last wear.
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Life Balance expert, Kirsten Mahoney, knows how to help you live a more balanced less stressful life. If you are feeling overwhelmed, overworked, and over-committed and want to be more balanced, focused and productive come visit www.insightoutlifecoaching.com and take back control of your life.
What has become of the American dream…life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…what do these things mean to us at this stage and at what cost are we trying to reach them? This great video, Reclaiming Your American Dream, from Emmy Award winner, Will Marre brings up these questions and many more. Enjoy!
