Goals

What keeps you motivated? Do you set goals or did you set resolutions for the new year?

Lately, few things remind me more of my goals than when I'm running. Let me put it out there: I don't really identify as a runner, but the thought of calling myself a runner is growing on me. I ran my first 5K in Miami last weekend at a Color Me Rad race. My friend and I ran it together, and my main goal was to run the entire time. Prior to last week, I could run a mile, walk for a few minutes, and then run for a little bit longer. Race day came and it was the first time that I ran 3.1 miles straight. And then I did it again last night. What changed? Mindset. Nothing else. 

Here's me and my running buddy last Saturday: 

Guys, what do you want and what are you willing to do to get there?

Importance of Self-Care

I'm incredibly embarrassed that I haven't posted anything since June. When I first told my boyfriend that I started a blog, he asked me how often I'll be updating it and if I'll be posting on a schedule. "Yeah! Definitely, I mean, I want to keep people engaged and I have a lot to say. I'll update every day!" That was my response back in April. It's now the middle of October and I haven't posted anything since June.

A little update on me: 
I moved in August and a week later I was in NC at a conference for my business - side note, when you're in an arena with 30,000 entrepreneurs, you can't help but feel the energy around you and feel excited about what you're doing. A week after that, I left my full time position at the hospital to take a 2 week break before starting grad school. I started a full time masters program in Clinical Social Work at the beginning of September, and I just finished midterms. 

Things have been completely crazy, but the purpose of this post isn't for me to rant about how crazy my life is, it's about how important self-care is when everything around you is pure chaos and you feel like having enough time to shave your legs is a luxury.

Now that my midterms papers and projects are submitted, I feel like I can slow down. Last Thursday was the first time I did any sort of yoga in more than a month, and I fell asleep in shivasana for a full 2 hours. Thankfully, I was practicing in the comfort of my own home and I didn't bother anyone else by sleeping on the floor for 2 hours while Florence and the Machine softly played in the background.
My last midterm was submitted yesterday, and for the first time since the end of August, I was able to read a book (not a textbook) before falling asleep. What a luxury. I imagine this is what I might feel like when I have children.

When I was applying to graduate school, one of my best friends (who is a third year doctoral student) told me to mention self-care in my application essay. Let me clarify that when I wasn't in grad school, self-care wasn't an issue for me - I exercised regularly, ate well, and got enough sleep. I couldn't understand not having enough time to do those things. 

Now, being in grad school, I fully understand why self-care is so important. I'm slowly realizing that this idea of self-care doesn't need to be a huge event or even last that long, but it's something that needs to be scheduled in just like anything else. If dedicating an hour to a work out and a shower means that I'll be saving my mental sanity, then it's worth it. My self-care activities vary, but throughout the week, I'll try to incorporate one night of dancing, running a few times throughout the week (short runs, usually less than 30 minutes), yoga, setting some time to reflect on my day before I go to sleep, and writing out my goals first thing in the morning.

So, my encouragement to you (if anyone's reading this), is to find something that will fall under the category of self-care. It doesn't need to be any of the ones that I listed (I'm a very active person, and exercise gets me out of my head), but find something that provides an escape for you. If anyone is reading this, please feel free to share what you do for self-care and how it helps you. 

Namaste, friends.

Being an Entrepreneur

I've been seeing so many articles about why people will have to become entrepreneurs, I knew I needed to write about it. These 2 articles really stood out for me purely because they make SO much sense.

  

"5 Realities of Being an Entrepreneur"

http://www.inc.com/michael-gerber/5-realities-of-being-an-entrepreneur.html

Reality No. 5: Everyone Possesses the Ability to Be an Entrepreneur 

Do you guys get how powerful this is?? You don't need to work for someone else to be successful. By nature of working for someone else, you're making them more successful than you.

  

"Want to Be More Successful? Revamp Your Mornings"

http://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/revamp-your-mornings-and-be-successful.html

What do you do in the mornings? For most people, the morning is their least favorite time of day. Being an entrepreneur gets me out of bed at 7am daily and gets me excited about life! Maybe I'm just a morning person, but planning out my day and planning how I'll achieve my goals gets me really excited. Everyone has 24 hours in a day, no more, no less, so what makes some people so much more successful than others?

Where do you fall on this? BTW, these are Social Security Statistics.

The reality for most people is that they start working somewhere around the age of 20 and hopefully finish working right around age 65. Hopefully. What about the elderly folks that greet you at the entrance to Walmart? Do you think they want to be there? Reality is, in this economy, your job isn't guaranteed unless you work for yourself. 

So how do you secure this plan of retiring at 65? It's not just something that happens, you need to plan for it. What are your options? How do you make more money so you can retire sooner?

Balance

What is wellness? Is it getting enough sleep? Living a balanced life? Well being? 

One of the things (I think) that people struggle with is having balance in their lives. We're taught to go to school, get a job, work until we're in our mid-60's, and THEN retire and live life. Why aren't we taught to always live? Why wait until we're 65?

I'm going to go with wellness being defined as having balance. Balance between work and personal life, and most importantly, doing something that you enjoy. With my job at the hospital, I work most weekends, am sleep deprived, don't eat as well as I should, don't exercise as much as I should, don't see as many friends as I would like to see, don't travel as much as I would like to, the list goes on and on. At the end of the day, I love what I do. I love helping people, but I think I would love it more if things were more balanced. See, it's good that I'm having these brilliant realizations before I dive into graduate education. 

As it says in the "about me" section of my blog, I am an Independent Distributor with Shop.com. This business is based on transferring your buying habits from buying in stores to buying through your own website and thus economically connecting households. I do this part time, in addition to working at the hospital.

My website www.shop.com/JuliaS has 40 million products, and has all of the stores which you're normally shopping at - Target, Best Buy, Gap, Victoria's Secret, etc etc. but now you're getting paid to shop. Yes, you read that correctly. Any customer can sign up to get free and unlimited cashback on things you're already buying, and you get 0.5% cashback forever on anyone that you refer and what they buy. 

My personal favorite is Drugstore.com because when you go through my site, you get 4% cashback, drugstore.com gives an additional 5% cashback to use towards future purchases, and you get free shipping on orders over $25. Honestly, does it get better than that?? I submit that it does not.

How does this factor into a balanced life? My business is all about the "2-3 year plan" rather than the "45 year plan." Why work 45 years for someone else's financial success, working 40+ hours/week, when you could work 8-12 hours/week for 2-3 years and HELP yourself and others make a significant ongoing income. Everyone has 24 hours in a day whether you're making $30,000/year or $250,000/year. 

Guys, work smarter not harder. Do the things you love and help others during this down economy.

Ah, the mid-week shlump.

What's a shlump, you may ask? Urban dictionary defines it as "The act of leaning with one's back against a smooth surface, and sliding down while keeping one's feet in the same place such that the knees finish tucked into the chest." I define it as "the middle of the week where one begins a slow, but steady decrease in energy and enthusiasm for one's job prior to the weekend." And shlump is more fun to say than "slump." Try it. "Shlump."

In an effort to keep my own energy from decreasing as the week winds down for most people (but not me! I'm working this weekend and therefore don't really get a weekend) I did a work out from "Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred." Man, that woman makes you work.  I've been a dancer for 20 years, and rarely have I felt as physically exhausted after 20 minutes of dance as I have with one workout from 30 Day Shred. And that's only level 2. Oy. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that.

Because I work in the psychology field, I think I have a natural tendency to wonder why society follows certain trends and not others, and why some things become "trendy" at certain points in time. For example, right now, it is trendy to work out. Various stores have popped up with yoga and work out clothes, people sit in front of their tv's for an hour and watch overweight people work out (I'll never understand this one, sorry if I'm offending anyone reading this), and yoga and zumba become increasingly popular across many generations. I suppose this exercising trend is better than...let's say the acid-washed jeans of the 80's. Who knows, maybe acid-washed jeans will make a come back and I'll stand corrected.

Do you work out? And if so, what do you like to do?

So what is Julia's Closet?

"Julia's Closet" originated when I dehoarded my clothes closet last year. I lived in a tiny apartment with a large closet, 2 dressers, under bed storage, and far too much clothing to know what to do with. Sound familiar? My roommate called it "The Closet Game" and we got rid of anything that was too small, didn't fit at the moment, wasn't flattering on my figure, looked worn, or went out of style. I gave most of the dehoarded clothing (6 boxes) to one of my close girlfriends to go through; she kept what she wanted and donated the rest. 

As I watched my friend wear several of my favorite pieces - Club Monaco button down blouses, dresses, Express pants, jeans, and sweaters, etc etc, I fell in love with the idea that we could share our closets and share stylish pieces that once made us happy. Our "Closet Game" later developed into a clothing swap with a bunch of my girlfriends where in the end, we all ended up with a lovely new wardrobe. 

Here's a tip: if you have a lot of clothing that you don't wear, have a clothing swap with your friends where you each dehoard your closet and bring it to swap. It's more fun with appetizers and a few glasses of wine.

I'm the kind of person that loves a deal and will rarely pay full price for anything. Buffalo Exchange and Second Time Around are two of my favorite consignment stores in Boston that have a variety of clothes, designers, and styles at excellent prices. The best thing is that no one would ever know that a good portion of my wardrobe was purchased on consignment. My most recent purchase was a leather Coach bag from Second Time Around for $50 with the dust bag still on it. Can't get better than that. 

If anyone has any other consignment stores that they love, please post and let's keep up the tradition of The Closet Game. 

Happy Tuesday, friends.

My Makeup Closet

Hope folks had a great Passover/Easter weekend!

Keeping with the theme of "Julia's Closet," let me open up my makeup "closet" to you. I'm a makeup artist who believes in enhancing natural beauty. I don't like the idea of covering up your face in a mask. Recently, I've been seeing a lot of pictures of models before and after makeup, and before and after Photoshop. I'll never understand why we feel the need to cover ourselves in a mask to create this "perfect" image. What is perfection? That'll be a separate discussion. Anyway, what we see in magazines isn't real - it's enhanced and more on the side of artificial. The worst part is that young women are comparing themselves to the models that they see in magazines and are disappointed when they don't see a reflection of airbrushed perfection. 

As a makeup artist, I use Motives by Loren Ridinger and Motives for La La. La La Anthony partnered with Shop.com and helped create a makeup line for Latina women and women of color.

I've been using Motives Cosmetics for years and I love them because they come in so many great colors, are non-comedogenic, and last all day. The "lasting all day" part really does it for me because I'm usually on the go for 16+ hours per day and don't have time to fix my makeup.

One of my favorite products of theirs is the Perfecting Face Primer because it creates an even canvas for my makeup. I always use a moisturizer and then put the primer on top before applying dabs of foundation. I've been a makeup junkie for a long time, have tried several different lines of makeup, and have really found this one to last all day and not clog my pores. Here's a tip: if you want to match your foundation correctly, match it to the dorsal (top) part of your hand (not the palm). 

In the past month, I've added a blush-bronzer duo to my makeup collection, this stuff is really amazing because it adds a bit of color to those of us who are pale this time of year, and doesn't create an orange line separating your face from your neck, as though you're channeling your inner oompa loompa. My recommendation: try it, you'll love it.