The summer is upon us and the beautiful weather has shone its face! I don’t know about you, but I want to be outside. I want to be using as much of my time to enjoy this temperature before the heat gets unbearable. With that being said…I am not feeling very “worky” these days! To go even further, I am feeling a little lazy in a lot of areas right now. I still get up and keep my routines and I DO go to work. I love my job and the clientele I have really keep me motivated to show up and enjoy my day.

How is it that there are people that can stay motivated and stay on top of what needs to be done? I believe for me, my mother really planted that seed. I watched her get up every morning, make breakfast for us, head off too work, and take care of our home and her children without missing a beat and still have time for herself.  This woman never missed out on an opportunity to teach us! She was not a “spanking” mother, she just talked us…TO DEATH!! 😉 We didn’t die, and we are all pretty productive people so I decided to adopt the same form of discipline with my boys. My mom motivated to keep learning, to keep my dreams alive, and to have a hunger for winning.. you go mommy!! If you know me personally, you see how I roll, and I am thankful for the hard-wiring my mom did.

Every person isn’t going to see motivation or hunger in the same light. For me, this is the only life in this body that I will live and I do not  know how much time I am going to be in it…and I have a list of things that I want to accomplish so I need to get busy! Because none of us are able to know/see the complete future, we need to make sure that we guard ourselves and our dreams, be a little ( or a lot) selfish with how we spend our time and at the same time, be grateful for the times we have already had.

Gratitude is something that I have really been working on living in on a daily basis. When you acknowledge the things that you should be grateful for, something happens in your body and you live with a little more joy throughout your day. We take for granted the breath allowed into our bodies and the families that we are a part of and we shouldn’t. We should take the time to be silent and acknowledge what our God has allowed and what we have allowed to happen with and to us. All of it does not feel positive and yet we can be grateful even still, for the lessons that were brought to us to make us better human beings. If you truly want to be better, be more grateful than judgmental. I know that being grateful has (and is) getting me though some really tough experiences in my business and my personal life. No amount of money or success is going to matter if you have to deal with the loss of a loved one, one you may have been estranged from or just never made much effort to keep in touch with. You would drop everything to be there for someone you love that is leaving you. Why wait for those things to happen? When they cross your mind, call, text, email, something…acknowledge that their presence is something that you are grateful for. None of us will live forever. Be grateful for the health and wealth of you and your family and let it motivate you to not only continue, but to improve. You can handle anything and everything that comes your way! Learn to step away from your issues and observe the good, see the positive things and be reminded of what you have made it through this far.

When I think about self love or what others may call being selfish, I don’t see the negative side. Caring for yourself in a jealous way allows you to be healthy enough to care for others and not lose yourself in the process. You cannot give away what you do not have. So, if you are not making money, you can lend or give it away right? If you are taking care of everyone else on a daily basis to the point where you don’t even have time to take a shower before bed, what will you give away tomorrow? If your energy is depleted, you are not good for anyone, especially yourself. You are the most important person in your universe, you have to give more to you than you do to others so that you have something to replenish and disperse as you see fit the next day. Do not feel bad about taking break, closing your bedroom door to take a shower or read a book…maybe even to take a nap! Taking care of me keeps me motivated. When I see that I have been eating right and exercising, and it is acknowledged by others, it motivates me to keep pushing toward my goal. When I see that my children have actually listened to a word I said and they were successful in a matter, it motivates me to keep learning so that I can pass it on.

I used to feel guilty about taking care of me because that meant that I had to stop taking care of someone else to do it. Once I got over that, I am able to do more for others because I am growing myself, business wise and personally. I am enjoying the process and my loved ones get a better portion than what they would have before. If I am not at my best, no one will see or receive my best and that is what I want. I love working, grinding, and improving on my person. I love winning! The process is probably my favorite part. You have to change your perspective sometimes. DO something different.

We have this one life to live! I know that is not the most positive way to look at it, but nothing is more true and it does help me to stay motivated to make the most of my day. That way when someone makes you upset or something does not work out just the way you planned it, think about it, do you really want to waste this day feeling anything other than joy? Remember, you don’t know how much time you have. Be selfish in it and grateful for it! Do not waste your time, you don’t like when others do it. Be better to yourself than you want others to be to you. Spoil you!! Do not feel guilty about it. It teaches others how to treat you as well. Because you don’t know how long you will be here, when you think about that, there is an urgency of a limited amount of time that you have. I don’t know about you but that motivates me to get “it” done! Whatever it is. None of us knows what tomorrow, or even the next few hours are going to bring. Having that on my mind…that keeps me motivated!