TGIFive on Friday

This has been a tough week. We had a stomach virus floating around the office that each of us seemed to take turns with. I'm back to health now and looking forward to a 3-day Labor Day weekend!

I'm hoping to accomplish a little organization in a few messy areas of my home. And of course, I plan to spend some time crafting and getting creative.

I also plan to devote some time to reading this month's book selection from Tranquility Du Jour's online book club, The 12 Secrets of Highly Successful Women by Gail McMeekin. You may have read her bestseller, The 12 Secrets of Highly Creative Women.

What are your plans for the weekend?

1) Issue 3 of Wild Sister Magazine is out!

2) Stenciled wood cupcake stand at The TomKat Studio

3) Burlap wreath tutorial from Everything Etsy

4) Recycled spoon garden markers from Handmadeology

5) Pricing Tips for Your Creative Business on The Etsy Blog

Hugs,

Online Book Club - The Not So Big Life

This was April's selection for Tranquility Du Jour's online book club but I just finally got around to reading it. It's a great read with a lot to digest. I'm still working through some of the exercises in my journal. Sarah Susanka uses her architect background to help us visualize moving through the various "rooms" in our lives by making subtle shifts in order to focus on what really matters to us and move away from the "bigger is better" mentality.

The Not So Big Life

Here are my takeaways:

~ Slowing down allows us to become present and able to listen to our inner wisdom.
~ Intuition is "perfectly attuned to the truth and completeness that you have the potential of becoming."
~ Overwhelmed is generally caused by the accumulation of stuff and/or speeding through our lives.
~ Anything and everything has the potential to lead to personal growth.
~ "...if you can provide the basics for yourself and your family, you do in fact have enough."
~ That "Now is the only real time that exists."
~ Meditation "is simply to show up, become alert, ...and with an open mind allow whatever arises in the mind to arise and then simply let it go."
~ Clearly express your intention, then let go.
~ Go toward that which you are rejecting.

I love this quote she used at the opening of Chapter 8:

Submit to a daily practice.

Your loyalty to that 

is a ring on the door.

Keep knocking, and the joy inside

will eventually open a window

and look out to see who's there.

~RUMI

Online Book Club - The Art of Non-Conformity

I decided to join Kimberly Wilson's Online Book Club this month, especially since I purchased this month's selection from ibooks a few months ago during The Right-Brain Business Summit and never took the time to read it. June's pick is The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau. I've written about Chris's ebooks that I read in the past (here).

The Art of Non-Conformity

Here are my takeaways from the inspiring book:

~ "You don't have to live your life the way other people expect you to."
~ "In the end, it's not all about you. Most of us want a life that leaves a positive impact on others."
~ "Fear begins with an undefined worry, a voice in the back of your head that says you're not good enough, you won't succeed with anything big or significant, and you might as well give up and stop trying to stand out."
~ "When we really get serious about our insecurities, we usually find that three specific fears emerge: the fear of failure, the fear of success, and the fear of change. The greatest of these is the fear of change itself."
~ "We generally resist change until the pain of making a switch becomes less than the pain of remaining in our current situation."
~ "Gatekeepers are authority figures who seek to limit the choices of others - you can do a or be, but not c, d, or e."
~ "Your project should be "location independent," meaning that you can operate it from anywhere in the world."
~ I love The One-Year, Self-Directed, Alternative Graduate School Experience in Chapter 6.
~ "Investing in people...I don't view this principle as an act of generosity; I view it as an act of responsibility and gratitude."
~ "Radical exclusion is the process of eliminating things that are unnecessary."
~ Create a "to-stop-doing list."
~ I bookmarked Chapter 10's travel hacking info for future use and Chapter 8's list of charities that focus on "investing in people."
~ The chapter, "Your Legacy Starts Now" had super duper helpful info on creating your own legacy project.
~ "While most good work is comforting, great work is simultaneously comforting and discomforting because it pushes us to go further."

There's still time to join the book group Kimberly's hosting (here) or pick it up to read on your own.