Tag: inspiration

My Inspiration List

Posted on by jplatt27

Happy Monday!  I hope you had a great weekend.

I’ve been reading a great series by Hayley of Tiny Twig about how to find, grow, and keep your passion. In her post how to create your own inspiration, Hayley asks and answers “What makes me excited?” and then explains that we can use the answers to this question to create times of inspiration, motivation and creativity.

Here’s my list:

  • perusing a book store
  • going to a yoga class
  • happy hour/coffee/dinner with a friend
  • walking around the city on a weekend
  • making a new recipe
  • feeding people
  • riding the bus and looking out the window
  • sunny days
  • driving and singing to the radio
  • talking to strangers
  • a good workout
  • being out of the office during normal business hours
  • reading magazines
  • listening to others
  • being out and about in the morning
  • helping others

These are things that make me feel inspired, creative, motivated.They perk me up. They make me feel like me.  They get my creative juices flowing.  They get me out of a funk.  They stimulate me.  They calm me down.  They distract me. They help me de-stress and recharge. They make me happy and bubbly and excited.

The next time I’m looking for some inspiration or am feeling down, I’ll refer to this list to get me back to me.

Let’s hear it:

What’s on your list?  What gets you excited?

choose your thoughts

Posted on by jplatt27

For months, maybe even a year or more, after we got engaged, I still wondered when Mike would propose.  Things like surprises, dinner dates, random Tuesdays when he walked in the door after work, I’d still find myself thinking “maybe he’s going to propose.” I had been so accustomed to thinking this way, had been waiting for engagement longer than I’d been engaged and that thought pattern stuck.

The same thing happened with our first dance song.  After our wedding, whenever I heard our first dance song, “Just Say Yes,” my mind didn’t go to the dance floor at our reception, didn’t rejoice at how fun our first dance was even though it wasn’t planned at all.  I didn’t think about how Mike threw me out for a spin perfectly on cue as the song built up to the first chorus and everyone started cheering and whistling and we were both smiling from ear to ear.  No, when I heard “Just Say Yes” after our wedding I was taken back to my morning commute, walking up New Jersey Avenue to the metro, listening to the song on my iPod and daydreaming about my wedding.  I remembered my daydream—which was a little different than the real day (different hair, different dress)—because I had played that daydream, a montage of our wedding day, in my head over and over and over again for months leading up to the big day.

While these aren’t terribly detrimental thought patterns to have, more just strange, it makes me think about other thought patterns we can get caught up in and stay in even if realities change: body image, money worries, family concerns. “I need to lose weight” or “I have no money” or “My family makes me stressed.”

We can change our thought patterns.  We’re in control of our thoughts and what pops into our heads. In choosing different thoughts, we can re-train our minds and re-program our thought patterns. We can choose thoughts that build us up, make us feel happy or confident or comforted.

If every time you think “I need to lose weight” or “I’m fat,” you change your thought to “my body is beautiful” or “I’m strong” or “I have amazing arms/hair/eyes/insert favorite trait here,” that will become the prominent thought related to your appearance.

If when you worry “I don’t have enough money” or “I wish I made more” or “How will I pay for that?” you remind yourself that “the money always comes” or “I can re-work my spending plan to allocate money for that” you will believe that the money always comes when it needs to and/or you are in control of your money not the other way around.

If you anticipate “family get-togethers are overwhelming” or “my sister/uncle/mom drives me crazy” but then remember “last we time we laughed until we cried” or “my mom knows me better than I think she does” you’ll significantly decrease your chances of getting overwhelmed or irritable.

We can choose our thoughts so we might as well choose ones that work for us. It may take some time to get the new thought pattern to stick, to become the primary thought associated with an experience, a person, a stressor. But if we keep at it, we can re-program our minds.

Now I don’t catch myself holding my breath for the proposal that already happened because I look at my ring and remember the proposal and how wonderful it was.  That I have what I hoped for. And because I’ve started listening to Just Say Yes when I’m in the car alone and thinking back to our actual wedding, when I hear our first dance song, I remember our first dance and the happiness that is tied with the song. Mostly it makes me think of Mike.

Sometimes our thought patterns change because life changes.  Sometimes we have to help them get there. Sometimes we choose to change our thought patterns because that’s all we can control in the moment. And other times, our life changes because our thought patterns change.  But that’s a topic for another day.

Extra money: make it then make it work for you

Posted on by jplatt27

I had some pretty exciting financial accomplishments in the month of March. I paid off my credit card, paid off my smallest student loan to accelerate my debt snowball, and signed up for a business workshop that’s coming to DC next month (and paid in full!). While I paid off the student loan and half of the business workshop with my salary and regular budget, I paid off my credit card solely with money I earned outside my 9-5.

Here are some ways I’ve made extra money this year:

  • tutoring–I’ve been tutoring for the last three years.  I currently have two students that I see on a weekly basis for an hour.  I stack the appointments so they’re one right after the other so it only takes up one week night.
  • house/pet-sitting–Mike and I are house-sitting for the week for one of the families I tutor for.  Not only is this a mini-vacation in a beautiful house, it’s also great opportunity for us to make some extra $$. I also cat-sat for a week in February, visiting the cat during my lunch hour.
  • baby-sitting
  • sold an old text book on Amazon

Here are some other ways to make some extra money:

  •  sell clothes on e-Bay
  • start an etsy shop
  • monetize a skill.  For example, my friend Amanda has great organizing skills (remember when she organized us after the bed bugs?).  I keep telling her that she should start organizing on the side while she finishes up law school.

But simply making extra money isn’t all you have to do to truly make the most of it. I’ve been tutoring for the last three years.  I’m sure I’ve made a couple thousand dollars or more in that time but it wasn’t until recently that I started capitalizing on this side income.

To make your side income really work for you, you have to do two things: capture  and earmark.

Until last fall I would put the cash in my wallet and deposit the checks in my checking account but not really use it for anything in particular.  I’m pretty sure I spent most of that money on food–lunches, coffee, random snacks, breakfast, etc.  What a waste!

But in the fall I set a goal to pay off my credit card. I decided to use my tutoring money to do this.  I earmarked the weekly income from tutoring for my credit card–allocating it before it even came in to one specific goal.

I’d capture this income by knowing the exact total of what I earned and making sure it didn’t get used.  Every Tuesday, I’d walk to the bank and deposit the cash and the check into my checking account. Then I’d get back to my desk and make a payment on my credit card. To capture money for a goal that you have to buy outright (like the registration for the workshop, or a new bag), I still deposit in my checking account and just make sure that I subtract that money mentally when figuring out my balance.

I was amazed at how quickly this income added up when I began to capture  and earmark.

I try not to think about how much progress I could’ve made in the past 3 years if I would’ve done this the whole time.  What’s done is done.  Can only look forward.

I encourage you to try the capture  and earmark method for a few months and see how many goals you reach. Maybe you have some debt you want to pay down or maybe you want to build up a small amount in savings. With spring here and summer on the way, maybe you have weddings coming up, plans to travel to see friends, or have your eye on a cute spring dress. Working this method will make you feel empowered and relieve some of the stress that goes along with big money goals. Go for it! Work it girl!

Let’s chat:

What are some ways you’ve made extra money?

What money goals do you have right now? What would you earmark money for?

I love a good brainstorm–share your ideas for earning and capturing extra money in the comments.

What Kristen Bell and I have in common

Posted on by jplatt27

This video of Kristen Bell discussing a sloth on Ellen kept appearing in my news feed on Facebook so I finally decided to take a look.

In this interview, Kristen said something and I thought “OMG that’s me!” 

That is me.  That statement describes my emotional being to. a. T.

Mike comments “3 to 7 might be a big window for you.” Ha, ha, ha. 

This is something you should know about me, and if you’ve been reading Things After the Rings for more than a week you may probably already know this: I’m a very emotional person.

Remember the little girl in the elevator?

Or when I missed my mom?

How about when I cried tears of joy on Valentine’s Day?

When my girlfriends left after a weekend visit?

When I found Mike’s wedding suit in the laundry basket?

Oh, and then there was the time that I cried the entire day after my wedding.

Tears are nothing new to me. My friends/family/co-workers know I’m a crier. And I’m OK with that.  I own it.  And I love that I now have this gem of a statement to describe my emotional self.  (It also doesn’t hurt to know that there are other people out there like me.) Thank you, Kristen Bell.

I’d love to know:

If you could describe your emotional state in one sentence, what would it be?

My new favorite "toy"

Posted on by jplatt27

Since we’re not saving for a house and focusing on paying down my student loans using Dave Ramsey’s debt snowball method, I’ve been playing around with CNNmoney’s student loan calculator. This thing is seriously like magic!  Before our money conversation, I was doing my own number crunching at Modern Times Coffeehouse at Politics and Prose, my favorite Saturday morning spot. I was so shocked and excited when I clicked calculate that I just had to interrupt the woman sitting across from me and share my findings with her.  Since then, I’ve gone a little farther in my calculations and I wanted to share my new calculations with you!

First, let me explain the debt snowball.  The debt snowball is a pretty easy concept.  Make a list of all of your debts (minus the mortgage) from lowest amount to highest amount.  While still making minimum payments on all accounts, attack the lowest amount by paying as much above the minimum as you can.  Once the smallest loan is paid off, put all the money you were putting to the lowest one, to the next lowest.  Continue until the highest loan is paid off.

My lowest loan amount at the beginning of the year was $1,710.  The minimum payment is $50/month and the interest rate is 6.8%. Put that info into the loan calculator:

At this rate, it will take 3 years and 3 months to pay off this loan.

In our budget conversation we decided to allocate $130 to the loan in addition to the $50 minimum. Then, I realized that we actually had money in our student loan budget line that wasn’t actually being spent each month.  (My interest rates are variable and my monthly payments have gone down over the last few years but I haven’t changed the budget line). So we decided to put that money toward this loan too.  So now, each month we can put $299 towards the loan.  Put that in the calculator:

and we can have this loan paid off by the 4th of July! We’ll also save 83% in interest. Pretty great, huh?

Think that’s cool? Watch this.

Here are the terms for my next smallest loan:

If I continue to pay the minimum each month, I’ll make my final payment summer 2019.

If I use the debt snowball and roll the $299 from loan 1 onto this loan plus its minimum:

we can pay off this second loan by Easter next year!

And it will just get more powerful as the snowball continues to grow through five more loans. I haven’t crunched those numbers yet as I’m sure we’ll have some big expenses/adjustments to our budget in the next few years but this is all very exciting to me.  When I graduated college my goal was to pay off my student loans before my kids go to college. Now, I see it’s possible to pay off them well before that.

So go ahead, I dare you, play around with my new favorite toy. It should work with credit cards and car payments too.

go at your own pace

Posted on by jplatt27

While waiting in line at Starbucks yesterday morning, I overheard a conversation between a teenager and a middle aged woman. I imagine this was a college admissions interview and the woman was an alumna and the young man a high school senior. While the senior was talking about his experience running cross country, I was struck by two things he said and how they apply to so much more than running.

Keep your own pace

He said that in cross country it’s important to find your own pace and keep your own pace.  That when someone passes you it’s very tempting, almost innate, to want to run faster to catch up with him and then pass him, but you have to know your own pace and not use up all of your energy in one burst sprinting to beat the person in front of you. That you need to figure out a pace that you can maintain and just keep it at that.

You don’t have to be first to win

The teen also said that in cross country, you don’t have to be the first to win.  That simply hitting a personal best is an accomplishment in itself.

I think I may have gotten tears in my eyes as I heard this, thinking “wow, this is a great reminder for life.” It can be so easy to compare yourself to friends, coworkers, people from high school or college that you’re not friends with in real life but are friends on Facebook. If they’re getting married, buying a house, having kids, getting promoted, getting a Master’s degree, traveling, buying x, y, or z. And when we see people “passing” us it’s easy to want to sprint to catch up, and to put pressure on ourselves to find a boyfriend or buy a home or whatever. But doing so only expends unnecessary energy. It feels so much better if you’re doing it at your own pace, not sprinting to get to catch up to the person in front of you. And remember that just because you’re not the first doesn’t make crossing the finish line any less significant.

We found a little Christmas

Posted on by jplatt27

I think we all have two options: you can control your mood or you can let your mood control you. I often fall victim to my moods–like a few weeks ago when I literally was in a grumpy, tired, unmotivated, blah mood until 4 o’clock in the afternoon.

This weekend I had two experiences where I decided what my mood would be instead of letting my feelings take over. It made me feel really powerful and happy (because I obviously chose a positive mood). I hope that by sharing these experiences, you may be inspired to choose your mood the next time you’re in a crappy mood.

After work on Friday I was super motivated to sit down and put the finishing touches on our wedding album before meeting friends for dinner. I walk in the door of our building and head to the elevator when who do I see coming up the stairs? Mike.  “What are you doing?” I ask. “Doing laundry.  I found another bed bug.” My first thoughts: “You’ve got to be kidding me.  Why are you looking for bugs?” I was kind of angry.

I head to our bedroom, asking Mike where he found said bug.  I’m fuming as I lift the mattress to look for others but then decide “I’m not going down this road. I’m going back to my positive and motivated mood and will finish our wedding album.” Two hours later, I sent edits and approvals to our photographer, checking off a big to-do that’s been on my list for months. I was so excited, relieved, and felt accomplished.

Saturday, Mike and I planned to get into the Christmas spirit by going to the mall, going to see the National Christmas Tree, and watching a Christmas movie while making gingerbread men.  We head to the mall to start our Christmas shopping.  Within an hour 30 minutes, I’m overwhelmed and tired and, aside from two small Haagen-Dazs ice-creams, we haven’t bought a single thing.

Instead of the holly-jolly spirit we intended to get from the mall, (I know, what were we thinking??) I feel more like the grinch. I’m ready to call the whole day off and go home. We decided to go into one more store before heading out.  We end up purchasing one gift, so that makes us feel successful but I’m still kind of exhausted.  When we start discussing the logistics of paying for our Christmas gifts like which account we’ll use, I say something to Mike, he doesn’t understand exactly what I’m saying and I snap at him in the middle of J Crew saying something to the effect of “What, am I not speaking English??” He decides to wait outside.

As we walk to the car, Mike says we can just go home if I want to, and that at this point, it probably won’t even be dark when we get there. I consider it as I pull out of the garage figure that by the time we get there and find parking, it probably will be dark.  But I’m so tired and kind of just want to go home.  And then I decide no, I can turn my mood around.  We’re going to see the tree!

We found parking pretty easily and Mike suggested we stop to get hot chocolate for our walk. “My treat,” he says. We stop at Caribou Coffee for a hot chocolate, and then walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, past the White House and Treasury making our way to the Ellipse, the site of the National Christmas Tree. As we were walking back to the car Marine One flew overhead and landed on the White House lawn. It was so cool!

We picked up pizzas from a place in our old neighborhood, came home and watched Home Alone while we ate our pizza and drank our favorite wine. What could’ve turned into a really sour day ended up being exactly what we hoped it would be.

Stronger

Posted on by jplatt27

This video has been playing at my gym recently and I really enjoy it.  It reminds me why I go to the gym and makes me feel empowered.

I hope you’ll be inspired by it…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjuHgD-Ft1c&feature=related]

So fill in the blank and tell me:

I’m stronger than ________. 

My answer: I’m stronger than SAD–Seasonal Affective Disorder.

be where you are

Posted on by jplatt27

be where you are

this mantra flowed through my yoga class yesterday as the instructor kept reminding us to be in the present moment, be in the class.  “check in with your thoughts,” she’d say. “are you in the present moment? don’t think about what happened yesterday or the business of the week ahead. just be present on the mat, breathe in, breathe out.  be where you are.”

i’m remembering this this morning as i get ready for a busy week ahead. i remind myself to be where i am, to breathe, to take things one at a time.

where are you today? check in with your thoughts and bring them back to the present. breathe in.  breathe out.  be where you are.

how to get somewhere

Posted on by jplatt27

great quote from my yoga class on a few weeks ago:

“sometimes the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.”

i think i can apply this message to some aspects of my life right now.

what about you?  are there areas of your life where you should just be?