Monday, February 13, 2017

A little bit of this :-( and a lot more of THAT :o)




IMAGINATION inflation
Anyone who has read this blog more than a few times (which most fall under) has joined me in reflection, especially approaching my birthday.  Every person, businessperson, sales professional, artist, writer, creator, imagineer, imageer and optioneer should do this annually:  
Your own Annual Life Plan
Taken with a twist on my REALLY popular Blog called "The 90-Day Plan" (I really wish I knew who the person was to give it a lift, sharing it somehow outside my typical social media radar.  
Before you can move FORWARD 
you have to have a heart to heart with yourself.  Seriously.  Honestly.  Barely a hairs breath away from your nose touching the mirror.

It can be your Journaling all at once!  
For any other procrastinators like me.  Once I discovered a way to exhaust my mindfulness times 100% ::... by BLOGGING!  

A cork popped open ||\\"//|| 
Ideas that had been brewing began to become released.  By sharing knowledge and seeking even more to fill up the depleted.  

New Curiosities
unfold, gliding across your vision or glimpse of an expression, a beautiful attention getter image.


Stretching the imagination
because as it explodes into the universe, some small particles, fall glittering into a receptive hand.
My year in review
has been one of where I have been putting others first.  Not an easy feat to consider the impact one has on others, and try to obtain a lofty one, for them, not me.  That is one of the biggest struggles I've been wrestling with:  am I an impostor of greatness?  Was I really a big sales professional once upon a time?  Maybe I got lucky for a few years when the timing was right.
A social media experience

as I ride the waves from the tide pushed by others before me.  Am I just a toe in or knee deep?  Thank goodness for analytics to appeal to my numerical musical notes, de-scrambling and decoding information that is mine for the taking, just as I log on and click in.  


Like a sponge floating
soaking up, but not falling too deep beyond the grasp of realization that maybe I've been looking at it all wrong.  I mean, I read A-LOT!  It never sinks me in, it expounds wonder at all the information at my disposal, my right, my actions, my clicks revealing a true, authentic person.  
Not a persona but a brand
I've been continuing the brand I started so many years ago.  I tap into what has delighted me (like last night I was surfing the PINs on PINTEREST on "figure skating")  .... who cares how long I look?  Nobody, my WIFI provider LOVES the moola it extracts from me:  I have an "unlimited data plan".  
True Authenticity
is when you allow your spirit and soul to guide you to what you find intriguing, moves you in its beauty.  The next wave a super social media rock stars will need to be authentic in a crowded noise of ME me ME (like Guy Kawasaki, who forgets was among his small tribe when he moved on to Google Plus G+ not remembering who they were, ah-hem, like moi).  


I didn't adopt someone else 
to build my brand by trying to be someone I am not, claim to know something I do not, brag about knowing someone to build your brand?  Well, my not-so-reciprocal friends aka |devils in disguise| narcissists | fake | crooks | egotistical | famed | self-proclaimed experts.
Honesty has been my guiding star
towards bright lights without sunglasses to block the glow.  Truthfulness is a strength in character, it is ingrained and cannot be replicated by large degrees.
Believe in me?
The jury is still out.  I just know that I'm not doing my God-given gift.  I keep looking and stretching to find it.  Sometimes I think maybe I've found it, when instead I've found some new great hobbies ::... like painting objects and making them into art.  Really a fun sidekick to have.  
I may have become too scattered
creating far too many blogs, when here I should just write.  Focus on making one site really really good, then a bunch of others mediocre.

I've had this ah-HA moment before
I realize.  When I was jumping from advertising to the world of publishing ::... the how before the what.
The how before the what
Is really what makes me stand out.  I'm not suggesting that I really do, but I was trying to appease you, your time and dedication for reading thus far.  
Whether it is sales, business 
or communication people gravitate to the explosive environment we allow ourselves to tumble into ::.... traditional media that has the explosion with headline before any details.  Saying WHAT??!!??




I gravitate towards  the HOW
which basically covers the how, the who, the where, the speculation as to the why, or the scientific explanation of the how.  I think people's eyes and sensibilities are been drummed out of the noise, and only ENGAGE with those they believe appeals to their own values, opinions, knowledge, genre, topics, interests, hobbies, visuals, emotional well being, what grabs them NOW.  
I'm going to continue on this journey
with you by my side.  Continual in experimentation on a quest for new insights.  The insights that I share may be long and somewhat rambling.  But there is a nugget in there somehow.  
Too many people haven't discovered

who they are so they try to invent themselves to be someone they're not.  For personal, professional, relationship reasons, known only to themselves.  They hide behind a character or persona in which they want the world to see them as.

An enthusiast
is what I tagged myself.  Does it really suit me?  OKay, thanks for the reminder mirror | DANG! (borrowed from my 22 y/old lovely daughter) | I am not always in a good mood.  Gasp, shocked?  Probably not those that know me and still love me would say.  
Determined and tenacious
would be a common affront in succinctly describing me.  That's what is great.  As a woman who is 5 ft TALL and petite curvy figure ::.... it is a gracious honor to be synonymous with STRENGTH.
A nod for the new year ahead
will be the stretch to willpower.  Where I should examine these fair questions:
Am I trying to prove something?
To myself?  To someone else? Or bigger?
Am I doing my hardest to avoid and stay out of toxic environments or people? Am I being true to my GIFT that I am working to discover:  a teacher? a writer? an advertising Adonna?  | HA!  Google Chrome spell check:  "Ladonna, Madonna, Donna" | fooled YA!  Yes, I meant to make up a new word since GURU isn't even in the cards for a lot of knowledge to beget.
A website
I've been struggling with this for almost two years.  It doesn't fall under my PROCRASTINATION leanings, but I keep coming up with ideas on sections, which will fall under an umbrella of an e.zine.  I have experimented with blogs, Word Press, Go Daddy | good grief: worst experience EVA!  They didn't mind taking my money | "there's a sucker born every milisecond on the internet" | they fall into my bucket of ::... "NEVER AGAIN" pile.  Of which there are few, it's a small crowd, like my "former dentist" Lee (first or last name, I'll never tell, except from what it rhymes with "Cal-gar-y" ('y' pronounced "Eeee")

I'm going to write and let him know.  This young fellow, who shall not be named, unless agreed to by name).  I would like to showcase his work from Word Press websites.  

What's in a name?
I can't settle on a name is what a name is about.  You'd be surprised how much time I spend waving on the tide of websites, website hosts, and a few creative outfits in between.  
graFX
designCA has been born.  I guess pretty much anything I spend doing ends up in a blog of some sorts.  I launched it about a week ago.  What I want to do is showcase what I uncover for the social media crowd or blogging tribe.  Tools, resources, gallery, creative, writing host of a colossal kind!  
Getting pumped up
now, creative juices flowing unabated, from feeling a strong sense of cabin FEVER since my skin erupted from either Shingles or a skin reaction/infection | doctors have conflicting prognosis | first time ever the Wicked Witch of the West has been nice to me in months, if exactly a year ago from now.
I think I have an idea
so I guess I better go.  Thanks for joining me while I uncork another idea for others to be amused by, inspired from or motivated to ..... JUST DO IT!

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

TRUST your instincts

The trials of being 50+ can be eye popping, especially so if you are a woman.



I was just getting prescriptions filled less than a week ago after seeing the doctor for an annoying recurring bug (first laryngitis type virus then nauseous); it occurred to me to mention it to the doctor but I didn't, but remembered and asked the pharmacist: my husband had a small case of shingles in his back beneath his shoulder blade: he said that shingles is NOT contagious; The day before last during a meeting excusing during the discussion, saying I didn't know what was going on. Thankfully, yesterday was a day off because, even though I grumbled about missing the Super Bowl, I had swapped Sunday's 9 to 5 shift instead of an ugly 2pm to 10pm shift. My skin started to erupt and today it almost looks like I am a burn victim. I wasn't even thinking shingles, but when the Hunkster Hubster had shingles, I did what most of us do: look it up on the internet. Let me emphasize that I do not condone self-diagnosis, always rule to see a doctor first. (I was taught this while my Awesome SONster was in and out of the hospital a lot as a baby)! To top THAT off, I had been invited for a video interview for a career position (not a job, like I am in now) with an international sustainability corporation (the environment is something I'm passionate about - please go to my optioneerJM blog where I wrote about how to use normal household objects instead of expensive manufactured, packaged, designed, marketing overhead products. Because I consider my main focus groups: INBETWEENERS (born 1960 to 1965, after the Baby Boomers, before Generation X, while likely parents of Millennials) ..... so here I am with this erupted sore face, I had to slather it with tons of foundation to try to hide it with massive amounts of cover up ..... wishing for the best: one thing I said in the video was a wholehearted response: just doing this video interview while I have a severe allergic reaction on my face, should demonstrate that I can bounce back from set backs. So later on this afternoon while I am waiting for my family to come home and stop over to celebrate my Awesome SONster's birthday; 28th birthday......... read more on meanderingsABOUT 


I came online to ask Google the question:  "Can you get Shingles on your face?" and a plethora of information abounded.  I read some of the symptoms and it registered with me to go beyond to take a look of the images of Shingles on faces ...... pretty GROSS is an understatement.  I WAS able, however, to find one that mirrored my own face.  In fact, mine appears a lot more drastic.  Trust me, it may be slightly redder from putting cover up and mega tons of foundation to cover up for the video interview I had on my agenda this afternoon.  That, and preparing for my Awesome SONster's 28th Birthday celebration.  Not any lazing around.


YES you CAN get #shingles on your face!!  
My lesson for the day:  trust your instincts.  If it is anything other than Shingles I will update my blog.

This was me a week ago.


Lesson to you:  If you are over 50, get the Shingles vaccine.  If I had been given the proper information less than a week ago, I may have gotten the vaccine that very day.  Less than a week later, ironically they must be contagious, just like chicken pox are.

Shingle Alert

Thanks Donna, I just got home from Dr who confirmed it is Shingles. I wrote about it on my MEANDERINGSabout blog and posted this uncomplimentary picture that has horrified my family to create awareness that it is CONTAGIOUS and very painful. Anxiety is the highest contributor in my case. I took two months off work this summer, the first time in a career spanning 40 years -- I can say that because I got my first job at a newspaper when I was 15, because if I wanted to continue figure skating, I had to contribute financially to the ice times, private lessons, tests, competitions, skates and dresses (most top contending figure skaters come from very affluent backgrounds typically because it is almost an elitist sport for the well off, a beacon for affluence similar to that of tennis. READ more on MEANDERINGSabout http://meanderingsabout.blogspot.ca/