ISO: Excitement

What excites you? Really excites you? Are you doing that thing/those things as often as you can? Are you allowing people to see what truly excites you? Are you inspired by your excitement? Are others inspired by your excitement?

I watched a video the other night on this subject: A 26 year old millionaire bounced around on stage talking about what gets her excited and how to find out what gets each of us excited. When it was over, I couldn't think of a thing that got me THAT excited. Then, as I went to bed and as I woke up in the morning  – I couldn't stop listing the things that get me excited. Jeez no wonder I couldn't find that one thing that makes me passionate – too many things make me passionate! 

I googled it. There are millions of pages on figuring out what excites you most and finding your passion. Why is it that, as I am pushing forty, I am just now trying to discover this?! Where have I been for the last 30-some years?

Am I the only one? Do you know what excites you? Are you doing it?

Some of what excites me seems so far off, so far-fetched, that I think I've just always gone along doing the small little things that make me and, hopefully, those around me fairly content… But excited? I’m not sure. Scary thought as middle-age is knocking on the door! What am I waiting for? Retirement?

In the video I watched the other night, "Establishing your 'Why'," Peta Kelly talks about finding that big thing that excites you but also the little excitements to help inspire you and pull you toward that big goal.

I thought about listing some of the things that excite me – but the list seemed too long for this blog (maybe next week). But, how do I take my “excitement list” and use that to live?

In his TEDx lecture, "How to find and do work you love," Scott Dinsmore asks “What is the work you can’t not do?” For me, it’s always been writing. And, even though I take tiny little steps towards that goal – the big goal, the idea of being a successfully published writer, seems so far-off, so impossible, that I get stuck. I never make my way towards that goal. But maybe it’s because I never allow myself any excitement, any reward, any passion to pull me forward.  There is no fire behind it. There’s no momentum. I need to find little stepping stones of excitement to pull me forward. Otherwise, I am just paralyzed.

Another great article I found in my Google search is: Guide to Finding Your Passion. A guide to narrow those things that excite me down. How to find the thing that I am most passionate about, make goals, identify obstacles, push away the fears and excuses...  (Maybe that’s for another blog too)

What about you? Do you know what excites you and are you doing it?

Will Write for Jeans

I’m on a quest to rid my drawer of any jeans that can be remotely construed as “Mom Jeans.” When you are a mom of a certain age this quest is increasingly more important and, unfortunately, increasingly more challenging.

The mom jean. How do we even end up with mom jeans? Sometimes we may be gifted a pair from, say, our moms. Maybe we try them on and find that they are comfortable so we wear them around the house but then we wear them for a quick trip to Target and it’s all downhill. Or maybe we buy ourselves a pair in a desperate attempt to find something, anything, that fits in that horrible postpartum stage of loose flappy belly fat. Maybe a well-meaning friend hands them down to us when we are pregnant with our first child and she’s lost all the baby weight from her last.

Sometimes mom jeans just evolve. Our drawers are filled with jeans bought at the right stores. Jeans that once were the exact right color and had the exact right fit but we moms are tough on our jeans. We crawl around the floor playing trains or Barbies. We finger paint in our jeans. We crisscross applesauce in our jeans through mommy-n-me classes. We clean up potty accidents in our jeans. Our children use our jeans as napkins, hand towels, and snot rags. Our jeans are washed and dried daily. They fade, they lose their shape, the knees wear thin. We eat one-too-many peanut butter sandwiches for lunch and BAM, mammas, we are wearing mom jeans! Yikes. I dread that I may be rapidly approaching this if I don’t intervene soon.

I want a really good pair of jeans – one that will stick with me during this messy stage of momhood without turning into mom jeans. I imagine these jeans will cost more than I feel comfortable paying as a stay-at-home mom. But… maybe if I edit, submit, and sell a story or two for just a little bit of money (I’m not greedy) then maybe I can purchase, without guilt, a cute (dare I say sexy) pair of jeans.

I WILL WRITE FOR JEANS (and maybe a cute pair of shoes to go with them)!