I just finished reading a great blog post by Tim Ferris (of 4-Hour Work Week fame) about a contest called Build-a-Business. Here is the full blog post.  It was a fantastic contest, “ The Shopify build-a-business competition was a financial carrot for anyone who’d dreamed of starting a business but hadn’t taken the jump. Each person had six months to build a business, and their two highest-grossing consecutive months would be matched against everyone else.” (taken from the original blog post).

It was very inspiring. Now that my life has taken a few twists and turn, I feel like it’s time to be creative, delve into my entrepreneurial spirit a bit more and re-connect with things I am passionate about.  I haven’t been blogging as much these days, mostly because I have been absorbed in baby preparations and research but also because of a lack of motivation. And she’s on her way, which adds a bit of time pressure to the whole situation !

This is a shout out to those who are reading my blog, to connect with a few of you who might be interested in a brainstorming session – others who like me might be in an interesting situation of change and may not be sure what the next 6 months to a year will bring.  I’d like to brainstorm for ideas, talk about our strengths and passions, share our challenges and possibly review what some other successful people have been doing (especially mompreneurs). I feel I have a lot to learn and am looking for a small group of 3-4 other people who might like to work together.  Should this work out, we could start meeting regularly.  I might need a break for a month or two in October though!

Message me on facebook or twitter, or leave your info in the comments.  If we can find some local people, great, and if not, we can do it virtually on Skype. If you’re looking for a group to brainstorm with, to tap into your creativity and talents and possibly find a business partner … let me know!

Have a beautiful summer afternoon!

What is it with the international obsession with celebrities and their pregnancies (or lack of pregnancies)? I am really glad that I’m not a multi-million dollar superstar celebrity like Jennifer Aniston.  I get to enjoy being pregnant without my belly being plastered all over the tabloids and other magazines. It’s become the newest way to sell magazines, I swear.  The cover story seems to be about someone having a baby, wanting a baby, being ready for a baby or adopting a baby. What kind of reproductive pressure must these celebrities be under?

Trying to get pregnant can be a challenging process for many couples or single women who choose to have a baby on their own. There is enough pressure without the added pressure of the media’s fascination with celebrity women and their attempts to have children.  Sure, it’s part of the deal when you become a celebrity to lose many aspects of your private life, but isn’t it about time we left these women and their reproductive struggles alone?

Think about it, as an average women, you start getting the “when are you having a baby?” question within minutes of getting married.  Depending on your family, you might get this question at every family event until you actually have a baby in your belly.  That alone is enough pressure for most women.  And isn’t true that if the women is under stress, then it’s much more difficult to conceive? Dan and I are really blessed, we thought that it might take us years to conceive, and we were able to after 4 months (thanks to TCOYF!).  We have many friends who are still struggling to conceive, and countless others who had to use medical interventions in order to conceive. Even my parents struggled, it took them over 6 years to conceive me!

So why is there so much pressure on reproduction? Why are stories of these women and their challenges selling more magazines? Perhaps for some women, there is an element of understanding and being able to relate to their situations.  In some way, many women are still waiting for the perfect partner, like Jennifer Aniston and their biological clock just keeps ticking.  So perhaps there is a feeling of safety in numbers.

What are your thoughts about the fascination with celebrity pregnancies? Should we leave them alone, or is it our right to know about their reproductive hope, dreams and challenges? Check in below in the comments.

A Poem To My Unborn Daughter

My beautiful daughter,

You live inside me,

Growing, stretching, learning

A miracle of life and love.

When I was younger,

I dreamt of you.

My heart already knew you

Before you were even made.

The moment came and

You were finally created,

And I loved you in an instant.

I can protect you,

Keep you safe from the world,

Feed you and nourish you

Talk to you and teach you

Safe in my womb.

You have my full attention,

I always know you’re there

Feeling your movements,

Your reactions and interactions

Reassure me you’re well.

This special time is very short

For soon enough

You’ll be in my arms.

Will I be able to protect you?

Let you take risks,

Yet keep you safe?

The miracle is not simply

You growing inside me,

The miracle is that I will

Give you room to grow,

Once you’ve entered our world.

My beautiful daughter,

You’ve changed our lives

In such wonderful ways

I am blessed that you’ve

Chosen me to be your mom!

Julie Boyer, July 7^th, 2010

Good morning everyone! Thanks for your suggestions after my last post on falling off the wagon of personal development. I did have the chance to pick up an audio book, a biography of Lance Armstrong that I hadn’t read before. It’s his whole life story, right from childhood.  So far, so good – I’m on disk 2.  It’s interesting how when I get a good audio book, sometimes I’ll stay in the car for a few minutes after I’ve arrived at my destination in order to keep listening. Am I the only one who does this?  I’m still open to suggestions for another good personal development book too.

Speaking of books, I have been thinking about whether to invest in a Kindle or not.  I read A LOT.  Mind you, most of the books I read I get from the library so maybe there isn’t a need for a Kindle.  And from what my mommy friends tell me, there will be less time for reading once our little girl arrives in a few months.  I’m curious to hear from those of you who do have a Kindle or some other kind of a electronic reading device – would you recommend it? How often do you use it? Has it completely erased the need for taking books out from the library or purchasing books? What are the biggest disadvantages?  Feel free to check in on the comments.

What is the brightest part of the day for you? These days, both literally and figuratively, it’s first thing in the morning. Our home faces east, so we get the early morning sun. The sun starts to stream in at around 6 am, and sometimes it’s hard to fall back asleep. Sure, I could close the curtains and block the sun, but there is something so magical about being woken up by sunshine. There is also something very special about just waking up every morning. I am very blessed to wake up each morning beside my husband Dan, and ever since I’ve been pregnant, he’s become even more loving than before.  Dads, you are welcome to check in on this one, but I have a feeling that your partner looks different in many beautiful ways when she’s carrying your child. It’s the simple things in life, just being grateful that you’ve woken up again for another day and being thankful for that. Being blessed to have someone to wake up next to, or to have your kids in the next room or even have a loving pet that wakes you up. Admittedly, our cat isn’t exactly loving when he wakes us up in the morning, but he’s still pretty cute.

This is Dan and Elmo. The two best reasons to get up in the morning – at least until our little girl arrives.  What gets you out of bed in the morning? It is your family? Do you look forward to going to work? How about getting up to work-out? Or maybe working on your business? The most success people in the world are the ones who are eager to get out of bed – excited to start the day and build on their success. They are passionate about getting the day started with some personal care, such as meditation, reading or exercise. You can create your whole day by how you feel when you first get out of bed and begin your daily routine.

What do you like to do first thing in the morning? Perhaps this blog post will help you to start today off on the right foot!

It’s time to admit it. I’ve fallen off the wagon. Which wagon would that be, you ask? The daily self-development wagon. Yes, the author of Motivation For Your Life, has fallen off the wagon.  I thought it would be best to admit it publicly and then ask for your help to get back on!

Anyone else ever had this happen? You are fully committed to daily self-development, and one day you forget. One day turns into a week and then a month goes by and you’ve forgotten one of the most important parts of the day! We all know that 30 min of self-development to start your day is invaluable, right? So why don’t we just do it? In my case, the biggest “distraction” has been that I’m pregnant and getting ready for the baby to arrive in October. I have been filling up on birthing books, parenting books, websites, DVDs, pre-natal classes, pre-natal yoga and of course taking care of financial matters too, since school ended a few weeks ago.  As most of you know, I am so happy and grateful to be pregnant, but I am also certain that keeping up my self-development – especially now before the baby is born – is essential.

What I aim to do is to read 30 min per day of a relevant book and keep a great audio book going in the car. Lately I haven’t done either. Here’s where I could use your help.  I’m looking for book suggestions (I get my books from the local libraries) and audio books/programs as well (that I might be able to get from the library or the web easily) to help me get back on board! And for those of you, who like me, may have fallen off the wagon too – feel free to take the suggestions and get back on too!

So, to my faithful readers please include the following in your comments below:

• A book or two that falls into the self-development, inspiration or empowering category
• An audio book or audio program that would be in the same category
• A biography suggestion (i.e. Michael J. Fox’s Lucky Man)

I will be including the suggestions in my next post, so please include a link to your blog if you’ve got one!

Thanks everyone and Happy Canada Day tomorrow to my fellow Canadians!

Yesterday, June 23, 2010 was a first for most of us in Ontario. We experience our first earthquake!  A 5.0 magnitude quake with an epicentre just north of Ottawa was felt from Ottawa, west to Toronto, north to Waterloo, south to Detroit and even all the way into Alabama! A quake of this magnitude is not big enough to cause any real damage, but big enough to be felt. I’m not sure how this is possible but I didn’t actually feel it. We must have a very solid building. The reason the quake reached so many places is because it was “conducted” by the Canadian Shield.

As many of you may know, we don’t have a tv or cable and I rarely listen to the news.  So how did I find out about the quake? First, my husband called and the very next thing I did was to check the news on Twitter.  It’s pretty amazing how quickly news spreads on Twitter. I read tweets about people feeling the quake all over Ontario and south of us in the US. There were hundreds of tweets in just a few minutes.  Who needs the news when you can just log on to Twitter?

Interestingly, one of the first thoughts that popped into my head when I heard the news about it hitting Toronto was that maybe it was something more sinister – with all of the security and fear-mongering that has been going on with the G20 summit this weekend, I thought it might have been a bomb. Luckily Twitter cleared that up quickly.  This week has been a very interesting one in these parts, not only with the weather and natural disasters but with all of the different challenges people have had with the G20 preparations. Many of my friends are working from home this week, people are staying out of Toronto today and Friday. It took my sister over 2 hours to get home last night from Brampton to High Park (the outskirts of Toronto) because of highway closures. I can understand why people are choosing to stay home.

My question is – haven’t all of these news people heard about the Law of Attraction? The more we talk about the possibility of something happening, the more likely we are to attract it! It seems like it’s the only topic of conversation these days – and in a way it would almost be anti-climactic if nothing actually did happen. At this point, we are all just waiting for the other shoe to drop, metaphorically speaking.

It has been a challenge to stay away from the news this week – it seems to be everywhere and on every radio station as soon as there is a lull. Do you find it informative or simply annoying to hear all of the potential things that could happen with the G20? Do you feel safe going into Toronto or living in/near the downtown core?  Check in on the comments below.

Have a great day everyone and enjoy if you are working from home!

And if you did survive the earthquake and would like to buy the t-shirt – click here.

Seems fitting that I write a post about our Toastmasters Year-End BBQ last night, since I’ve posted several times about Trafalgar Toastmasters this year. Our club grew substantially this year, we had 20 new members and many of these members are very social! The turnout for the event  was impressive, in my estimate, close to 40 people. It was a beautiful night in Oakville, close to the water (and later on, the mosquitoes joined us) with good friends new and old.

We celebrated our accomplishments for the year including participation in contests, our 30th anniversary charter party and of course, adding 20 new members. It has been a great experience spending the year with TTM.  Although I will not be a member next year, at least for the beginning, I look forward to returning to the club once again and continuing to improve my skills, learn from others, inspire and mentor fellow members and contribute however possible to the organization.

Here is a highlight album from the evening:

2010-06-22

Have a wonderful day everyone!

A short post this morning as I prepare for the last day of school.  It’s hard to believe a full school year has gone by! When I first took the role at Willowglen, I was only meant to stay til Christmas.  It turned out to be the full year and I’m so glad that it did.  I am filled with joy, gratitude, a bit of sadness and trepidation about what lies ahead. Since baby girl is due in October, I won’t be going back to school in the fall.  This summer will be spent doing private in-home French lessons and a few weeks of summer camp right here in Burlington. And the other great advantage is that I have the opportunity to spend a bit more time build our team right here in town this summer.  It’s always a great time to become an entrepreneur during the summer, since you’re always outside, connecting with people, playing sports and socializing.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to work with a wonderful group of ladies at school.  From all different backgrounds and ages, it’s been great to get to know them.  And I have learned so much from the kids too – who knew you could learn so much from pre-schoolers? It’s really prepared me for what’s ahead in a few years with our baby girl.  I also really appreciate the exposure to the Montessori method.  I had already been doing a number of things that fit with the methodology, but it’s amazing to see how much the students learn about daily living and being a contributing member to the class and the world at large..

Here’s a little glimpse at the school year:

Have a super summer everyone! I have a few spots left for some of my summer programs, so if you know someone in the Oakville/Burlington/Hamilton area who’s children are in a French immersion program and would like to continue to speak over the summer, just click here for details.

Sure, this message is one you’ve heard before. I’ve blogged about it a few times and I’m sure you’re read many other blogs, books and seen movies about the power of gratitude.  It’s a message that doesn’t really get old though. And often, we get so caught up in being BUSY that we forget to take the time to be grateful every single day.

One of the things that I am most grateful for right now is being pregnant. It’s truly an amazing feeling to carry a new life in my belly – as much as I had read about it, heard about it, seeing about it – there is nothing that compares to the actually feeling.  It’s all very strange at the same time – because you have very little control with what is going on in your body! The whole thing is an automated process. How amazing is that? Regardless of whether you believe in God, Allah, the Universe – someone made it a truly amazing process that needs little or no help from the mom who is carrying the life.

That’s not to say that pregnant women shouldn’t take extra care of themselves and their bodies during this time. Truly, that is all we are really responsible for. I have been doing my best to stay healthy, continue on my healthy eating regime, remain on-the-wagon (alcohol free) and exercise regularly. The biggest challenge is getting enough rest. I’m not sure if any of the other mommies and mommies to be out there can relate, but things that I would normally recover from quickly, take a few extra days.  For example, I just flew out to Orlando for the weekend, taking an afternoon flight on Thursday and returning Sunday evening.  Normally a fairly hectic trip regardless, although this time there were no time zone changes.  Heading right back to work and Toastmasters on Monday was WAY too much for me! I was completely wiped out!! It’s taken me 3 nights and 2 full days to feel back to normal.  Here’s  a secret of pregnancy that I didn’t realize – flying at high altitudes, with greater pressure, can make it very uncomfortable.  I didn’t really understand why I felt so uncomfortable on the longer flights until a flight attendant explained that the pressure can be very uncomfortable for pregnant women.  I am glad I am staying on solid ground until after she is born.

So,what can you to do remember to be grateful every single day? Here are a few suggestions:

• • The Secret Gratitude Book – this is an excellent daily reminder to be grateful
  • Create your dream board and post it at the foot of your bed. That way you wake up and can be grateful for all of the wonderful things that are manifesting in your life.
  • Use Thoughtspots on your mirror to remind you.
  • Take a look at who you are waking up beside or who’s sleeping in the next room and be grateful that they are in your life.  This can be a partner, spouse, child, pet or another family member.
  • Smile more! It’s always easy to be grateful when you’re smiling.

What are your strategies for remembering to be grateful every day? Share with us in the comments section.  Enjoy the rest of this beautiful gift of a day that we have all been given.

Last week’s post, What Street Do You Live On? generated some great comments and interesting conversation. I also had a chance to expand on the post and say it as my last speech for Toastmasters.  It was recorded and I’ll be sharing the video in the coming days – I was lucky enough to have a professional recording by my good friend Maude Leger of Sold Right Away.  I have now completed my first Toastmasters manual and achieved the level of Competent Communicator. This was one of my goals when I joined just over a year ago, to complete the manual this season.

After the many different reactions I received from the post and the speech, I wanted to do a follow up post. And I’d like to hear from you! My big question is:

What does Prosperity mean to you?

I have a feeling that although the dictionary definition might mean one thing, for many people, it means a number of different things.  The definition from dictionary.com is as follows: a successful, flourishing, or thriving condition, esp. in financial respects; good fortune.

I’m looking forward to hearing for you in the comments or on Facebook or Twitter about your personal meaning for Prosperity.  And I’ll likely be sharing a blog post from the sunny south this weekend!