Call Me Crazy: My Goal To Live A Life Of Abundance

Call me crazy but this year I'm on a mission to live an abundant and wealthy lifestyle. I know some of you are looking at your screens and thinking this chick has fallen off her rocker!  But let me be clear and say that I'm not just talking financially.  I want to be abundant and wealthy spiritually, emotionally, mentally, in my health, my family life, and professionally.

 I'm just fed up with my current situation.   As a matter of fact, I'm past fed up.  To see just how comfortable I had gotten with living a mediocre life of these last few years has me both disappointed and borderline ashamed.  I've been looking back at some stuff and I had big plans for my life but threw them out the window because of stumbling blocks.  Well, last year was my wake up call.

I'm determined to not make this year a repeat.  Here are 5 key practices that I'm adopting for moving forward in 2014:

5 Key Practices to Living Abundantly

1) Decide to Live Abundantly

I'm letting go of this "I can't" mentality.  Joel Osteen postesd on Facebook the other day "God is not limited by our circumstances, by how you were raised, by what you don't have.  Start believing big.  Have an abundance mentality."  With that said I'm setting target working towards earning $30k every 30 days.  It's ambitious yes, but if you aim low, you reap low.  It's as if you haven't totally changed your mindset. Having big dreams, adjusting our mindset to believing that we can achieve those dreams and then actually putting in the work to make those dreams come true is what separates those who achieve success and those who just stay content with getting by.  I don't want to be someone who aspires to obtain a higher level of success but is too afraid to admit out loud and even more afraid to work to achieve it.

2) Get Motivated

My desire to provide a better life overall (financially, emotionally, educationally, and spiritually) for my family, give back to the community and church like I want to, continuing to better my relationship with God and having a successful career and getting The YUMMommy Project off the ground are my main motivations right now.  My son is in speech therapy right and while it's going ok, he could be making a lot more progress if we could afford to try out some of the other alternative therapies we available here.

Moo's will start school for certain this August and I want her in a school that is safe, will expose her nontraditional learning techniques, doesn't have overcrowded classrooms, has great teachers who not only love what they do but who are held accountable and are monitored as well as lots of opportunities for parents to be involved.  Also, want my husband to be able to spend less time working and more time doing things with us.

3) Surround Yourself With Abundant/Wealthy/Successful People

Listen, I know when I mentioned earlier that I wanted to make $30k every 30 days, some of you probably rolled your eyes or thought "she's not being realistic."  And that's why I have to surround myself with people who have proven that it is realistic.  Let me tell you, Pat Flynn raked in $55k last month mostly off of blogging, affiliate marketing and eBook sales.  And this past July he raked in $116k! He went from unemployed and making $7k his first month of unemployment to making $200k during his first year of working for himself.

Imagine what would have happened if he had listened to the naysayers.  I'm on the hunt for my mentor.  That person (or people) who's willing to take me under their wing, push me when I feel like giving up and continue to help me keep my mind open to an abundant way of thinking.  

4) Work For It

"Mama need a house.  Baby need some shoes."  I have put on my Ace Hood hat and I'm hustling hard.  Just like faith without action is dead, having a dream to live abundantly and no work ethic or hustle is pointless too.  I'm getting my face and my brands out there.  In 2012, I was featured in a national magazine and I dropped the ball on the spinning that into some other major opportunities like I should have.  No more ball dropping this year.

Mary Mary sings it best in my theme song Go Get It, "You were made to live a good life and that's what I believe. So hit the floor say a prayer, start working; you got to do something. It's alright to crawl before you walk.  It's alright to walk before you run.  But if you wanna get what you never got,  gotta do something that you never done."

5)Invest Don't Spend

I'm finding ways to invest in myself and brands that will give me a return.  For example, I'm getting to start a business class the week after next on Coursera.  I've purchased books to help me brush up on my marketing skills.  Did I ever mentioned I passed my marketing class in college with a perfect score?! Yea, I'm brushing the dust off that knowledge.  I'm investing time get a Kickstarter page going.

I also, I'm looking to invest in others by sharing what I'm learning and what I know.  No need in hogging knowledge.  I'm all about each one, teach one.  I love giving back.  It's just part of who I am.  When I give to others it pays me back in happiness, joy and a feeling of self-pride because I did the right thing.

I'll also be investing in new business cards, stationary, etc.  If I want to businesses and other brands to take me seriously when I'm pitching them or sending them letters, a plain old letter template is ok, but something with my logo and printed on quality paper will stand out more.  

The gospel song says "Our God is an awesome God. He reigns..."  And that is true.  I refuse to be one of those "O ye of little faith" types.  John 10:10 says "...I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly."  

So go ahead, tell me I'm nuts and that my goals are too high, but at the end of day I feel more focused and driven than I've been in my life!  It might not happen overnight, but I feel like I've been through so many rainy seasons that the sunshine is just over the horizon.  And I'm beyond ready!

What is one of your biggest dream  or mission that scares you the most to admit aloud?  And what is holding you back from achieving that dream?  Is lack of faith, fear of being mocked or fear of failure?

Sharing Is Caring

Sharing is caring. This is something I've been thinking a lot.  Y'all know that I'm a firm believer in giving to others.  Couple that with my want to better the utilize my Facebook page in a way that not only benefits me but my followers as well, I came up with the following memes below over the weekend.

Motherhood Monday

This will the day that everyone can stop by and share a link to anything post on their blog related to motherhood (or fatherhood because we do have a few men who support YUMMommy).  It can be anything from sharing your breastfeeding experience to talking about successes in potty training.

Tasty Tuesday

Did you try a new recipe from Pinterest?  Well, the link up on Tuesdays will be all about sharing recipes from main dishes to cocktails.

Whatever Wednesday

Think of it as Freestyle Friday, but in the middle of the week.  Any post/vlog goes.  Just no spam.  Whatever post you need some love shown to, just drop by the Facebook page and link it up in the comments.

Thankful Thursday

I've been finding that a lot of bloggers actually do Thankful Thursday posts.  Why not share them all in one place?

Fashionable Friday

I've been feeling the itch to get back into fashion again.  I never stopped loving it and now I'm ready to share more fashion related posts on the blog again.  And I'm also interested in checking out other fashion posts.  You never know where you might find inspiration for that next great outfit.

Social Saturday

We all know the fastest way to network is via social media.  Hence, Social Saturday will be all about sharing the two social media accounts that you want to build/grow the most.  Be it Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Bloglovin or Instagram, you choose whatever two you want to link up and we'll stop by and show you some love.

Shareable Sunday

This all about sharing tips.  When I started blogging, I had no clue what I was doing.  I searched for easy to follow tutorials and tips posted by blogging geniuses.  After all the saying does say "each one, teach one."

I hope that you guys will join me on Facebook next week when I start these up.  Bloggers who support together, grow together is my motto.

Which link share will be your favorite?

Living Positively And Building Brands With Coca-Cola

Earlier last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Conversations With Coca-Cola Blogger Conference in Atlanta, GA.  I attended this event on behalf of Mommy Delicious.  I am so thankful to have had this opportunity. It was truly eye opening and life changing for me. I got to meet some other super awesome bloggers while I was there.  In addition, I had the chance to meet and bond with Coca-Cola staff and partners.  Here's a recap of my experience.

On Day 1 we kicked off the conference with a presentation from the lovely Katherine Stone (@postpartumprog).  She is a former Coca-Cola employee turned mental health advocate/blogger/columnist.  You find her on Postpartum Progress or Fierce & Powerful.  She gave us some great advice on how to successfully build and expand our brands. Check out some of my favorite key points below.

~Bloggers are journalist: Now I know that this is debatable for a lot of people because they feel like you need a journalism degree in order to be a journalist.  However, as Katherine pointed out that's not true.  We're blogging about real events and real facts in real time.  It's our experience in the "field" that makes us just as much of a journalist as Katie Couric.  In fact, in today's society most of the videos, photos and information on major events come from bloggers or social media users who actually lived or witnessed them.

~Everything has meaning... Everything communicates: From the posts we blog to the words we tweet, when building a brand you always have to be mindful of the message you're sending out to readers/supporters.

~Keep your arsenal close and updated:  As Katherine put it, "we're always a work in progress."  Thus, as we evolve so does (or should) our blogs.  Therefore, it is important to make sure that our elevator pitch, media and press kits, business cards and blogs reflect where and who we are currently and not who we were 1 to 5 years ago.

~We're not the only owners of our brand: Although many of us started our blogs as a form of personal and inexpensive therapy, we still have to keep our audience in mind.  Our readers are just as much a part of building our brands as we are.  So, it's important to keep that in mind when creating content and establishing partnerships without other brands.  Also, don't be afraid to reach out to readers and ask them for feedback.



My vision board



The conference really proved that Coca-Cola is more than just a soft drink company.  Unlike many of their counterparts, they actually care about their consumers and work hard to improve our communities as well as make this world a better place.   From balancing family and career to healthy living and conservation, here are some of the tips I learned about living positively.

~Failure is a learning experience: We don't always get things right on the first try.  Sometimes it takes a second, third, or even sixth try to achieve success.  However, with all of our failures there are lessons to be learned and opportunities to be seized.  Don't focus so much on the failure itself but on the experience as a whole and what you can do differently next time.

~"Work the plan that works for you": One of the ladies from our Coca-Cola panel shared this great words of wisdom with us.  We can't do everything or be everywhere for everybody.  Instead, we have to come up with a plan and system tailored specifically for our situations and stick with it.

~It starts at home: As parents and spouses it's our jobs to teach our family how to live positively.  We have to set the examples for healthy eating, make sure our families are being active, show our loved ones how to give back and most importantly make sure we're doing our part to preserve our planet.

I'll share some of the fun facts I learned as well as more pictures from my trip on Facebook.

Disclaimer: This conference was hosted by Coca-Cola.  They provided my food, lodging and transportation.  All opinions expressed are my own.