If you direct your attention to the right side-bar then you will notice that our app of the week for this week is an app known as “LIFT.”

The description underneath the direct app-store link not tell you much, so here is my input and reasoning for choosing this particular app.

Have you recently wanted to accomplish something, begin/end a habit, or just have someone or something there to keep you accountable? If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, then LIFT may be just the app that you have been looking for. Easily integrated with popular social networking sites, you’ll feel motivated in no time!

 

 

You begin by setting a goal. Don’t worry, you can either create your own unique goal or even choose from a list of other user-popular goals.
If you choose a popular goal, then you can see how other people are doing, encourage them in their progress, and even add your own input for others to see.

 

 

Think Facebook-meets-support system.

After you’ve set your goal, just click a button every time you complete your tasks! Of course, it’s simple, but being able to visualize your progress (which is convenient due to the very easy to understand personalized progress statistics that the app provides you with) makes it much easier to stay motivated.

 

 

Give it a try – let me know what you think!!

XO,

Most, if not all, of us were forced to read The Great Gatsby in high school. As with most books that I was forced to read, I didn’t pay much attention to the lessons it includes at the time.  Only when re-reading it as an adult did I truly understand what a magical piece of work it is.

Sure, it’s one of those “great American classics” that we expect to bore us to tears, but it’s message is timeless.

With the release of the new, much flashier movie version of the great novel, we are reminded of how many timeless lessons can really be learned from the complex story of love and time.

 

 

A Few Take-Home Lessons From The Great Gatsby

 

1. Lies can ultimately lead to loneliness. 

Jay Gatsby was not always the most truthful man, but he felt that he would be taken more seriously and even become more liked if he twisted the truth a small amount.  Although people came to love his parties and the idea of Gatsby, Jay himself was a very lonely man who could never quite reach what he really wanted.

2. Your gut feeling is often accurate, even if you don’t immediately know why. 

Nick Carraway spent a large portion of the story in a complex internal battle between doing “the right thing” that would hurt some people, or doing what he thought was wrong, but that would make people he cared about happy.  Although there may have not been a real “right” answer in this case, often trusting your instinct is a good starting point.

3. The past, though not dead, is still the past. 

Jay Gatsby lived for the good times of the past.  Unfortunately for him, while he stayed focused on trying to bring back the feelings of the past, the world and those around him continued to move forward onto new and different things.  When the two worlds collided, we realize that we can’t expect for things to stay the same.  The past definitely plays a role in shaping what happens in the future, but there is no simple way to revert back to how things were before.

4. Sometimes that which we think will bring us eternal happiness will only end up bringing a fleeting, momentary sense of joy. 

Gatsby believed that if he could rekindle the passion that he once felt between himself and Daisy, then he could spend his days with her and feel eternal happiness.  If you’re familiar with the story, you know that things are never really that simple. Daisy had moved on, things had changed with her, and it was much more complicated than going back to how things were.  Although they deeply cared for one another, the joy that Jay Gatsby felt was always different from what he had imagined it would for so long.

 

If you have not seen the new movie, I highly recommend doing so – if nothing else it is entertaining.  But more than that, I recommend giving the book a good, old-fashioned read.

 

XO Old Sport,

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

 

I recently took a visit to the eye doctor, and got myself a new pair of glasses. All this thinking about eyes got me to thinking about some things though – have you ever noticed how confident people don’t seem to struggle with making (& keeping!) eye contact.

For me, & I’m sure for many of you readers as well, maintaining eye contact is both intimidating and uncomfortable.

Here’s the good news: THAT’S NORMAL!!!

The less good news (but not bad news!) is that it’s a good practice to learn to make eye contact when appropriate.  Just to get you started, here are a few pointers:

Practice making eye contact.

It sounds simple, but it’s just one of those things where the more you do it, the more comfortable you will get with doing it. Chances are, you’ve been avoiding eye contact for a while, so try to get past your feelings of nervousness & tell yourself that you can do it!

Cheat on eye contact. 

Now, I know you would never cheat on someone you truly love, but eye contact is another story.  If your anxiety regarding eye contact just makes it, well, not really worth it – CHEAT!

You can appear as if you’re making eye contact by slightly above their eyes. Just don’t look too far above their eyes until a point where it becomes noticeable to them.

Don’t over-do it. 

I’m sure you’ve also talked with people before who crossed the line from eye contact into staring. You don’t want to come across as creepy or strange, so keep in mind the rest of your body language. It’s natural to look away on occasion or shift the focus of the conversation elsewhere.

 

 

Stay calm – it’s not an easy skill! But you’ll surely master it in no time!

 

Until next time!!

XO,

 

1. It is very hard to make big transitions in life, but without them our lives would be stagnant and utterly boring.
2. You are your worst critic. You cannot change this fact.
3. The current way of life WILL change within our lifetime, and we will look back on how our lives are now and question what we currently think is unquestionable.
4. It is very easy to misuse a comma. Too, easy.
5. Monotony is the key to insanity. Mixing things up in your day will not only help you to get more done, but you will enjoy your tasks/day significantly more.
6. It’s hard to dig yourself out of a hole. When you’re having a bad day, go out of your way to make it better. Otherwise, you’re allowing yourself to stay in a rut.
7. The only way to get better at something you’re not good at is to practice, practice, practice. Or magic. Magic may work.
8. Believing in yourself will get your farther than the approval of others.
9. Going out of your way for someone benefits that person & yourself more than you realize at the time.
10. It’s okay to love yourself.

 

XO,

 

I don’t generally give out health advice because it’s not something that I feel I have much to bring forth, but on this rainy Saturday, I thought I would explore some benefits that water has in our lives! That being said, it is a Saturday afternoon so I’ll be quick!

Try drinking atleast 8 glasses each day! By doing so, it helps the body flush out any toxins which actually enhances your hair growth (and skin to glow too!) . Not only will the inside of your body feel good, but the outside of your body will begin to look and feel flawless along with stronger hair!

Of course, water isn’t all about look great (although it’s definitely an added bonus!)

I enjoy soda just as much as anyone, but look at this graphic which points out some major differences between the two.

 

 

Still need a little more help? Here are some quick tips to get you on the right track:

Carry a bottle of water with you everywhere.  - You’d be amazed at how, when you aren’t even thinking about what you’re doing, you’ll reach for that bottle of water to sip on.  Before long, you’re already feeling better because you’ve had enough water!

Drink a cup of cold water in the morning. - This helps to clear out toxins in your stomach as well as help to jump start your metabolism in the morning.  Of course, it also can help relieve early morning bloating and make you feel better in general.

Order water at meals. - Even if you’re craving a soda, try going for a glass of water instead or at least first before your soda. Those cravings are probably just signs that you are thirsty & drinking the other sugary drinks would only exacerbate that thirst.

Drink water to be pretty!! - okay, so this one is a bit more surface level-y, but water does help your skin to look great! It’ll hydrate it, preventing wrinkles, acne, & other skin issues that you hate. Who doesn’t like nicer skin??

 

Moral of the story: 

 

 

XO,

Have you ever woken up in the morning and felt like there was no way that you could possibly get everything you needed to get done completed before it was time to go to bed again?
If you’re anything like me, there are simply far too few hours in the day to accomplish everything. By the time I really get focused and begin to accomplish things, it’s time for me to hit the sack and prepare my mind for the next day.

 

 

Sometimes there really is just an abundance of things to get done. But other times we revert back to our high school days of feeling overwhelmed, and we procrastinate until we don’t have enough time left to finish our tasks.  I agree, it’s much more enjoyable to catch up with our favorite TV shows on Netflix, but wouldn’t it be so much more gratifying if we could turn on Netflix without that guilt of unfinished tasks looming over our heads?

Kathleen Alessandro, president of the consulting firm Energized Solutions, in Dearborn, Michigan, estimates that one intrusion occurs every seven minutes and lasts an average of five minutes (including the time it takes to remember what you were doing before the interruption). That means up to 68 disruptions a day. All told, that’s 340 minutes, or 5.6 hours, gone from every day.

So what better way to start your weekend than with some pointers to help you get the most out of your time?! (& plus, if you start now, then you won’t have to worry about stuff over the weekend, right???)

 

How to get more done during your day, feel better about your productivity, and still have time left over to relax. 

1. Be sure to get enough sleep.
If you wake up tired, you’re going to be tired all day which will naturally make you less productive. The less you focus on how tired you are, the more you can focus on accomplishing tasks

2. Make sure your work space isn’t too cluttered.
Our workspaces often mirror the clutter in our brain.  If a clean workspace means a clean mindset, then make sure your space is also free of unnecessary distractions. (SEE MY PREVIOUS POST ABOUT CLEANING UP YOUR WORKSPACE)

3.  Distance yourself from social media.
Often the first thing we do when we log onto our computers or phones is check our social media to see what our friends are up to.  Doing this on occasion is okay, but checking in on people every few minutes is more than a bit excessive. If you can distance yourself from your social media networks even for a little while, not only will you get more done but you will also feel better (try it!!)

4. Make a to-do list, but more importantly, make a TO-DONT list.
We all know that making a to-do list can keep us on track, but what if we took time to acknowledge what we shouldnt do? Something to think about…

5. Start your day with your most dreaded task.If you get the worst part of the day out of the way, it’s all downhill from there right?

6. Don’t try to multitask.
Trying to multitask will not allow for you to give each task the attention it deserves.  A distraction is still a distraction even if it is another task.

7. Limit how often you check your email.
Are you a serial email checker? Schedule when you will check your email, that was it won’t get in the way of completing your other tasks. Optimize your uninterrupted time by telling others that if they need an immediate response then to call you, otherwise you will get back to them later on.

 

8. Learn to tell people no.
If you’re afraid of offending others, then simply try not to worry about that. If you’re turning them down because you have a lot to do or deadlines to meet, chances are they will be more than understanding.
Remember – reading TipsyWriter isn’t procrastinating!! (okay…well maybe just a little)

 

XO,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we have looked at these tough love truths, we have seen that we all, as humans, are flawed.  What we have also noticed is that these flaws are also often what make us stronger in the end.

Take home lesson? Don’t be so hard on yourself when you mess up – learn from your mistakes and allow them to build you up into an even stronger person than you were before.

 

 

So, without rambling any longer, here are the final 3 tough love truths that you may not want to hear.

 

 

1.  The only thing you can absolutely control is how you react to things out of your control. 

Face it, you cannot even begin to control everything around you.  We have been over this before, but if you could control everything, then what would be the point? Things would be easy & we would likely feel even more pointless than before.  What you CAN control though, is how you react to tough situations.  It is almost always the way that we react to those situations that shapes what will ultimately become of the predicament.

 

2.You need to own your issues.

It’s hard to admit a lot of times that we can be at the root of our own issues. But the sooner you own up to that and accept it, the sooner you can begin to make the right changes towards correcting those issues.  If you sit around placing all of the blame elsewhere then it will only become increasingly harder to make appropriate adjustments to alleviate the stress that the situation has caused.

 

3. One of the greatest freedoms is truly not caring what everyone else thinks of you. 

Letting others’ opinions dictate what you do/decide can quickly give others the control over your life that they desire.  The sooner you quit being so cautious of what others think, the sooner you can take ownership of your life and the happier you will be.  Happiness from making decisions that you really want is incomparable to happiness caused by indirectly trying to please others before yourself.

 

 

XO,

If you enjoyed this installment, check out the rest of the series:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Within this “3 Things You May Not Want To Hear” series, there has been some backlash regarding other individuals not fully agreeing with the points being made.

Again, I want to emphasize that the points themselves are adapted from another source (see Part 1 for a direct link).

Beyond that, though, we are all entitled to our own unique opinions.  People are going to disagree with us & we will certainly disagree with many of the opinions of others.  That doesn’t mean that their opinions are wrong.  If we agreed with everyone all of the time, then our world would be a dreadfully boring place.

 

 

Moving on, here are 3 more things that you may not necessarily want to hear (tough love is still tough, I know), but will make you stronger in the end.

 

 

1.  One of the hardest decisions you will ever face in life is choosing whether to walk away or take another step forward. 

Sometimes when things in life get hard, we want to just give up and move along to something easier but less gratifying.  When we face such a crossroads, it is then up to us to decide which is the better decision.  Yes, there will be times when giving up may be the best option for that point in time.  But most of the time, the pay off will be that much greater if we stick with it for just a little while longer.  We too often underestimate our strength and abilities when we are under pressure.  Keep your head and I bet you can do more than even you realize you can.

 

2. Some people will lie to you. 

One of my clearest preschool memory is of tattling on another girl to the teacher because I thought that girl was lying to me. Apparently, in my naivety, I didn’t think that I deserved to be lied to.  If you’re an honest person and pride yourself on that fact, then the fact that people lie to us fairly frequently may come as a disappointment.  Of course, most of the time we deserve others’ honesty, but sadly we cannot make a person tell us the truth 100% of the time.

 

3. You have to take care of yourself first. 

My mother always beat it into my head that she would always put my needs ahead of hers.  As a kid, I didn’t really understand that.  I had always heard that if you don’t watch out for yourself, then no one else will. We are the only people who are guaranteed to ALWAYS have our back, and I trust myself a whole heck of a lot more to protect myself than I do anyone else.  So before you go sacrificing everything you have for someone else’s gain, think about the long term consequences it will have on YOU and ONLY THEN decide if it’s truly worth it.

 

 

XO,

For more in this series check out:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 4 (still to come)

As we discussed in Part 1, sometimes tough love is the most constructive. Very little is gained by constantly being uplifted by others’ words.  Sure, it may temporarily lift your spirits, but all things that go up must come down and there is very little to learn there.  Constructive is generally best when it comes to advice.

So, in continuation of last time, here are 3 more things that you may not want to hear – but remember: tough love makes us stronger.

 

1. You have failed in the past & you WILL fail again. 

Failure, as much of a bummer as it may be at the time, always teaches us some sort of lesson.  Of course, sometimes the lesson is as tough as the failure itself.  I mean, who wants to reflect on the fact that you failed.  But the sooner you can face that hard fact and come to terms with the fact that, inevitably, you will fail again, the sooner you can prepare yourself for next time.  Maybe the first time your failure was completely unexpected – by learning from that experience, you can better cushion your next failure and speed up your learning from it.

 

2. It’s often the deepest pain that empowers you to grow to your full potential.

Have you ever fallen and decided not to get up?  No, you haven’t. Eventually, you felt empowered and motivated to get up. So you did, and from there on out you were probably more careful so as to not make the same mistake again.  We hear rags-to-riches stories all the time – an individuals comes from nothing at all to becomes someone great and someone who truly values their experiences.  Yes, there are exceptions, but (as it has been repeated thoroughly) we learn most from our mistakes.  Pain WILL get you down, but the key is to not let it KEEP you down. You’re stronger than your pain.

 

3. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never have enough. 

If your childhood was anything like mine, then you were probably repeatedly told to be thankful for what you have “because there are children starving in Africa.”  I may have been a bit out of the ordinary by providing my usual “there are also children starving in the United States” rebuttal, but hey – maybe I educated a few people.  Anyways, I digress.  Whether we want to admit it or not, if we can’t even be thankful for what we already have, then how much fulfillment will even more stuff bring? Sadly, probably not too much.  I’m not saying that more things aren’t great sometimes, but at one point we really wanted the things that we have now. & pretty soon, those new things that we so desperately want will mean nearly nothing to us.  So be appreciative & grateful. It really goes a long way.

 

 

Once again, don’t EVER give up on yourself.  Tough love is hard to take, but it WILL make you stronger.

 

 

Look for Part 3 coming soon!

 

XO,

 

If you’d like to read more in this series, then check out:
Part 3 (still to come)
Part 4 (still to come)

Have you ever really paid attention to the advice that people give you.  A lot of times we think that advice should be uplifting and complimentary of the individual at hand. Unfortunately, this only makes their head swell & is of no real use to them.  What they really need is advice that will spur their motivation to grow and better themselves.

With that being said, this doesn’t mean that advice has to make someone feel guilty.  You will, however, notice that most moving advice is not always the easiest to hear and it is very rarely what we want to hear.

So, without further ado – here are 3 things that you may not necessarily want to hear, but they are will help you in the long run. (Adapted from the original list which can be found here)

 

 

1. Everything is currently the way it is supposed to be, & there’s nothing you can do to alter that. 

This, I recognize, is a complex statement – but look at it this way: things have always worked out haven’t they? It may not always seem true, but things will always work out the way that they are supposed to work out. You have control over yourself & minor situations around you – but it’s unrealistic to think that you can gain control over everything and completely dictate what happens to you. PLUS, how little fun would that be??

 

2. “Everything is going to be alright; maybe not today, but eventually.”

We, as humans, want things now – the burger king way: how we want it & when we want it.  We have GOT to move on from a mindset of instant gratification.  When we were kids, this seemed like the logical way – but then again, as kids, we were generally handed whatever we asked for.  If we are repeatedly given everything we want though, we never really understand what it means to be grateful.  Just remember, things have always gotten better – you may be in a rut now, but you’re strong. Eventually you will find a way to climb out and be even stronger than you were before because of it.

 

3. Not until you are lost in this world can you begin to find your true self. 

Who wants to be lost? Being lost brings about panic & anxiety. Heck, we have enough panic and anxiety in every other aspect of our lives, why would we want even more? Just as alcoholics must first admit that they are alcoholics (we’ve all heard the speech “hi. I’m [name], & I am an alcoholic), realizing & admitting to yourself that you are lost is the first step to living the life you want.  And just as alcoholics announce their accomplishments by saying things such as “…& I have been sober for [number of days]” & people look to them with respect, you too can be proud of your accomplishments. With great struggle comes great rewards.
Never stop believing in yourself.

 

XO,