Do you like Christmas Shopping? If yes, congratulations! You don’t need this blog today. But if you don’t. Hang around and I’ll tell you ways you can make it a little more enjoyable this year. First, how amazing are all those decorations? Focus on them. The amount of shiny, sparkly things to look at is overwhelming. But never too much, right? Well, sometimes but mostly the stores do it with taste and elegance. Soak in the season. Give yourself so time to just stare at the bea

Isn’t this the most gorgeous picture? I love it. I know I would drift off to sweet dreams every night in this room! I do know people who put Christmas trees in their bedrooms and this picture makes me want to do it! We had a skinny tree that we got rid of over the summer to make some room in our storage shed and now I’m so sorry. It would have been perfect for something like this. I think you know how much I love my Christmas tree and I have typically stick with a red theme s

Do yourself a favor and take a little off your plate for the new year. We all tend to think we will start making improvements once the new year hits. We have a whole month to go in this year. Do you want to coast or do you want to make it the best Christmas/holiday season ever? I’m hoping you are going with the latter. The Hopefulist is all about living a happier, more joyous life and this is our season! If you are anything like me, you love everything about the holidays. The

It’s December…already! Can you believe it? Is this the time of year that you usually take your foot off the gas and coast into the new year? I’m here to tell you no way, Jose! This is when we should be working the hardest on ourselves so we can enjoy all the end of year festivities to the fullest! So we can feel present and worthy of all the good things to come. When we feel worthy, everything is better! You are always worthy of good things but I know that we don’t always fee

It’s time. There is only way day left until the Thanksgiving feast. One day until we get to wake up at whatever time we want and hopefully see a parade. I’m hearing the winds will be over 40 miles per hour which will surely ground the balloons but fingers crossed! Are you cooking? Will you prepare everything the day of or have you been at it all week? My mom used to cook the turkey overnight and this was when I still participated in the “Biggest Party Night” of the year. So,

I came across this picture in my memories yesterday and I had to laugh. I’ve often said that my dog, Tucker is my greatest inspiration. This is just one example of why. That rawhide bone is bigger than she is! She didn’t care. She wanted it and did her best to get it. Luckily, the other two, much larger dogs decided to humor her and let her think she could have it while she was visiting with me to my brother’s house. When she got tired of pulling it all over the house, she la

It’s a holiday week. That fills some of you with joy while others may feel a sense of dread. Family dynamics can sometimes make gatherings a little volatile. If you are one of those people who are made to feel less than when around certain family members, remember this… be you, always. If you like who you are then nobody else’s opinion matters. Yes, of course you want to be liked. Even more, you want to be accepted but if that isn’t the case…be happy with who you are and try

Yesterday I talked about how important it is to live your purpose. But I know some of you don’t know what that is. It can be anything that brings you joy. It can be anything that you want to share. It doesn’t have to be something huge and grand. It can be knitting scarves for your family. Or selling them online. It can be about becoming the best Words With Friends player ever. It can be about helping at your local soup kitchen. It can be whatever you want it to be. But it mus

Do you want to be happy or do you want to be satisfied? Is there a difference? YES! You can feel happy every single day and yet still not satisfied. What brings you satisfaction is…living your purpose? Whatever that may be for you. The first time I lived at the Jersey Shore full time I had a full life. I had a job that I loved co-hosting a morning show at an area radio station. I great group of friends at work that I spent a lot of time with. I also had a great group of frien

I got this sticker from one of the lovely women at my Rise business conference. I met her on the last day as we were waiting to enter the venue. I was tempted to put it on myself right then but I waited and now I’m so glad I did. I have it on my bathroom mirror and it is my daily reminder that I have all the power I need. And so do you. What is you want? It’s Wednesday which is typically the day we are feeling a little wrung out. We’ve got two days into the week and almost th

I’m reading a book right now called “Mindset” by Carol Dweck. It’s so good and really eye-opening. Mindset is so important in how you see your life. The good and bad. If you constantly think about what you don’t have, you will never have enough. If you choose to think about how much you do have you will find more and more to be grateful for. It’s true. But there is so much more to mindset than I ever realized. There is a “fixed” mindset and a “growth” mindset. Whichever one y

We always think of failure as a bad word. Guess what? It isn’t. It just means what you have been doing isn’t working. It’s a sign! A signal to pivot. You know what isn’t working so now you can focus on another direction that can work. We must stop believing that a failure means we should quit. How many times have you tried something that didn’t go as planned? A lot, I’m betting. Did you take that as a sign that you shouldn’t be doing that certain thing? I hope not. If you did

I’m even more fired up now than when I got back from my Rise Business Conference. I took the first day to kind of relax. Then on Tuesday I was starting to fall back into my lazy ways and talk myself out of doing stuff I know I need to do. I’m not sure if it’s just laziness or fear of not finding the information I need but I seem to hesitate often. You know what I did yesterday after I recorded my podcast? I just did stuff. I went through the list of things I wrote that I want

Still on my high from the Rise Business conference I attended last weekend (thank goodness) and I want to teach you all the things I learned. The number one takeover is that with so much technology at our fingertips, we can virtually figure out everything. Want to start your own business? You can literally ask those exact words to google or Siri or Alexa and they will give you answers. It would probably be better to ask how to start a specific business but you can start as va

Do you worry that your kids spend too much time online? Are you being a good model for them? You have no credibility when you tell your kids to do as you say, not as you do. If your kids are watching you with a phone in your face for most of the day what do expect them to do? I don’t have kids so you can dismiss what I have to say since I don’t know what it’s like. You’re are absolutely right. I don’t know what it is really like. This is my opinion and you can take it or leav

Pictured above is the first post Rachel Hollis of “Girl, Stop Aplogizing” fame liked of mine. She went on to like a number of other posts. She was able to view them because I used the hashtag Rise Business (htat I attended) which allows anyone to scroll through any post with that hashtag. She hasn’t liked a post of mine since Day 2 of the conference. I feel so used! I’m kidding of course but some people take social media way too seriously. Social media is great. I’m a big fan

I have a smart phone, just like you and most other people. I even have one of the latest versions of the iPhone. I will have that bad boy for many years to come though because it’s so darn expensive. But what I’ve been wondering is, do they call it a smart phone because it helps make you smart or does it, in fact, make you dumb? I’m going to say it is the latter. In all different ways. I just got back from my Rise Business conference with Rachel and Dave Hollis. As Rachel ent

Do you know those people who never take chances? People who seem to be fine living the life in the same box they’ve always been in? Are you one of those people? If you are truly are happy with your life exactly the way it is, then this isn’t for you. But if you are longing for something more…listen up. One of my favorite things to say as of late is; Are you trying to get safely to death? I hope the answer to that is Oh, Shell no! Let me explain. I think people let fear stop t

Two days until Rise Business and you know that I am super psyched for this. I know this is going to be a life altering experience and I am going to share it all with you! You don’t need to buy a ticket, book a flight or get a hotel. No! I will do it all for you. And share all of the wisdom I learn. I will be doing live updates and posting tons of pictures. I hope to get you all as excited as I am! I was watching a live stream of Rach and Dave yesterday who are hosting the con

I admit that the Christmas creep gets sooner and sooner every year. It used to bother me. I wanted all things to come in their due time. But one year, I just embraced the rush of all things Christmas and you know what? I loved it. Here’s why. There is nothing I love more (except being on a boat!) than sitting in my living room looking at my tree. I keep the lights on all night and I love that it is the first thing I see as I come out of the bedroom in the morning. I love deck