17 Weeks of Learning to Live a Beautiful Life

In some parts of society I might considered a bit too optimistic. I am one of those “sees the glass half full” kinda girls. I am that perky girl you grabbed your coffee from at the McDonald’s drive-thru early in the morning way back in the day. I remember you! You mumbled a gruff greeting and restrained yourself from lunging into the drive-thru window to smack that crooked smile off my cheery face.

Yep.

Just because I tend to see life through rose colored glasses doesn’t mean I don’t get discouraged. I have struggled with depression over the years. There have been lots of reasons. Chronic health issues, near-death experiences, infertility, loss of purpose, stress, inadequacy….Life.

I have had to come to terms with what I can change and what I can’t change.

Do you know that we spend our lives looking forward to those special events? Holidays. Birthdays. Graduation. Vacation.

Or how many of us are waiting to enjoy life when something changes? Our finances. Our weight. Our spouse.

That's a whole lot of wasted time. We have bought into the lie that we have to have "things" or what society deems as success to be happy. Those expectations that we set for ourselves or are placed on us by others can be heavy. They only bring about shallow and meaningless results.

The  million minutes of your life are spent in anticipation, but not appreciation. We simply survive. And more often than not even those big events overwhelm us.

I have a simple philosophy that has kept me sane and smiling all of these years.

I have to learn to live a beautiful life. I have to take what is in my hands and make it count. I have to learn to appreciate each moment.

Living a beautiful life has little to do with wild vacations, extravagant events, shiny possessions and exalted positions.

What if you can’t take a vacation, keep up with Jones’ or rule the world?

Or.

What if your body fails you? What if life hands you an insurmountable challenge? What if your fairy tale turns into a horror show?

What if you lost those things that you feel define you.

My friends. We must learn to embrace those little moments in our day. We must take control and change those things that we can and give those things we can’t to God.

We also have to change what we feel is successful or worthwhile.

For the next 17 weeks (until the end of 2015) I am going to present you with a challenge. These are going to range from encouraging you to take control of your space to learning to take care of you.

You can read more about what brought me to Living a Beautiful life here.

In meantime, I’ve got my first challenge to you almost ready to go! You can look for my challenge every Friday! This will give you a chance to use your weekend to gets your ducks in a row. 

Are you ready to do this with me?

Week 1 - Creating a Cozy Corner

Week 2 - Having a Bad Day? 

Week 3 - On a Walk

Week 4 - Fixin' It Up For Fall

Week 5 - A DIY Pedicure

Week 6 - Creating Frugal & Fancy Feasts

Week 7 - Finding Your Jam

Week 8 - Put on Those Big Girl Skivvies

Week 9 - Handle With Care

Week 10 - Be Someone's Blessing

Week 11 - An Attitude of Gratitude

Week 12 - Light One Up!

Week 13 - Your One Thing

Week 14 - Use Your Words

Week 15 - Mom Fail

Week 16 - Celebrate!

Week 17 - What is Beautiful?