I know I haven’t written in months, but I wanted to give a quick update on where I’ve been since February. I started training to become a life coach through the World Coach Institute which has been extremely valuable. Not only have I learned how to coach, but it’s helped me build my confidence as well. It has also made me realize that I am on the right path. I enjoy coaching and would love to help you achieve your goals.
Introducing NMC Coaching
I’d like to introduce my new website, NMCCoaching.com. I have launched a new blog over there which focuses on personal development and ways to help your children. NMC Coaching stands for Navigating Motherhood Coaching. I work with moms who want to make real changes in their lives.
Are you transitioning into a new career?
Do you want to feel more productive throughout your day?
Do you want to feel more confident in your parenting abilities?
Do you feel like you’ve lost your identity as a mom and want to rediscover what lights you up?
Do you simply need help regrouping during these uncertain times?
Due to Covid19, I am unemployed which has given me the time to devote to my coaching business. That leads me to the topic of this blog and what will happen to it. I hope to still post on here once per month. I have a Mother’s Day post coming up. Eventually, I hope to tie the two blogs together, but haven’t figured it out yet. This blog has been a labor of love for me. It’s been my introduction to professional blogging, but still remains personal. It’s been part of our journey with some helpful tips thrown in. I hope you will continue to check back for updates and of course, my older posts will still be here. If you are interested in personal development and parenting tips and tricks, come over to NMCCoaching.com and check it out. I will be offering a weekly newsletter with freebies plus building a community of likeminded moms who are working on achieving their goals. Most of all, I want to thank you for visiting my little corner on the web.
Around the time I was brainstorming for the perfect word for 2020, this wonderful thing popped up in my inbox. Since the beginning of the year, I have been participating in the Best Decade Ever challenge with Mel Robins. For those who don’t know, it’s a totally free 30 day challenge that teaches you to dream bigger. In her live videos, Mel talks about the science behind dreams, why you should dream bigger and how to break those huge dreams down into achievable steps. If you are not participating, I recommend that you do. The program is simple, doesn’t take up much time and it has given me clarity on several areas of my life. It has given me that push to work on my goals plus be more intentional about self-care and bringing love into my life.
Dream Bigger
The main part of the challenge asks you to dream bigger. Instead of just focusing on 2020, Mel is asking you to think about the next decade and how you can make it the best decade ever. What are your big dreams? What can you accomplish in this decade? You find out by asking yourself, what are my dreams? Then you write down the first five things that come to mind. You can do this any time of day, but I prefer to do this in the morning. If you do this each day, you start to train yourself to think bigger. It also helps with creating positive energy, seeing reoccurring dreams and can help you gain clarity. I’ve seen so many amazing dreams posted, but here are my big five.
Build a life coaching business,
Get in the best shape of my life,
Make a steady income from this blog,
Find a loving and supportive relationship,
Have a second child.
Some of my other dreams are to find my tribe, travel, build my dream house and move out of state. Most of these dreams are broad and not specific and that’s okay. There are no rules when writing down your dreams. Whatever comes to mind is perfectly fine. Don’t over think it. If you have the same dreams every day, write those down. If your dreams are different, that’s fine as well. If you never accomplish these dreams or if they change over time, that’s okay. The point is to learn the skill of thinking about your dreams and realizing that they are possible.
Self Limiting Beliefs
Most of the time, we don’t even get started achieving our dreams because we tell ourselves that our dreams are stupid. We tell ourselves that we are too young, too old, not smart enough, not good enough or that we don’t deserve it. The self limiting beliefs can be endless. We are our own worst critics. We tell ourselves things that we would never tell anyone else. Mell offers a free tool that helps you get clear on your self limiting beliefs and how to get rid of them. This is hard work, but we have to train our brains to think the opposite of what we’ve all been thinking about ourselves for years. Old habits die hard.
Check out this video on self limiting beliefs.
Brick By Brick
Last year, I wrote a post about my take aways from the book, Take Control of Your Life. Also, by Mel Robins. In that book, there was a concept where you build a foundation brick by brick. Well, this is how you achieve your dreams. You break each dream down into small achievable steps. In week two of the course, one of the assignments is to simply pick one dream out of your five and explore it further for 15 minutes per day. What does that mean? Well, there are many ways to explore a dream. One of my big dreams is to become a life coach and build a business, so that’s the one I chose to explore further. I bought the book Becoming A Professional Life Coach and started reading it. I watched a video of a sample life coaching session. Another day, I read everything on the World Coach Institute’s website. I’ve read blog posts written by life coaches on how to get started, listened to The Life Coach School’s podcast and I’ve done what I call a life coaching brain dump. This is where I’ve generated business ideas as well as a todo list for steps I need to take to get started.
Here’s another example. What if your dream is to start a parenting blog? Your first step would be to do a brain dump. Write down anything that comes to mind regarding your blog.
Blogging Brain Dump
One area may be exploring topic ideas. What do you want your blog to focus on? Here is a list of possible topics.
Developmental milestones,
Toy/product reviews,
Self-care for moms,
Breast-feeding,
Sleep routines,
Kid friendly recipes,
Educational activities.
You get the idea. List as many possible topic ideas as you can think of. Then do another list of action steps that you’d need to do to get started. Some possible items on your list might include
Coming up with a domain name,
Researching and finding a web host,
Explore WordPress themes,
Design website, (Banners, logos, layout etc)
Do research on writing a blog post (SEO, proper format, Pinterest etc)
Create written content,
Find images,
Create social media accounts for your blog,
Learn how to promote and drive traffic to your blog,
Learn about ways to earn an income from your blog.
The point of these lists is to have a place to get started. This way you can see what small steps you can take, what skills you need to learn etc. You can also do a list of steps you’ve taken if you’ve been working on your dream already. That way, you can see your wins and it will keep you moving. Staying with the blog example, one big step would be to choose a domain name. This will be the website address where your blog is located. To achieve this step, you may want to write a list of several blog name ideas. Then choose the one you like best and see if it’s available. If it is, your next step would be to buy the domain. Then your next step would be to find a hosting provider. If you know which one you want to go with, you’d simply go to that website and sign up for a plan. If you are an absolute beginner, your first step may be to do research and compare various hosting companies. There isn’t a right or wrong order to exploring your dream. Just do one small part or actionable step each day and that is how you get started. Brick by brick!
As I write this, I’m wrapping up week two of the course and am looking forward to making more progress on my dreams during weeks three and four. I will keep you posted. What are your big dreams for this decade? What is one step you can take today to get startedd? Let me know in the comments.
Easter is almost here and by now, you probably have decided what to put in your kids Easter baskets. Maybe you have already put everything together. I have everything stacked up in my closet and will spend the next couple of nights putting items into plastic eggs and filling Easter baskets. Then I remembered that I have nothing for Diamond. Before Rosebud was born, the cats got gifts for all kinds of occasions. They had their own stockings for Christmas, they got special treats and toys on their birthdays and I’ve even bought them Valentines Day themed toys. Well, how about an Easter basket? There are only a couple days left, but here are a few items that your pet would love.
Treats
What pet doesn’t love treats? You can get anything from junk food to something organic. There are so many options and flavors.
I didn’t realize these were only food toppers at first, so I bought some and Diamond and Mellow loved these. They would lick the plate clean.
Toys
Toys are a great way to keep your pets entertained even when you are out. I’ve had to try a lot of toys to find one that the cats like. Diamond loves toys that crinkle or toys that she can chase. Mellow loved fleece balls and feather wands.When Diamond was a kitten, she loved bubbles. Not so much anymore. All the dogs I’ve I’ve lived with loved Jolly Balls, tug toys and Kongs.
If you want to get your pet some special Easter toys, here are some cute options.
A Cozy Bed
How about a nice cozy bed? Diamond loves hers. The softer and more plush, the better according to her. There are lots of options and styles to choose from.
Scratching Posts
This category is strictly for cats. A good scratching post or two are definitely a must have if you have cats. This way, they can scratch in a safe place that won’t damage your furniture. Some cats love the rope, but others like scratching on cardboard or even wood.
Accessories
Maybe your fur baby could use a new collar, leash or different food bowl.
Are you getting anything for your pets this year? Tell me in the comments. I’ll end this post with one of my favorite pictures of Diamond.
A year ago today, I published my first post here on this blog. I hear a lot of people say that they are afraid to start a blog, so they spend months and months planning all the details. They get everything set up first. The website, the social media, they have their theme perfect etc. Not me. I just wrote and when I thought it was good enough, I clicked the publish button. That’s not to say I didn’t give my blog any thought. I did. I struggled to come up with a name. I had created another blog, published one post and decided it wasn’t the direction I wanted to go. I tested out Blogger and WordPress. I did some research about which platform would be best and which hosting company would meet my needs. Eventually I settled on one, but I didn’t have any content planned. I figured I’d write whatever comes to mind. This brings me to the first lesson I learned with the launch of my new blog.
Make a Plan
I knew from the beginning I wanted to monetize my blog, but it sounds silly not to plan ahead when it could potentially become a business. I suppose it’s apart of my self limiting beliefs. Sometimes I wonder who will read my blog? Will anyone care about what I have to say? Then will anyone buy the products I recommend? The only way to know is to try, but there has to be strategy involved. Over the past year, I didn’t make a dime, but I’ve learned to plan ahead. I have a master list of posts, a posting schedule that I stick to as much as possible and am working on strategies for using social media to bring traffic to my blog. I also have a strategy for working on posts. I start with a basic outline or full rough draft depending on how well my writing comes together. Next, I do some editing and then search for pictures. Usually this takes place over multiple days. By the final day, I’m making the final edits, adding tags and finally creating a pin image before publishing. I still write from the heart, but there is now a method to this madness.
Community is Everything
In the blogging world, you need to connect with other bloggers. Facebook groups have become so valuable to me in the past year. If it weren’t for the members of these groups, my blog would get virtually no traffic. Something that I already understood was the importance of commenting on others blogs. This is one way to build a connection. Yes, it leaves a back link to your site, but more importantly you are giving attention to another blogger’s work and often times, they will reciprocate. I love getting comments on my blog. My greatest accomplishments are the comments where readers tell me, “I really needed to read this today.” Making someone feel less alone and or offering support to other moms is the whole reason I created this blog. I like sharing children’s activities, but the posts I love the most are the ones where I share something more meaningful. Something that can connect with other human beings on a deeper level. If I’ve done that, then I’ve succeeded.
Flexibility
When I first created the blog, I was on fire. I had so many ideas. I was posting a lot more. I knew consistency was key, but I ran out of steam quickly. Life got busy and I started feeling guilty if I didn’t post every day or three times per week. Now I’m lucky if I post twice which is my goal, but I’ve learned that one really great post is better than five posts that were thrown together at the last minute. I feel guilty about posting less, but I’ve learned that I need to use my time and energy wisely. I need to spend time with Rosebud. I need to occasionally take a night for self care. Sometimes I just need to step away from the screen and that’s okay. Building a following, monetization and my overall goal of using my blog as apart of my future business is going slower than I would like, but that has to be okay if I don’t want to become totally burnt out.
It’s Hard Work
I knew blogging wasn’t easy, but I had no idea there was so much involved. I spend a lot of time creating content, but you know what takes up just as much time? Promotion on social media. Not only self promotion, but sharing and commenting on other people’s content. Remember I said we needed to build community? Well, making those connections is hard work. You have to keep commenting and keep sharing content so that fellow bloggers will comment on and share yours as well. I never realized how much time it would take to build up a following on social media. These days, most blogs are on multiple platforms which can be a full-time job in itself. I’ve learned that I can’t always be on social media posting every day. Although you need to keep posting to keep your followers engaged, I don’t have enough hours in the day, but I do my best to keep everything up to date.
There’s Still a lot to Learn
Finally, I’ve realized that there’s still so much to learn. I’m starting to explore seo. Pinterest is barely accessible, but I have been working with it over the past month. I will write more about that in a future post, but it’s another platform to get used to. I’ve recently began using Amazon affiliate links again. I have to redo the links in my previous posts, but I will be working hard to create content that make people interested in the products. I still have some things to learn about affiliate marketing. I’m always trying to improve my writing and to generate more ideas. There is always room for improvement, but at the same time, I have to be proud of what I’ve learned so far. I never thought I could set this blog up on my own, but I have. I didn’t know if I’d still be up and running after a year, but here I am.
Here’s to another year of blogging, learning, growing and achieving my blogging goals. what are your blogging goals? What are your biggest accomplishments so far? Tell me in the comments.
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