Monday, March 24, 2014

Quotes

Perfectionism keeps you stuck in the land of "you can't do, be or have enough.
- Kadena Tate

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Day 25 Video Challenge

Determination is a key to success, it is a key to achieving goals, to have motivation, to achieve excellence.  Today I share my thoughts on Determination in my video challenge.  You can watch it here.

What are you determined to do?  May I encourage you to be determined to be courageous, be generous, be loving, and LiveBIG!

Monday, March 17, 2014

Quotes

When everything feels like an uphill struggle, just think of the view from the top!

Saturday, March 15, 2014

I Am Poem

I Am
by Misty W Gilbert

I am courageous, generous, and loving
for by knowing who I am
I am empowered to be a powerful creator.

I am not afraid of the truth of my life
for by learning more about me
I am able to discover who God called me to be.

I am going to share my story
for by living down my fears
I am able to be authentic and real.

I am convinced it won't be easy
for the truth to be known
but I will pursue sharing the message God gave me.

I am not worried about the impact
for truth lives in spite of the lies
I am determined to have faith and believe.

I am rewriting my story
for it is my unique life
I am a princess of the One True King.

In this, I will press on and be courageous, be generous and be loving!

Thursday, March 13, 2014

LOVE your flaws, mistakes and weaknesses...

for me, the best thing is LOVING my flaws, my mistakes, and my weaknesses 
because I Am Amazing!!! 
and yes, and YOU are too.......



a {workaholic} nugget from LiveBIG

I recounted my full LiveBIG experience to you.  All my notes.  All my thoughts.  How I took the things I was experiencing during the conference as lessons and challenges and learning tools.  As I continue to work through this information and develop my tools, I want to share with you some of the biggest nuggets I got out of the experience.

As the LiveBIG coaches, Gerald, Tony & Marci, worked with us through their materials, we  also had a Buddy that we worked with.  The buddy was someone we had personal conversation with.  These conversations were times of sharing.  Times of getting to know each other.  Times of asking questions.  Times of answering questions.  Sometimes the questions were easy.  Sometimes the questions were hard.  Sometimes I knew the answers.  Sometimes I didn't.  Sometimes I couldn't even try to find a reason, a clue, an answer.  Sometimes it took reflection to try to find the answers.  Sometimes answers came in ways I didn't anticipate.  Sometimes I had to leave the question unanswered praying that in time I would know the answer.

One of the areas of my focus this year has been to address and work on my Workaholic pattern and create a Work Life Balance.  This was one of those things for me where I have tried to find answers and put pieces of the puzzle together and yet I have struggled to do so.

I love to work.  I love the satisfaction that comes from hard effort.  I love to create.  I love to take chaos and create clarity out of it. I love to create processes.  I love to dig for the details and create a picture that matches the end result that is desired.  I love to make things perfect.  I love to see things come together.  I love to take a mess and organize it.  These are things I love to do and have learned to do well.  

So well that I devote an enormous amount of time to it.  But why?

I have nobody to support me (no family or husband - other than myself) and have felt a drive to get ahead, to achieve, to accomplish, to conquer, to succeed.  This has been one of "my reasons" to be a workaholic.

But is this the only reasons why? 

Is it the "real" reason???

I have been told lots of reasons from others as to why they think I am a workaholic.  I have been told because I have a love of money.  I am not submitting to God's plan for my life.  I am running from something.  I have fear.  I expect perfection.  Because of a lot of reasons people think I am a workaholic, I have been labeled things, many things that I never felt were true.  Not that these reasons can't be true for some people, or that I didn't have my moments when it was used to run from something, but in searching my soul, learning about myself and putting efforts into figuring stuff out as to why I am the way I am, none of these were my core issue that continued the workaholic patterns.

In prayer with God, I have asked him to show me, help me to see the true reasons, to help me figure out the reasons why my work life balance is not where I want it to be and to give me the tools to make the changes.  I have made small changes, but the core issue remained.  I have become frustrated trying to fix the balance I feel is lopsided.  

I work and am drawn to work, a lot.  The industry I am in requires lots of hours.  The government is creating my work to be even more challenging and less fun.  The process of staying on top of all the changes makes it hard to reduce my hours.  The need for balance is even greater as the stress continues to impact the lives of my clients and my own life.

Through the process at the LiveBIG Conference, I got to share one of my main goals, to create work life balance.  I got asked hard questions.  I got to contemplate them.  I got to spend time thinking about more experiences that have created the meaning and definition I have given to me, to work, to play, to life, and to balance.  I uncovered lies that I believe that have created my reaction to why I absolutely love to work.  In analyzing these reactions, I discovered amazing keys to the reason I work so much.  Keys that have unlocked what I have been searching to find for a long time.   

Keys that are going to impact the changes to the work life balance quest I seek to obtain.  Keys that have been missing to help me in this process to unlock what is holding me back from having and living the life I want in service to my God.  Keys that I never dreamed were part of my belief system.  Keys that will be the tools I have been praying for to change me.  Keys that will empower me in a whole new way.

The key has unlocked the door.  But now I must take the time to identify all the lies and replace the the lies with truth so the door can swing completely open.  I must believe the truth so that I can walk through that door.  I must then make the efforts to change the meaning and definition to get past the doorway.  I must then create new experiences as I walk through this doorway into a the hallway, up the stairs, that will lead to another room, through another doorway into the unknown of my palace.

I am excited about this process of learning and growing.  Though its hard and though its taking deep dark work, even though there are days I get discouraged in the process, the results are phenomenal.  

Once again I am reminded that we each have choices.  That we each have the power to choose.  That when we truly seek God with our whole heart, He will provide answers.  He will give you the tools.  He will give you the power to be who He created you to be, if you want to be.  But you have to want to do the deep dark work.  You have to be willing to face your fears.  You have to be willing to ask the hard questions.  You have to be willing to discover the answers.  You have to be willing to implement the changes.

Be Courageous.  Be Generous.  Be Loving.  Choose to LiveBIG!

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

my siblings in 1988

1988  LtoR:
Mindy, Terry aka Buddy (back in the day), & Misty

Wow!!! A blast from the past!
A friend shared this photo on Facebook...I don't have too many photos of the three of us!
Look at that face (my face)...LOL
...I remember these days.  They were not happy days.

Quotes

Monday, March 10, 2014

Quotes

Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business. 
- Thomas Merton

Sunday, March 9, 2014

why do you stalk me?

My journey this year is focused on changing me.  To a greater level.  I am determined to work through my intense crap.  

Because I have made this choice and am avidly focused on clearing out the junk, discovering the truth, affirming the positive, rewriting my story, changing my focus, and believing what I discover; I am finding that I am facing even more challenges on the very things that have created fears.  Deep fears.  Hurt.  Deep hurt.

How can this be?  It's like I am asking for these challenges to increase, but I truly haven't asked for that to happen.  I had enough already.  It's like they are coming at me to try to make me sink, to drown me in the waves, to make me contemplate giving up.

How can this be???  Is it some sort of joke?  Because I am serious about this, you want to make me prove it?  Believe I like a challenge, but this seems to be creating a sickness in the pit of my stomach that I am not sure how to resolve.

You see I have issues with guys.  It's a known fact.  In a work setting, no problem.  I am in my zone and can communicate with you on your level.  In fact, I have been told you will be blown away by how I interact with you.  In an networking setting, no problem as long as we at some point can talk about business, employees, budgets, goals, and other like work stuff.  In a social setting, no problem as long as you are someone I know and who is married to one of my girlfriends.  You are single and you seem to wanna hang around and keep staring at me and looking me down?  This I avoid.

In working through why I have such fears of this I have tried to just face them so that I can find the answers and locate the truth.  I haven't totally figured out the whys, even if rape was part of the picture, I don't believe its all of the picture.  

I decided that I needed to take the compliments and not fight them.  I would accept them and not act like a snob.  I would be kind, but firmly define my boundaries.  Not the ones you want me to have, but the ones I want.  The ones that make me happy.  I am not obligated to get to know you.  I am not obligated to give you a chance.  I have a choice in whom I want to date. I have a choice IF I even want to date.  I will believe I am beautiful and not a piece of meat even if you look at me in such a manner.

But how do you truly work through this type of intense crap when someone doesn't get you are not interested in them?  When they sit in their car watching you walk/run at the track?  When they move their car to the other end of the parking lot to get a better view?  When you ignore them and keep running laps they then park right by the entrance forcing you to acknowledge them when you have to walk across the driveway?  And then when they follow you home?  

Oh hell!  You are now making me sick.  Really sick.  You are making me want to run.  FAST.  To forget that I am important.  To forget that there is something better on the other side of this mess.  You are making me second guess why I had this resolve to face my fears.

Then I remember why I took two rounds of self defense classes because of guys like you!  Don't even think of it dude, I will take you down.  I am not playing games.  This might make me sick, but I refuse to be afraid of you. I might have been at one time, but you will not win. 

Every bit of confidence I was working on creating and developing is being challenged to my very core, but believe me when I say I am determined to win.  

Because I love ME!  
And because ME is worth it.  
And because God is with ME and he wants me to win.

That's why.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

I Am Poem

I Am
by Misty W Gilbert

I am digging deep into the lies
I am affirming the truth
I am facing my fears
I am not gonna run from them anymore
I am believing in me
I am reshaping my story
I am choosing to live big

For I am courageous, generous and loving

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Day 11 Video Challenge

Each of us have experienced things that we have given a meaning and a definition to.  Those definitions create triggers, which create reactions.  Many times those reactions are negative and we form a negative belief system from these experiences.  As we work through processing what we want to keep and what we want to get rid of, we have to delete some files.  We have to trash the ugly stuff.  We have to attempt to reformat the hard drive.  We have to increase the positive belief system to overwrite the negative belief system.

Each of us have a belief system.  What tools are you using to create a new belief system for yourself?  I would love to learn from you and hear how you do this.  

You can listen to my thoughts on this in today's video here.

a {without shame} nugget from LiveBIG

I recounted my full LiveBIG experience to you.  All my notes.  All my thoughts.  How I took the things I was experiencing during the conference as lessons and challenges and learning tools.  As I continue to work through this information and develop my tools, I want to share with you some of the biggest nuggets I got out of the experience.

The second day of the LiveBIG Conference, Tony Litster (one of the LiveBIG Coaches) was speaking and sharing thoughts on how our triggers are based on emotions that dig you deeper into your fears.  Fears that make you want to hide.  Fears that make you want to escape.  How these unexamined patterns will run us.  He encouraged us to go to a place of self acceptance.  He told us we will need to examine without shame.

When he asked if there were questions, I asked:  "How do you examine without shame?"  You can read my full post of my encounter with Tony here as he worked with me individually and what that experience was for me and the incredible way he was able to dig into my soul and the message he had for me, a complete eye opener about me, something I never dreamed would have been a lie I was believing.

What I want to share with you is the powerful answer to my question that he left me with to ponder:

"Shame is I am bad.  It tells us that I am not worthy."  

Smack.  A kick in the gut.  

How do you examine without shame?  You have to change the negative belief system you have.  

The way to do this is to change your story.

The way to change your story is to write new stuff.

The way to write new stuff is to change your focus.

The way to change your focus is to look at the truth.

The way to look at the truth and create new patterns is to remind yourself frequently, put these messages everywhere to reinforce new automatic thoughts.

This is powerful.  Simple yet powerful.  The choice is yours!

May I encourage you to not look at yourself with shame?  Shame may be all you know.  But I promise you, its not the message God wants for you!  

May I encourage you to not look at yourself as not worthy?  Unworthy may be how you feel deep in your heart.  But I promise you, its not the message God wants for you!

May I encourage you to rewrite your story?  It may be the only story you know.  But I promise you, its not the story that God has for you.  He has a plan for your life and the story is not written the way you are reading it.

May I encourage you to change your focus?  Your current focus may be the only lens you are used to seeing out of, but I promise you, God has a new lens for you!

May I encourage you to face the lies with the truth?  You may not be able to differentiate between the lies and the truth, but I promise you, God will show you the truth if you seek Him and ask Him too.  Truth is louder than lies.

May I encourage you to develop new patterns of loving, positive, encouraging thoughts? Unloving, negative and discouraging thoughts may be all you know in your brain waves, but I promise you, God will show you loving, positive, and encouraging wave lengths if you want a new ingrained belief system.

This is a big task to do when you have as much intense crap as I do in my life from facing years of abuse, extreme negative feedback, complete shame based relationships, ingrained thought processes and concepts based on you are not good enough, unloving actions and accusations to discourage.   But I believe you can do it.  If you are as determined as I am, you can and you will!  And God will give you the strength to do it if you have faith and believe.

Rewrite your story.
Change your focus.
Find the truth.
Create new patterns.
Remind yourself.


Remember, LiveBIG friends!

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Quotes

Day 10 Video Challenge

Yesterday I asked you if you are wallowing in your crap or are you letting your crap build you a beautiful garden?  

Sometimes during and in that process it creates growing pains, difficulties, hardships, hurts deep, and even creates more pain then what you already had.  We tend to fight the pain.  However if we were to give into the pain and understand the pain is what is necessary and needed for us to have healing; without us having that experience we don't get the life, blood to the wound, strength, encouragement, and to create healing.

In our relationship with God, sometimes we try to do this all on our own and fight going to him for our strength to have him help us work through the cleansing and healing that needs to happen in our life.  Instead we need to go to him for the strength in the process.

I am going through one of those tough spells.  Those times when you can't shake that funk.  Those times when you can't figure out what all is making life unbearable.  Difficult.  Hard.  Challenging.  Frustrating.  When all you want to do is cry.

Sure, some of it is understood.  Challenges with clients.  Issues with triggers.  Issues with my past.  Issues with relationships.  Issues with negative thoughts.  Issues with being overwhelmed.  Issues with sleep.  Overall, just issues with life.  I pray that through the next few days I can understand more what message God is wanting me to hear and that I will be in tune to my connection with him to be ready to accept his message.

I just want to remind you today to give into the pain.  As you do, you will experience the healing.  It is hard, difficult and challenging.  Through the painful process you will get to a day that you are healed and it won't be the pain you have now.

You can listen to today's video post here.

song ~ faithful

Faithful
by Hawk Nelson

You never promised me that this would be easy
I never knew that anything could be this hard
I wanna trust that You know what You're doin'
But right now, I'm just fallin' apart
It's hard to see it when I'm livin' in the moment
But Your love's still written on my heart
I get lost when I feel the wind blowin'
I gotta cling to who You are

'Cause You are good
Even when You're not understood

No matter how many skies fall down
I'm covered under the peace I've found
You're my shelter when there's nowhere else to go
No matter how many times I break
You promise always to keep me safe
You're my rescue when I'm spinning outta control
You are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful

I'm leaving doubt and sorrow in the distance
I'm gonna trust, and cast my fears aside
My life's a work that I know You'll finish
I know I'm gonna be alright

It's You I'll chase
Even when I can't see Your face

No matter how many skies fall down
I'm covered under the peace I've found
You're my shelter when there's nowhere else to go
No matter how many times I break
You promise always to keep me safe
You're my rescue when I'm spinning out of control
You are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful
You are

And oh, oh, oh, oh
My God is always faithful
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
(My God, my God)
And oh, oh, oh, oh
My God is always faithful
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
(My God, my God)

No matter how many skies fall down
I'm covered under the peace I've found
You're my shelter when there's nowhere else to go
No matter how many times I break
You promise always to keep me safe
You're my rescue when I'm spinning outta control
Lord, you are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful
You are
Oh, You are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful
You are faithful, faithful
You are

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Day 9 Video Challenge

I had time with a friend Monday night...we went and ate sushi.  In our conversation, I got to share my experience with her.  I got very emotional in recounting this to her.  The LiveBIG Conference I went to January 2014 has really impacted my world!

I have 3 tickets to give away, and have so far given 1 away.  I really dig this LiveBIG experience!  It is one of a handful of things that truly has impacted my world in a huge way...and I share a few reasons why, and I share that I am working through my intense crap.  I give an analogy of this process...and I ask:



Are you wallowing in your crap or are you building a beautiful garden out of this manure? 


You can watch this video here as I talk about it.  


I would love you to give you an opportunity to go to a LiveBIG conference if it is something that you want to do if you are determined to change your world, as much as I am determined to.  YOU CAN LIVE BIG!  Go for it friends. I love you!


Monday, March 3, 2014

Day 8 Video Challenge

Here is the all NEW ME!

I watched the first two hours of the Oscars last night, for the first time.  I enjoyed it.  It was fun to critique these speakers.  I talk about my review of Ellen, the host, in this video.  I also share a conversation I had with one of the LiveBIG Coaches, Tony Litster on Perfection vs Improvement.

I share some thoughts here.  Are you striving to be perfect or are you trying to improve?

LiveBIG today!

Quotes

Commit today to cherish and honor the people in our lives, those whom God put into our lives.  Simply make it your goal and your purpose to add value to them, consistently, intentionally, and aggressively.
 - Dr. Walid Saade

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Day 7 Video Challenge

My hair has always been long, very long, and is naturally curly...its something I have always LOVED.  I decided to face my fears, cut it and donate my hair to Locks of Love.  You can watch the video here as I talk about this experience.  

It is an amazing feeling!!!  Very light.  Can't keep my hands off of it.  Here is the all NEW ME!

Be Courageous.  Be Generous.  Be Loving.  LiveBIG!

Quotes

Saturday, March 1, 2014

I Am Poem

I Am
by Misty W Gilbert

I am courageous
I am generous
I am loving
I am a unique woman
I am single
I am a firstborn
I am passionate
I am determined
I am fiercely competitive
I am practical
I am authentic
I am a giver
I am an overcomer
I am in love with music
I am a very fast typist
I am a writer
I am knitter
I am a reader
I am a pianist
I am a clock collector
I am fond of shabby chic touches
I am amazed by vintage items
I am inspired by red
I am refreshed by white
I am classy in black
I am moved by water
I am striving to be a minimalist
I am aspiring to lead a quiet life
I am in love with God
I am faith driven
I am dedicated to everything I touch
I am entrepreneur
I am a penny pincher
I am a planner
I am into the details
I am not who I used to be
but I am ME

Bartlett Pear Tree Blossoms March 2014

buds fixing to blossom

blossoms taking over the tree

Day 6 Video Challenge

Today I talk about how Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter are seasons in nature that we get to experience various aspects of change.  I love to think about the analogy of the seasons in nature and encourage you to look at your life the same way.  Just as it says in Ecclesiastes, our lives will have a time for everything.  

Enjoy the season of life you are in and make the most of it as you live on your courageous journey!  

You can watch my message to you here.