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The new year is now upon us, as if it couldn’t get here fast enough. Excitement and hope are high about what this new time will bring. We start off strong with our new year resolutions, and once again, get serious about our goals. “This will be the year that I will experience breakthroughs,” we tell ourselves. However, before we know it, we’re halfway through the year, and nothing has changed. What happened? Where was that big change in our lives that we were waiting for?
That question in itself is the answer to your question; change didn’t happen, because we were waiting for it to happen. The truth of the matter is, change will never come if you wait for it. Change only comes when you make it happen. You must get out of your comfort zone, and do things that you have never done. You must learn to say “yes” when your comfort zone is telling you “no” or to wait.
Below are four things that you must get used to saying “yes” to, in order to experience the change that you desire to see in your life:
1. Say ‘Yes’ to New Opportunities
The saying goes that opportunities only knocks once. The next time an opportunity presents itself, take it. Be honest with yourself about the pros and cons of saying yes to the opportunity. Is it this the right time? Will there ever be a “right” time? What would it cost you, if you said “no” to the opportunity?
2. Say ‘Yes’ Despite Your Fears
Often, we allow our fears to determine what we say yes to. Take the time to analyze this fear. What are you afraid of? Is it the unknown? Is it failure? Is it success? Once you’ve identified the source of the fear, combat that feeling by focusing on the possible positive outcomes.
3. Say ‘Yes’ to Your Dreams
No one is going to say “yes” to your dreams, if you won’t. If there is something that has been placed on your heart to achieve, take the first step toward making it a reality. the only thing you’ll regret is never trying at all.
4. Say ‘Yes’ to YOURSELF!
You’ve spent so much of your life showing up for others. Now it’s time to show up for yourself. Commit to the plans you have saying you were going to accomplish. Take care of your body. Take care of your mind. You limit the help that you can provide, when you don’t say “yes” to yourself and take care of yourself first.
Someone needs you to say “yes.” They’re waiting on you, and don’t even know it yet! Make 2017 the year that you decide to say “yes,” play full-out, and let your greatness shine!
This article was written by The BOSS Network Influencer, Alicia Bowens.
Alicia Bowens is a visionary expert, an IT specialist, sought after speaker, author, coach, business owner, and radio host. She specializes in helping teen and single mothers achieve their dreams via her coaching programs, books, and workshops.
Learn more about Alicia at www.aliciabowens.com.
Follow her on Twitter: @alicia_bowens.
The new year is now upon us, as if it couldn’t get here fast enough. Excitement and hope are high about what this new time will bring. We start off strong with our new year resolutions, and once again, get serious about our goals. “This will be the year that I will experience breakthroughs,” we tell ourselves. However, before we know it, we’re halfway through the year, and nothing has changed. What happened? Where was that big change in our lives that we were waiting for?
That question in itself is the answer to your question; change didn’t happen, because we were waiting for it to happen. The truth of the matter is, change will never come if you wait for it. Change only comes when you make it happen. You must get out of your comfort zone, and do things that you have never done. You must learn to say “yes” when your comfort zone is telling you “no” or to wait.
Below are four things that you must get used to saying “yes” to, in order to experience the change that you desire to see in your life:
1. Say ‘Yes’ to New Opportunities
The saying goes that opportunities only knocks once. The next time an opportunity presents itself, take it. Be honest with yourself about the pros and cons of saying yes to the opportunity. Is it this the right time? Will there ever be a “right” time? What would it cost you, if you said “no” to the opportunity?
2. Say ‘Yes’ Despite Your Fears
Often, we allow our fears to determine what we say yes to. Take the time to analyze this fear. What are you afraid of? Is it the unknown? Is it failure? Is it success? Once you’ve identified the source of the fear, combat that feeling by focusing on the possible positive outcomes.
3. Say ‘Yes’ to Your Dreams
No one is going to say “yes” to your dreams, if you won’t. If there is something that has been placed on your heart to achieve, take the first step toward making it a reality. the only thing you’ll regret is never trying at all.
4. Say ‘Yes’ to YOURSELF!
You’ve spent so much of your life showing up for others. Now it’s time to show up for yourself. Commit to the plans you have saying you were going to accomplish. Take care of your body. Take care of your mind. You limit the help that you can provide, when you don’t say “yes” to yourself and take care of yourself first.
Someone needs you to say “yes.” They’re waiting on you, and don’t even know it yet! Make 2017 the year that you decide to say “yes,” play full-out, and let your greatness shine!
This article was written by The BOSS Network Influencer, Alicia Bowens.
Alicia Bowens is a visionary expert, an IT specialist, sought after speaker, author, coach, business owner, and radio host. She specializes in helping teen and single mothers achieve their dreams via her coaching programs, books, and workshops.
Learn more about Alicia at www.aliciabowens.com.
Follow her on Twitter: @alicia_bowens.
If you’re lost in the wild and in dire need of food, you can make a fish hook out of something you’re almost guaranteed to have on you.
Did you hear that I'm making a wreath every day? Today I made a paper collage wreath created out of mixed media pages from one of my journals, then punched into star shapes. I love how it turned out - it has a happy, colorful quality that also evokes graffiti and found objects. If you have some scrap paper and spare art supplies, you can make this wreath! Read on to find out how:
Wreath a Day #2: Mixed Media Paper Star Wreath
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Supplies Used:
I used supplies I already had in my stash, but your stash will vary. Regardless, you can make colorful mixed-media pages with stuff you already have on hand, or with a few items from the dollar store. Read my related article: How to Find Art Journaling Supplies at the Dollar Store.
*Items with an asterisk can be found at the dollar store
- Watercolor paper*
- Watercolor paints*
- EK Success Large Star Punch
- 10x10" Piece of card stock
- Markers*
- White pen* (Use a White-Out pen from the dollar store)
- Glue* (I used Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue)
- Scissors*
1. Creating Mixed Media Papers:
Last spring, I took a mixed media art journaling class from my locally owned art & craft store. In the class, I learned how to use Ranger Dylusions Ink Sprays (SO MUCH FUN), which are water-based pigment sprays that work like watercolor paints. In the class, we ripped several pages out of our journals to use to clean up our inks while we worked on our journals. Then, we saved each page to use for later.
If you are creating your own mixed media pages from scratch, simply
- Cover a couple pages of watercolor paper with your favorite colors of watercolor paint. Make sure to use several different colors.
- Let the watercolored pages dry completely. (Use a hairdryer to speed up the drying process, if you are impatient.)
- Doodle and write over the watercolored areas with marker. Add additional details with a white gel pen (or one of those White Out-style correction pens from the dollar store).
- You can also add any other types of embellishment you can think of, including paint splatter, smearing, paint daubs (see the red dots on the yellow page in the photo above? I used bingo marker pens from the dollar store to make those), or rubber stamped images.
Don't worry if you think the page looks ugly, or a section of a page isn't the best. Once you punch the paper, each star becomes a work of art. As you can see in the photo above, my pages weren't all that impressive.
2. Next, punch out the stars.
I like to remove the bottom cover from my paper punch and punch it upside-down so I can see the paper and I can position the shape to punch out the best-looking section of the paper. Punch one side of the paper, then trim away the jagged paper to cut the next section of the paper.
3. Create a wreath form
Since this wreath is just made from paper, I decided to create my own "wreath form" with a piece of card stock. I folded a large square piece of paper into quarters, then cut an arc shape out of the corner, and a hole in the middle.
As you can see, my wreath form isn't perfectly round. I didn't mind that for this particular wreath.
4. Glue stars to the wreath form
This step is pretty self-explanatory! One thing to think about is layering your less-favorite stars onto the wreath first, as you will be gluing other stars overlapping them. Spread the different colors of stars evenly around the wreath.
I had a lot of stars left. They are so neat! I made sure to save them all (as well as the background papers I punched out) for a future mixed media project. Maybe I'll add them to my art journal.
I hope this project has inspired you to make something today! You can use some of the techniques explained here to create your own unique artistic wreath.