VoiveBo Channel: MakeYourSelf

My VoiceBo Channel MakeYourSelf is where I post audio recordings of up to 5 minutes. It's a fun way to get updates from me in between blog posts!

Happy 2014!

   I am super pumped for the new year and I hope everyone else is. I really stressed myself out this December when listing out my New Year's resolutions. In the process of writing out all of my resolutions I ended up finding a loophole that made this new year one that I know will be successful. I decided to take the pressure off of myself on New Year's and have a set of New Year's resolutions that I would complete by the end of 2014. I took my New Year's resolutions and turned them in to goals for 2014. 

I immediately felt more confident about what the new year had to offer. 

   New Year's resolutions are such a big hit because you get a feeling of having a fresh start once the clock strikes midnight. I am sure I am not the only one who realizes that you don't need a new year to start goals. New Year's is just the time of year that gives you a little motivation boost to change some of the things that you didn't enjoy in the previous 12 months. I initially had myself so stressed out trying to make sure that the beginning of 2014 would be perfect. My new year would have been a miserable one because my expectations for myself were unattainable for the amount of time that I had to achieve them. By changing my perspective I was able to enter the new year on a positive note. I felt excited about how the outcome of the year would be. The most amazing part of taking away the pressure of a perfect New Year's Day is that I still have the motivation and energy to fulfill my goals that I had on January 1!

   Overall my attitude has been the main thing that has changed this year and simply doing that has already created amazing opportunities for me. I plan to up my game and post on my blog at least once a week. I also want to create more podcasts and videos. Most importantly I want to pour my heart out in everything I do and to follow my passion of creating unique blogs, podcasts and videos to help others by sharing tips, tricks, stories and strategies that I discover! Happy New Year's everyone and I look forward to writing more often this year! I have so much to share and by taking all of the negative pressure off of myself I am able to pursue my dreams at a pace that is attainable.

Life Is A Journey

I believe that a big lesson in life is right front of all of our faces, and no one can see it unless it is pointed out. We all have this insatiable passion to fill the void in our lives. Some people who are doing well in all areas of their lives feel even guiltier about having this void then people who aren't living up to their full potential yet. This is because they cannot explain the void. They don't understand why they feel like something is missing if life has handed them a good deck of cards. Others feel like they have a big dream to live it out and feel like failures until their dream is a reality.We wait for the moment when everything is going to click and all of a sudden make sense. There's so many ways to get information on personal development and self help. Lots of articles, books or websites focus on people living out their passions, becoming happy and living happily ever after. They are always focusing on the outcome instead of the process . It's like trying to figure out a problem from it's solution. Some make the journey seem undesirable and the outcome like a lever switched from off to on. In reality there is no exact point when everything feels right. This is because not everything happens at once. An example of how important the journey in life is comparing it to a long drive. When you start you have a full tank of gas but the farther you go the less gas you have. Unless you stop for gas, you won't make it. We start out young and passionate and as we grow we sometimes start running low on the enthusiasm for life that we once had. We focus on where we are and where we want to be instead of the journey behind and in front of us. Adding up all of your life experiences together determines your destination. We slowly fill the void with each life achievement like filling our car back up so that we are ready to face the journey feeling refreshed. We will reach the destination much quicker than we would have had we not stopped for gas. If we take the time to notice that what we long for is the satisfaction in the journey and not so much the destination, we can enjoy it which will make the destination that much better! Think about how long it takes most people to become successful. Whether you go to college or you work from the bottom up, it's going to take some time. Even if you're only trying to set a goal like be a good parent or get in shape it will take time. We dwell on how slowly the results will happen or how hard the journey will be. We continue to feel this way and label ourselves as failures. The fact of the matter is the journey is the fun part and truly what determines the destination. Every small accomplishment fills the void one step at a time. Think about if we woke up and everything we ever wanted was handed to us. We would never have the feeling of accomplishment we get when we are successful in some way. If you truly want to feel like something is missing, picture life with out the sense of accomplishment. It would be like you lived but never learned. You would feel useless. The more that you put into something the more you get out of it. The journey is what makes the outcome amazing. The journey is so much bigger than the destination. This is much easier to explain than to actually live out. That's what this blog and all my work is for. It is all to help myself and others learn to enjoy the journey whether negative events are occurring or positive ones. The journey is life and there is much more than just one destination.

Starting Is The Key To Finishing

Today I felt a little down and decided to take the time to consider what was truly causing me to feel that way. Of course there are times when it is brought on by a certain situation and during those times it is somewhat easier to handle the feeling of "being lost". Finding the words to describe how I felt led me to discover what was truly bothering me. There is so much I want to do on top of all the things I need to do. My problem is that I feel like I am standing still because I don't know exactly what to do first or how to start. Once again just writing or thinking out my problem helped me to discover that in order to feel motivated and to keep moving forward I had to know which direction I wanted to go in. Finding a way to determine what I need and want and then creating a way to balance it all is the only way to move forward confidently! I know now where to start and it is to simply determine my needs and wants and take tiny steps toward accomplishing them all.

Evaluate Your Life

Okay so there's a really simple way to evaluate how your life is going in general and when it comes to specifics. Basically you break it down into three parts as shown above. All you have to do is rate on a scale from one to five your happiness, healthiness and hopefulness for your life in general or for a specific part of your life. For example, if everything in your life is going perfect your chart will look like the one from above. If you're healthy and hopeful for the future but your happiness is around a three then your score would go from fifteen to twelve. Overall you would still be on the positive end of things but you would still need to work on your happiness. If you want to apply this principle to a specific part of your life you can do that as well. Let's say you're evaluating your romantic relationship. If your score is around a seven then your relationship is about halfway where it needs to be. If you scored lowest in hopefulness but your relationship makes you happy and is healthy you can work on determining why in your mind it really doesn't seem to play out in the future. The beauty of this chart is it's simplicity. It's easy to determine what needs work in your life when you are only having to pick between happiness, hopefulness and healthiness. What's great is these three areas cover essentially everything in your life when evaluating your life in general and can be used for specific purposes as well. Sometimes sticking with something simple is really helpful and can help you to decipher which part of your life is really lacking attention. Give it a try and email me your thoughts at reallifeexperiencedblog@gmail.com.

Refreshed and Renewed

RealLifeExperienceD Podcast is having an episode tonight called refreshed and renewed. In the podcast I discuss all the new ways that I plan on sharing information and ideas. My goal has always been to create authentic ways to solve real-life problems. I like to gather information and then chunk it together to create innovative solutions to help people become happier and more productive. The thing about this is that there is so much generic information online when it comes to self help or any topic related to increasing happiness and living the life you want. My plan is to gather information from as many different sources as possible and then chunk it together to create something different. I want people to be able to relate to the information I share and be able to apply it to their lives easily and effectively. Refreshed and renewed is not only the title of my next episode for my podcast but is somewhat of an explanation of what this blog will be. Some days I will give advice on happiness or productivity and other days I may share something inspirational. Other days I may share with you something original someone else has created that I have found helpful, or I may post something just to make people laugh. I want for this blog to make you feel refreshed and renewed. You can check out the episode on blogtalkradio tonight or look it up in the archives. Either way I hope you enjoy my future blogs and I plan to post at least once a day. This blog is to help me grow while helping others grow as well. I hope you enjoy the podcast and brace yourself for future blogs containing some self-help information that you may actually be able to apply and use! I'll talk with you guys soon and thanks for reading!

RealLifeExperienceD Online Radio by Danielle Dallimore | BlogTalkRadio

Fundraiser Heidi

What's up everybody? I decided to share this story with everyone first because it is the most important story I will ever write. My daughter, Heidi Marie, was born December 20, 2008. Unfortunately there were some complications at birth which eventually resulted in the diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy. Heidi has brightened my life and makes it infinitely better every day. She is such a happy child and does not let her disability stop her from accomplishing anything. She is so strong and has inspired me to take on the challenges I face with a positive attitude. Heidi is always optimistic in everything she does, and any mistakes she makes are turned into lessons for her to apply the next time she tries something new or difficult. Any time Heidi falls she stands right back up ready to walk again. I am so proud to be her mom and feel lucky to get to say she is my daughter. Everyone at her school tells me how much Heidi brightens up their days. When I hear those comments I can't help but smile. If you happen to be even a little down when she's with you than you should expect a lot of hugs, kisses and of course an " I Love You" every five minutes until you are smiling. She is warmhearted, amiable and never gives up! Her constant determination helps her to find her own way to deal with the physical challenges that her diagnosis presents her with. I learn so much from her every day and any success I have in life I owe to her. She has taught me to stay motivated and confident in any situation and to learn lessons from my mistakes because they will only make me better in the end. I have always wanted to create a fundraiser to help other children with the same diagnosis as Heidi but who may not have the opportunity to get the help they need. When I went to the bookstore to find some information on creating a fundraiser for Cerebral Palsy all I could find were books on Autism. I was hurt to see the lack of awareness for CP so I decided to use my blog and podcast to try and raise people's awareness of Cerebral Palsy. I created FundraiserHeidi to help other people who suffer with this diagnosis. You can check out the FundraiserHeidi website by clicking the link below. Any donations and shares are appreciated. The money goes straight to hospitals around the Baton Rouge Area to help people specifically with CP. The most helpful advice that I have learned from Heidi is to be creative and unique in all that you do, never to give up because with practice and determination anything is possible and last but not least always remember to SMILE. It is contagious! :] 

This is the link to FundraiserHeidi http://www.crowdrise.com/FundraiserHeidi/fundraiser/danielledallimore