STAYING FOCUSED, POSITIVE AND CELEBRATING

The relaxing view of the sun setting through my upstairs window.

Can you imagine we are still going through this worldwide pandemic? Inspite of all this, it may seem hard to focus, to be positive and even to celebrate. Here are some of the things that I have been doing to stay focused, positive and to celebrate.

1. I stay focused by doing checkins on my goals. I have various goals spiritual, family, wealth, health. Within each category I have steps that I take to complete these goals. 

2. I stay positive by setting a positive tone as part of my morning routine which includes prayer, bible, gratitude. I also am a big advocate of keeping negativity out. I only listen to the news to stay updated with world events, but eliminate it as much as possible. The news has a ways of invoking negative vibes. 

3. I celebrate by doing those little things that bring me and my family joy, and taking the time to reflect on those moments. An evening at the park flying our kite as a family or going to the beach with friends for me is celebrating. I also take lots of pics and reflect on these later. I ensure that I do not work on my childrens birthday and I have a small inexpensive family gathering for them. 

Although these may seem small and simple, enjoying these moments are extremely important.

One Love

Danni

A REALTOR A MOM A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE.

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO

 

We usually hear the term on your mark, get set, go. But what does that really mean? Most importantly, what does it mean to you? 

In my Jamaican culture where track and field plays a big part in our culture, we understand this term to mean "preparation and run to win". 

The small moments of winning at the olympics are usually backed by hours of preparation. 

Are we preparing for a win or is our lack of preparation bringing us towards a sure loss? I would encourge you to pay keen attention to the preparatory periods in our lives. At times we are not given opportunities, not because it wasn't for us, but because we did not fully prepare.

Prepare for your win and unleash your inner olympian.

One Love 

Danni

A REALTOR, A MOM, A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE

LESSONS IVE LEARNED IN LIFE AND PARENTING

I must admit I have been around since the 80s (I know I look younger). But throughout the years I have picked up a thing or two that I would love to share. Here are five lessons I have learned in life and in parenting.

1. Be childlike in my view of life. What I absolutely love about kids is they were born seeing possibilities, majority of our limitations came from the uninformed concepts of adults. 

2. Never take NO from someone in a position to tell me yes. That includes my relationship with God and my level of faith. (Borrowed from Mignon Francois of the cupcake collection). 

3. View the cup as half filled. Yes there is distress, chaos and problems in life, but if I focus on the solution vs the problem, the problems will be resolved. 

4. Passionately love myself. As a woman living in NYC its so easy to compare myself to others. Love myself includes loving my skin, my hair, my personality, the things that makes me different and the things that make me the same. Appreciate and love it all. Never base my perception of self on other peoples opinions of me. 

5. I have to go through situations to grow from situations. As I go through hard times it is hard to understand why I am being challenged. But looking back I am able to see how much those situations strengthened me and helped me grow. 

One Love Danni

A REALTOR A MOM A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE

MY MENTAL HEALTH AT STAKE

 

My kids flying their kite.

A few mornings ago I woke up mentally stressed, slight headache, physically exhausted, and breathing heavy. But what was worse were the thoughts going through my head. Every single negative thought was racing through my mind and literally forcing through my veins. Although this I am sure is a far cry from a mental health break down, I knew if I continued along that path, eventually I would get there. 

After soul searching and praying here is what I decided to do.

1. Turn off the noise- I consume a lot of self help, or self improvement content. That over time had me telling myself that I was just not hitting the mark and need to work harder and set bigger goals. Yes thats great information, but it too has its place. Another source of noise was the news. As I read what popped up on my news feed and scrolled through social media, my anxiety level only increased. 

2. Increase entertainment- something I hardly do, but I had to find ways of giving me a belly laugh or at least send some positive hormones through my veins. 

Please share, what are the ways you destress and how do you take care of your mental health?

One Love

Danni

A REALTOR A MOM A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE. 

WHEN FAMILY AND FRIENDS REJECT YOUR DREAM

Recently I had a conversation with my dad about years ago when I decided I wanted to migrate to the US. At the time my dad had lost his job, I had dropped out of college because I couldn't afford it, yet I had a dream of migrating and studying in the US. 

I remember my dad  applying to teachers college in Jamaica on my behalf. I was absolutely upset. Don't get me wrong, becoming a teacher is great, becoming a teacher in Jamaica is great, but that was not the vision I had for myself. I was highly offended that he felt so little of the vision I had for myself and instead was promoting the vision he had for me. The truth is, my dads vision was the easier route and the more "sensible" route. But it was not the vision I had for myself.

Why am I telling you this story? Well, because, when we begin to dream BIG UNCOMFORTABLE DREAMS and we share them with others, they try to dull it down. Its nothing personal, most times it comes from family and friends who love us and want whats best, and our big dreams scare the crap out of them. 

My advise, if you are open to it is; have big audacious dreams, set massive goals and work at them like your life depends on it. You know why? Your life does depend on it.

One Love

DANNI

A REALTOR A MOM A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE 

THE DREAM

A few nights ago as I slept I had a very strange dream. In it a decision was being made that would have negatively impacted my family. What was even more startling was the fact that this decision was being made because of how we would have been viewed by those around us who were making the very same decision. So we chose to go with the flow instead of standing for the principles that we held as a family. Now that I look back, I cannot help but think how true to life this dream actually was. I learned two lessons from that dream.

1. Stand out among the crowd:

This was actually the secondary lesson that I learned. When I review my life's decisions the times when I lost, were the times when I chose blending in versus standing out. These moments no doubt held me back because I knew the decision I needed to make, the stand I needed to take, the dream I suppressed.

2. Finish Your Dream

That dream haunted me when I awoke in the early hours of the morning. Then I began thinking to myself, hey that's my dream. I can end it any way I want. Another life lesson. Sometimes the hand we are dealt in life seems like an impossible curse to break. Why not change the cycle? So what if your parents lived a certain life or you were raised a certain way? Ultimately the decision is ours to change the narrative of our life's story.

Let's focus only on that which allows us to find our purpose and change the story we've told ourselves to reflect the story we want to create.

One Love
Danni

A REALTOR A MOM A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE

BECOMING STRUCTURED AND ORGANIZED

Have you ever ended your day and wonder where did the time go or even worse, what did I accomplish today? 

I am always on a quest to find a more effective and efficient way to manage my life. It dawned on me today as I dozed off in my car (I was parked), that I do need to put pen to paper more and really fine tune even the smaller details of my life.

Here are few things that have either helped me stay organized or things I am committed to working on improving.

1. Tracking my spending- My banking app allows me to track spending and also create goals. Because i swipe my card for almost everything the spending report created in the app is very detailed. It allows me to see what, where and how much I am spending monthly. 

2. Meal planning- I did this in the past but fell off track. It allowed me to get more creative in my meals, prep better, and grocery shop more efficiently. Also I must add, I have saved so much money shopping in Aldi- check them out. 

3. Activity planning with the kids- This has worked very well for other super organized moms that I converse with. Scheduling a specific day or days during the week for those miscellaneous activities such as the park or hanging out or eating out makes things flow so much better. The kids have something to look forward to and its not an activity that takes away from other important activities because it was scheduled. 

These are just three things but I would love to hear from you regarding how you stay organized and on top of things.

One Love 

Danni

A REALTOR A MOM A DAUGHTER OF THE NORTHSHORE