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6 Apps to Help You Conquer the World (or at least your day)

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This week is all about apps or software to help us get shit DONE. From upping my direct sales game to helping me center myself, these are the apps I’m digging most and, more importantly, the ones I think you’ll find wicked helpful, too. They’re not sorted in any particular order, by the way. (In other words, don’t ask me to pick a favorite because I love them all. 😂)

  1. Perspective App – I wanted a quick little journaling app to help me be more aware of when I’m doing things that help me feel like I’m living my best life v. things I’m doing because I think I should or because they’re a bad habit or whatever. This definitely fit the bill. There are prompts for times you might be stuck, and it really does help you track your moods, habits, etc. Plus, it’s free**!
  2. 365 Gratitude app – as you probably know, I run a daily gratitude group on FB. I try to remember to post there daily, but I fall down sometimes. So I was SUPER HAPPY when my friend, Amber Rodham Keating, suggested this app. (P.S. Buy her husband’s movie. It’s a favorite thing this week, but since it’s not an app, it didn’t make the list.)
  3. FIITFU – Y’all, I love my direct sales business. I REALLY love my customers, but my brain is addled with the ADHD, so follow up is a real struggle for me. Enter FIITFU (Fortune Is In The Follow Up). Now I’m not gonna lie and say this thing is perfect because hoo boy, it’s not. But is it the best thing going for direct sellers? Absolutely YES. Has it improved my follow up game by leaps and bounds? FUCK. YES. Plus, you can do a month-long free trial, so what do you have to lose?
  4. Trello – I don’t even know how to start to explain the glory of Trello. It’s kind of like if Pinterest and Evernote had a baby. Except better. Man, just go check it out!
  5. Text Expander – I don’t know how I lived without this, tbh. If you have a Mac or iPhone, you already know about creating text shortcuts for commonly used phrases, and this is like that, except ON STEROIDS. (And it works on all apps on my Mac, unlike the native text expansion which Google Chrome refuses to recognize.) The autocorrect feature is also an upgrade from Mac’s native app. If you’re a direct seller doing Facebook parties, you can create each of your party posts in this app and only have to do a few keystrokes to have your posts entered. So long 3rd party posting services which might or might not work this week!
  6. ThinkUp – this app has been a favorite for a while now. You create your own affirmations in YOUR VOICE (which is important because your subconscious will listen to you more than some random voice). They say it best – “bring yourself to the next level.”

So, do you use any of these apps? What’s on your list of favorites?

**All these apps are free or free to try.

Friday Favorites: 5 Products to Make Your Life Easier

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We’re all looking for stuff to make our lives easier without spending a ton of money; right? These five products are all under $26, and I use them daily so I can vouch for their usefulness. Without further ado, here’s my list:

1. These heat sealers have come in so. flipping. handy. when it comes to resealing bags of all kinds. If you’re tired of having stale chips, these are for you. (I would NEVER tell you to use these to reseal your Color Street strips because that is not recommended for our products, but if you DID use them for that, I wouldn’t rat you out.)
2. This handbag organizer is my new favorite thing. It can go skinny to fit into my Luci bag or wide to fit my Kate Spade. It gives everything a place in whatever bag I carry, and that sings to me in ways I can’t even explain.
3. This purple shampoo is fantastic if you’re a silver fox like me. (Blondes, this is for you, too.) Even when I use it every time I wash my hair, it doesn’t do that weird blue tint thing some other purple shampoos have done, but it DOES get rid of any brassiness.
4. This water bottle is LIFE. At 64 oz, it holds the daily recommended amount of water. (I fill it twice, though.) So you know you’re getting your hydration needs met. With only ONE trip to the ice maker.
5. The lid that goes with the water bottle in #4 should probably count as a sub-item, but whatever. Since you have to buy it separately, it’s a separate item; OKAY? (It’s worth the extra $$, I swear.)

So there you have it – my current favorites. What’s on your list? Do you have any of these yourself?

P.S. When it’s legal in my state, my 4/20 Favorites will look TOTALLY different. 😀

Tips to Stay Motivated

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Today kicks off the Seven Day Kindness challenge, but I’m not going to delve into that too much because you can get all those details in the best Facebook group ever. But this challenge has gotten me thinking about motivation and how to get it and keep it because I gotta tell y’all, as much as I want to be kind, my petty side wins out a lot. So how am I going to keep motivated through all this?

...as much as I want to be kind, my petty side wins out a lot.Click To Tweet

1. I’ve stated a public intention to be kinder. So now I’ve got folks watching me and I don’t want to let them down. (Or prove the haters right. Heh.)

2. I’m not in it alone. By having a group of friends who are in this with me, I have a support system for the days when I just don’t want to be kind, dammit. They can help me get back on track.

3. I dumped the “all or nothing” mindset. If I slip, no big deal. Just try again. Eventually, enough tries to do the thing will turn into a habit of just doing the thing.

4. I’ve got my “why” solidly in place, and I’ve put up little reminders all over the place to help me remember I want to feel more aligned with my best self.

So what about you? Do you have any motivation tips or tricks to share? Hit the comments and do tell.

Why is body positivity important?

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So I get asked this question a lot. I’m going to give you my answer, but please formulate your own answer to this question. I can’t tell you why body positivity is important for you; I can only share why it’s important to me.

First, body positivity frees us all to stop hating ourselves because we don’t look a certain way or have a certain shape or take up a certain amount of space. That freedom leads to other ideas like being allowed to dress in a way that makes me feel good versus what others might or might not like. It allows me to stop expending my mental currency on “OMG what am I gonna do about being so fat?!” and expend it on worthwhile causes instead.

It stops me from being judgmental about other people’s choices in clothing or makeup or hair. I realized everyone is allowed to do what they like, and socially acceptable beauty isn’t rent we women need to pay for existing. That was incredibly freeing. The realization we are all allowed to simply exist was life-changing, no exaggeration.

I realized everyone is allowed to do what they like, and socially acceptable beauty isn't rent we women need to pay for existing.Click To Tweet

Body positivity and size acceptance were my first introduction to activism of any kind. Without the size acceptance movement, I don’t know that I’d have been able to move on to learning more about things like intersectional feminism, white privilege, etc. I think I might have stayed in my little cocoon of ignorance. Recognizing oppressive behaviors re: body positivity has led to me recognizing oppressive behaviors in other areas. That can only be beneficial, right?

Last, being body positive has given me the confidence to get up every day and share my voice with the world without having to deal with a lot of “OMG I’m such a mess/I look awful/I’m so gross” or whatever other garbage excuses I used to use to keep myself from spreading the word about learning to love yourself.

Your turn – why is body positivity important to you?

So WTF is size acceptance anyway?

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If you’ve been reading my blog or watching my Periscopes, you’ve heard me use the term “size acceptance,” and you’ve probably used your context clues to figure out it means just what you think – accepting your body at whatever size it’s in currently. Actually, it’s accepting everyone’s bodies as they are. Seems easy enough; right? It certainly should be, but in a culture fraught with all kinds of bullshit in regards to weight, there’s a lot of baggage to unpack here.

So first and foremost, let’s just talk basics, shall we? Size acceptance means exactly that; accepting that people come in all shapes and sizes and that those shapes and sizes are all valid and beautiful. The best analogy I’ve ever read is the one which asks us to think about human bodies the way we think about dog bodies. I mean, we don’t ask Chihuahuas and St. Bernards to be the same size and shape, right? Same principle here.

Another component is identifying body shaming and calling it out. A good example is a tagline I saw the other day: “If you can’t see your wiener, it’s time to get leaner.” It’s catchy, innit? But here’s the thing – it’s trying to make fat guys feel bad so they’ll buy a product. (I mean, I wanted gender equality; I just hoped they’d bring women up instead of putting guys down.) When you try to make someone feel bad about their appearance, that’s just adding into the culture of no one’s body ever being good enough. (And let’s be real – skinny dudes have tiny wingdings, too. So what are they supposed to do?) We all have to work together to squash it.

I want to add a caveat right now because I think it’s important. We have to respect each others’ right to choose our own adventures (if you don’t immediately think of that book series, then you need to stop reading this and go find one of those books right now). If you want to attempt weight loss or have plastic surgery or WHATEVER, that’s your choice. I’m going to respect your right to make those choices. I am not the boss of you. Conversely, I’m allowed to talk about why I think dieting is problematic or why I think we need more thin allies to be actual allies or how intersectionality works.

So, there’s the intro to size acceptance. It’s extremely basic, but it starts the conversation, I think. So, what are your thoughts?