Let There Be Light In The Wake Of Darkness

LET THERE BE LIGHT IN THE WAKE OF DARKNESS

It has been over a year since I published a blog post… oh, how time flies, how days get busy and nights can seem endless, how a year can be such a memorable blur.

I have missed many things that I used to do, but the one thing I have missed the most is writing. Remembering when I first started my blog several years ago, literally writing and publishing a post every single day without fail for over a year... seems like forever ago. I sit now and wonder where the flood of words came from, how they could escape into countless paragraphs every day for that long? But they did… and I loved every moment of it. It was and still is a therapeutic, serendipitous muse.

Windstorms of words were being poured out onto a screen long before my “Training Tuesday” videos and Live Broadcasts on Facebook 3 days a week.  However, as time goes by changes must be made and with that change, those daily blog posts morphed into something more impactful reaching more and more people… but I still missed writing.

Funny… how in that one paragraph the evolution of how it all began is evident, how each phase of my brand formed in a very real and raw way. The entire time, all I was hoping was that someone that read it could make use of what was shared.

Now, here I sit propped up in bed with the Piano Magic Pandora station playing in the background feeling inspired to write again, not knowing if I even possess the ability to be as consistent as I once was but not even caring. Feeling the need, a gravitational pull to do this tonight was like rebirthing something much loved that has been buried for a while.

Do what you love and love what you do, don't bury things that should stay alive.

GOD IS WITH US IN TIMES OF STRUGGLE

God works in mysterious ways. I prayed this morning for God to give me a sense of purpose again, to give back my joy after getting news that left me feeling a little depleted. It’s never fun feeling hard work and dedication that you put into something fails you in the end. I asked God to show me what to do, what direction I needed to travel in to get myself out of this funk into a place where I could find peace and purpose in the situation.

And here I sit, writing and realizing as I reflect how far that I have come… but more so how much I’ve come through. Morphing from who I once was, to who I am now. Going from feeling hopeless to being hope-filled, from setting goals to achieving them, and being reminded that what often feels like failure is almost always preparation for something bigger. Hard work and dedication has NEVER failed me, and neither has God.

God won’t fail you if you trust in Him. Make Him your source for wisdom like I do in times like this and you will find peace in every situation good or bad.

Wisdom is only obtained through trials and adversity, and true peace is only found through the Spirit of God. No matter the situation we must know it has purpose… that in and of itself is enough reason to pray through it. Nothing great comes with ease and everything that comes easy quickly fades.

ALL GOOD THINGS COME TO AN END

And with that, these are my final words today.

Life WILL present challenge, disappointment, and confusion. There will be times where you want to scream WHY GOD, WHY? What we must understand is that how long we surf in the wake is our decision and it also determines how quickly we will find peace and move forward.  

Know you have that power within you and use it.

XOXO

Shells

Live The Dream... I DARE you!

We have ALL heard people say it, and have probably said it ourselves; or at least thought it...

"I am living the dream" 

or 

"I want to live the dream"

I remember years ago when I thought this myself. I was getting ready to graduate high school as a licensed Cosmetologist. My "dream" at that time was to become a world renowned hairstylist that traveled the world and also to open a chain of successful salons. I wanted to be independently wealthy one day and knew that having a "JOB" and working for someone else was never going to give that to me. You see, I grew up with parents who worked for themselves, who had their own business and the benefits of that were ingrained into my head from as early as I can remember. We attended private school before my sister died, and we knew what was "important" as we watched them do what they needed to do to be smart with the money that was earned. I did not grow up going on elaborate vacations every year, in fact... family vacations for us usually involved visiting relatives or spending a week in the summer at Cape Cod. We did not have a lot of toys, nor did we ever get more than a few gifts for Christmas. Our birthdays were celebrated at home with friends and family and our parties consisted of balloons and streamers and good old fashioned pin-the-tail on the donkey. It was fun, simple and enough to make us happy and the day memorable.

We live in a day and age where people are broke, in massive amounts of debt and have nothing planned for the future because it is all about NOW. Birthday's have become elaborate parties that cost hundreds and even thousands of dollars; to impress who? Christmas has lost it's true meaning in heaps of toys that kids don't even play with and if you ask them what they got 6 months later they cannot even tell you. Then, a year later you are giving those expensive "gifts" to charity or watching them collect dust in a closet or playroom.
You then wonder why when your kids need a car you have no money to buy it, or when they need to go to college, you hope for scholarships; otherwise they must rely on student loans that they will be paying on well into their 40's. It honestly makes me sick to watch. It is something I have been passionate about for years, and as the years go by it seems to get worse and worse around me.

Living "The Dream" is something I have always associated with being able to do whatever I wanted, with whomever I wanted, wherever I wanted and not having to worry about how much it cost. Living the dream for me is also loving what I do, loving who I am with, traveling and simply enjoying life to it's fullest. Living the dream requires sacrifice, hard work, knowledge and most of all discipline. Most people are simply not willing to do what it takes to actually LIVE THE DREAM. They would rather LIVE in the MOMENT...  to LIVE in the NOW and are unwilling to see what it would take to truly LIVE their dreams. A sad, but true reality.

 So... what is "Your Dream"? Everyone has their own idea right? I want you to dig into your mind and ask... what is "The Dream" for me? Once you get  good idea of what that is, ask yourself if you feel you will ever achieve it, are you willing to sacrifice for it, are you willing to LEARN how to achieve it? If the answers to those last three questions are yes, I want to hear from you. Ask yourself  if what you are doing now will help you live your dream or is it robbing you of it? I want you to be COURAGEOUS, and tell me that you want to LIVE THE DREAM...  be bold, don't be afraid to say it, worst case scenario... you will realize that you don't have one, or that you are not doing what it takes to live it out. Best case scenario, you will find out HOW to achieve all that you want in life with the life you have left.

If you are ready to LIVE THE DREAM... email me at shelleygiard@gmail.com with "LIVE THE DREAM" in the subject line. I PROMISE you will not regret the decision to do so.

xoxo

Shells

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Oh.... What to Write... What to write?

Yep, It's another one of those nights where I know I have to do this but have NO idea what to write about. I have a mountainous pile of things on my mind. With it being a new year with new goals and because I am headed in a somewhat new direction, I find myself looking forward to finally adding a few people to my "enterprise" that will be growing with me. I have come to a point in my life where I must simplify in order to multiply. However I often wish God had limited the talents and passions he gave me to make this an easier task. I guess that's why he gave me an obsessive compulsive personality and ADHD... they have been as useful as they are annoying.

As I sit here typing still kind of blabbering... I hope I will keep your interest for longer than I feel I may with my randomness. People seem to really like my writing, and love to hear me speak; being told I had a "presence" more than once was not to be taken subtly. My blog and my book have been incredibly successful in their mission so far although I feel I have barely gotten started in the marketing process; I am truly in the baby steps in my mind and that's both exciting and scary. Yes... I get scared, I don't worry, but sometimes my fears cause me to procrastinate and over think. I have this need to have things "perfect" and well, I need to remember that there is perfection in the process of  tweaking imperfect things and that imperfect things still succeed; it is a process. My fear has always been that if things are not "perfectly ready" that they are simply not ready to be executed or delivered or created or whatever... it really depends on which of my businesses I am talking about. I have also allowed this need for perfection to keep me from getting outside help, thinking nobody would treat it like I will, that someone else won't give it 100% like me, so I have run myself ragged doing everything myself. If I continue this thinking, I will hold myself back from my dream of becoming a well known inspirational/motivational speaker... so I am setting that fear aside in 2014... it's time to move ONWARD and UPWARD.

I have experience in both my professional and personal life that CAN and WILL help people grow professionally and personally. My memoir has already helped so many people simply because so many walks of life can relate to my stories of struggle; for I have had several kinds and after 20 years of knowledge and experience of running multiple businesses, being the owner/ operator, the financial officer, the marketing director... what am I afraid of? For so long I have waited for someone else to take notice so that I would not have so much work to do... I wanted someone else to believe in me as much as I believe in me... it is something I have wanted all my life in the professional world and well, it feels impossible to attain. I did not want to have to learn things that I was uncomfortable learning in order to gain the knowledge I needed to run my own speaking engagements but a few weeks ago, something finally clicked... I CAN do this, I can't wait, because as my history plays... I know I can make this happen. I just need a few people who are willing to grow with me, to be patient and willing to put their passion into the awesome I know it can be and if they do I will be the most generous employer they have ever known. It truly is a big leap for me, but I WANT it,and I tend to get what I want if I am relentless in pursuing it. I know no obstacles...just the journey.

Is fear holding you back from something? Are you afraid to take that leap of faith? Are you too easily kept in the zone of comfort not knowing what people will say or think about you if you actually pursue your dreams? Are you financially where you want to be? Are you waking up every day dreading what you have to do or looking forward to it? Are you willing to do WHATEVER it takes to make your dreams come true?

I found myself in class this weekend... learning something that will help me help others as I pursue a speaking career. I dislike school, I dislike classrooms... unless I am teaching, but it was something that had to be done to complete my puzzle and I know I won't regret it once I pass the exam.

From youth, to adults, to people in the beauty professions... I am ready to inspire, motivate and educate in a BIGGER way. That's my #1 goal for 2014. Are you in?

One of my new branding images 

that I created on whim one day... it was just floating around in my crazy head.

xoxo

~Shells~ 

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