The Lovely Spotted Flamingo

Love thyself!

My post workout self wishing you all the SELF LOVE today

Happy love yourself day! I get why we have this day, but it has never been a favorite day. I feel we should act like everyday is Valentine’s day and spread the love always. Simple acts of love and kindness daily are way better for our heart and soul than 1 big day with lots of pressure to make a grand perfect day and get the perfect present so we can compare with others. That comparison thing is bad before and after.

During my walk in the muggy post rain hair frizzing air, I was taking in all the things nature presented to me and having a chat with myself. Since we are in lockdown and my normally inspiring drives are not an option (and I have a car issue anyway), I have to walk the ideas out.

Solo trips in the car or by foot are where I can block things out and get inspired and work on future plans. My co-workers don’t really love that my car trips lead to ideas and then work (LOL.) But I find clarity and boost from them and that is what matters.

This morning I decided I would focused on other ways I can learn and push myself so I decided to focus on words, learning and vocabulary. What better place to start with than T words……. as I thought that, the turtles came swimming over to me while I walked across the bridge to say hello and remind me that Turtles are an excellent T word. I thanked them for their contribution and thought back to being part of turtle hatchlings coming out of the nest and making their way to the ocean in Emerald Isle, NC during the last summer before we sold the house.

There are lots of great T words, my favorites are TRUST and TRUTH ………….. but today I am starting with TEACH and TAKE.

You can look up the words and see how Websters defines them, but for me TEACH and TAKE is that everyday there is an opportunity to TAKE from the day many things …. good, bad, average, trauma, etc. whether we intentionally set out to learn or do something doesn’t matter, it is happening anyway ……. very much like how simply walking around outside even with sunscreen on, you are getting tan or how even with a mask on you can walk by a cigar smoker or the cologne department in a store and still smell the smoke or cologne. Life will seep in no matter what we do.

On the flip side, TEACH is based on the same principle …. every single thing we do whether we are intentional or not goes out into the universe and is teaching someone something whether it is a stand tall and be proud act, your clothes, your hair, every single thing. Turn that around and every single negative thing you do is teaching someone else as well. It doesn’t have to be abuse or horrific things, it can be poor health habits, fear, doubt, accepting bad behavior from others, it all adds up to someone else learning that you are ok with whatever you think is negative.

As part of a group I am in, people are sharing stories. Many have had tragic past experiences and they want to share how to overcome similar things. Many others know there is something that is holding them back and making then not confident, and they need a push. A lot of the stories are TAKE-aways from what I have described above.’

Those stories are definitely why I have been thinking about TAKE and TEACH a lot lately, it was the walk that helped me put the words to what I have been feeling.

The first steps are always hardest, but try to commit to loving yourself and working on the things that will make you feel at peace and achieve your dreams. I am rooting for you. Remember life is full of cycles and changes, and we are here for a short unknown time……. I think that is why I love butterflies so much. xo Tracy Lynne

spread your wings and fly like the butterfly, trust in yourself, teach and take on life’s journey

Road Map to Stopping the Insanity

Chances are we all have something that is draining our energy and focus. Lucky you if you don’t!

While you are traveling that self improvement and/or self-loathing highway of life, do yourself a huge favor and DON’T compare yourself to anyone else in person and especially not on-line.

Most of what people present is a filtered highlight reel. Not that we want to be fake or phoney, Many can only manage the clothes, make-up hair and “costumes” of life to make it through the day. And inside is a mess.

For some of us, if the faucets to the tears gets turned on and the flows, we have no control over the flood gate door and we are not ready for the flood. We might only be able to manage a drip or not even that.

Adding to our struggles, we are over here trying to go through life, and the world is throwing many darts to pop our balloons like impossible ideals regarding weight, beauty, money and all other things on Instagram and media. With current events, a lot more of us are struggling to pay bills and are dealing with helping family.

If you can’t get past the “polished perfect look”, then stay off the ‘gram and away from other places that make you feel less than. You are enough, your are simply figuring out how best to hone your specials skills and gifts the world needs.

And by all means, glam yourself if it will give you a confidence boost. I have WFH since 9/11. I know the value in getting up, getting dressed and office ready to be in my home office and all the rest of it. It is a signal to my brain that I am in work mode, and I should respect my work time the same way I would if I was going to an office. Trust me it helps a lot.

xo Tracy Lynne

It’s Your Turn!

Monday, February 8, 2021 and time to turn all the inspo into movement!

I read last night and early in the am as the sun was rising. And started moving. Nike was right with their JUST DO IT! slogan and another redhead who inspires me a lot Jenny Hutt (from Just Jenny and Sirius XM, been a huge fan since meeting her at the Book Expo in NYC more than 10 years ago) popped back into my Instagram feed this weekend. She has been preaching the power of moving all through lockdown, it woks. When I stopped moving in October, I got stuck.

Here I am trying to figure out a lot of things, and one of my biggest take aways from COIVD and also the Jamie Kern Lima BELIEVE IT book launch and even Elizabeth Gilbert’s book I am reading reading is that we are all the same, different but basically the same.

I realized I am most excited to read the members’ stories and see how they “GET UNSTUCK”. The famous people have wonderful stories and are inspirational. Knowing myself as well as I do, I believe that is the biggest thing I need in this moment.

Elizabeth Gilbert talks the quality of her writing (I am going to duck here because I have write friends and family who may not like my thoughts on this) and about being good enough and being critiqued by the greats. Excellent writes and creators are wonderful. They inspire and teach us. They report on reality and fantasy.

HOWEVER, and this is where the ducking comes in LOL, we all have a story to tell and should get it out there. Quality is subjective, read that again quality is subjective………. and really your message resonating with someone is a far better than being critically acclaimed. Your voice is not going to inspire everyone or even many, but all that matters is 1.) you birth those words because YOU need to get them out of your brain for your own well-being and 2.) there is at least one other person on this planet who needed you to birth those words, post the video, paint the thing………insert your own words for the birthing process. That person may not see it day 1 or day 100, but somewhere you will inspire someone else.

I look at the past and present and am sure from my own experiences that is true. We are all different so the more people sharing their stories and their gifts, the better.

The world needs me to be the way I am. As a I grow and deal with my hard stuff, I hope you are inspired.

Four tips I will share today:

Move, the physical steps and activity are good for the body and soul and have a snowball effect.
Write it, I have journaled by typing and by writing, it is therapeutic to get it out. You don’t have to send it or publish and can delete it. But release it from yourself. Also write the steps you take each day. You don’t have to get mega planners and do it, just write on simple paper the small steps you do each day. It will make it part of your day (like the am coffee) and it will grow.
Be open to being outside your comfort zone. Not crazy skydiving levels of uncomfortableness. Small things are good, like try a new food you thought you didn’t like. Take the fork in the road. Just push yourself a little and again it will snow ball.
You are as worthy of goodness and success as the next person. They are having results you can see because they decided to JUST DO IT. It goes back to pt 1. But it is all connected. and PS bonus tip, their lives are just as messy as yours, but we all like to put put the higlight reels out there.

Enjoy the day, enjoy the start of putting yourself out there and getting things done!

xo Tracy Lynne

me channeling Judi Holler’s Flamingo theory and getting stuff done today

write it down to make it real and get it out

Shakin’ up the Globe with LOVE!

Sarasota , FL Marietta Museum of Art & Whimsy (whimsymuseum.org)

This photo of mine popped up on my ipad “reminder reels” this morning and inspired most of my day. Funny how that ipad started doing these reels recently and knew just what I needed to boost me.

It has been a long almost 1 year under quarantine with the other world craziness piled on. I have felt unmotivated stuck and like a ton of bricks has been laying on me since October. At times it has felt paralyzing leaving me with zero energy to get myself out of the funk.

January 2021 has been filled with an almost daily newsflash that more friends and family now have COVID. Last week every single day someone died from COVID and today a dear friend had to remove her brother from life support due to a different health issue.

All of this is too much for us to handle ……………………. I have been feeling motivated to make better jabs at getting unstuck and this photo brought me back to an idea I was working on back in October.

When I saw it I saw the healing our hearts need right now. I took this photo on my first ever Sarasota trip almost 2 years ago. 2019 was a year of travel, exploration, growth and lots of doing. The Marietta Museum was a hidden gem on that trip. Whimsy art and the colors can’t help but make you smile. I am not even sure why I snapped the photo because hearts are not really a favorite design motif of mine. But something about it hit and out came the ipad (aka my digital notebook) to snap a photo. That day I saw a sphere with hearts, but it was nothing more than objects. Maybe because I had so many other things going on during that trip (it was a jam packed 2 days) and there were other pieces of art that really caught my eye and spoke to me.

In a way I am glad I waited until today to connect to the piece. I love the light and how the earth as the globe popped out. I love the way the dots on the hearts and extra light and love. It became magical and today I did 4 times more than the amount of creative and unsticking things I had planned.

I am taking all those digital classes I signed up for 2 years ago now. I started that 2 weeks ago and have been adding more. I never did get around to doing the classes in 2020 even though we were stuck at home. My work schedule was kind of the same for 2020 even with our customers being closed, etc. there is still work to be done .

I read parts of 3 different books today, did physical exercise, did some painting. worked on my work catalog and other work, made the Super Bowl art as part of my practice digital class.

A big think I did for myself was re-read Fear is My Home Boy by Judi Holler, and I am doing her Vibe and Thribe workbooks on the second reading.

I also joined the Jamie Kern Lima Believe IT Book Launch team. I read the advance digital version of her book and joined the Facebook Group…………… so many of the members are posting about their own deep struggles. I think I am most inspired by them. On Feb 22 thee is an official launch party all day workshop with the biggest motivational people out there including Sara Blakely and Mel Robbins……………. not my usual thing I would pick but I do know that moving out of my comfort zone (or normal in this case) is always what I need to get my mojo back.

I am motivated and always working on something and get stuff done, It is a great output level that is high quality, but I am looking for that special push to make it extra and unique.

I am realizing right this second that part of the stuck feeling is because my go to motivational things are off limits because of the COVID world. Normally I would take a day or 2 or 3 and go somewhere and see new things to be inspired. I went to Sarasota in August which was great and motivated me. In 2019 I drove from FL to Dallas to Santa Fe, Las Vegas and back, went to NC, Hilton Head, and Savannah a lot. NYC and Long Island a few times and even VT, over 20,000 miles that year all driving.

My commitment is now to figuring out a way to shake up my globe to stay unstuck.

Reader, I hope my photo and story inspires you a little……………. one of my reads today was Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert. yes the lady who wrote Eat, Prey, Love. She writes about how that best selling book is a love or hate it for many and how it wasn’t written for the reader, it was written for her because she needed to get that story out of herself ………… hmmm that is exactly what I did hear……. I have never read the book or watched the movie, though I am searching for a free way to watch it or will rent it from Prime.

Big Magic was a recommendation from Judi Holler. I adore her. I loved the book so much when I first read it and have followed her on insta ever since. She even writes to stand out like a Flamingo (another reason for me to bond with her. ) As I was reading Judi’s book again she mentioned Big Magic and how that was the thing that motivated her to write her own book……….so of course I ordered the book and had an instant motivational infusion. I may not write the book yet, but these ladies get points for moving me forward on the game board of LIFE and shaking up my globe.

And remember the timing is never perfect. If you are waiting for it to all be perfect, you will be waiting forever. Take the leap of faith and just do it! So far we have survived everything

I will end this with a Suzanne Sommers motivational nugget “Look at the worst things in your life as your opportunities!”

xo Tracy Lynne

New Beginnings

January 2, 2021 ……. 1 +2 + 2 + 0 + 2 + 1 = it is up to YOU to get it DONE!

Life Plans and Road Maps for the New Year and the Past

Looking back on the first 20 years of this century, this doodle I created is what life has looked like if I am being honest.

Like many, I have spent much time worrying over details and “things”. Not the I am a party planner and every last minute detail must be perfect kind of worry. My worry was all about the what if’s and overthinking things that really didn’t matter. While I was in my bubble planning, losing sleep and stressing life turned out to not be the straight line or even a wavy line with a few curves. It turned out to be exactly like my doodle….. ps yours did too ! ……………. You lived through 2020 so every person on this planet has some version of this life path ……….. don’t let the mess cause you stress, because calm can be totally achieved with all that going on if you focus and adjust your mindset to honoring what is truly important.

The doodle is filled with bumps in the road, and heart beats and grains of pinkly sparkly sand (super tiny) OK glitter, lots of cocoons and some butterflies. It is up to us to become the butterfly and grow to what makes us happy, and use our wings to fly away from what is not serving us. Life is going to be crazy and unexplained, you have to go with it OR worry, fear, stress, whatever makes you unhappy will steal your present joy. The goal is to figure out how to balance the planning with the living for now.

In my life there are always signs, sometimes they are anvils dropping, other times they are very subtle, but always there. And they ae always connected to different themes. I have learned to trust them because they pop up so often. Nothing in life surprises me anymore. I suspect everyone has this stuff too and maybe doesn’t realize it.

These notebooks are my new ones for this year and the penny (heads up of course) is one I found NYE very dirty in the Target parking lot after getting the notebooks at Hobby Lobby (2 survival stores for 2020 aka the 2 safe places we could go and went often to last year LOL!).

I wiped the penny off and found a super shiny Mr. Lincoln and the year 2000 which got me thinking and inspired this post. Lincoln was the “emancipation” president and 2000 was the year before life changed for everyone 21 and over. 2020 is the next big cycle for change for the whole world ………….. those world wars in this century are certainly looking a lot different than they did in the last one ……………………. I will leave this post at that so you can dream, create, inspire, live, love and have some hope as you begin to navigate you’re new chapter.

Keeping moving your body and your mind, don’t let the thoughts in your head limit what you do. Take the lesson from 2020 that while it was bad in many ways, lots of people started new things (all the life things personally and in business), they did not let anything stop them …… and remember some businesses (people too) that closed really just re-organized to dump “debt” and move forward ………… a lesson in re-invention. xoxo, Tracy Lynne, the lovely spotted flamingo