The People Around You Will Lower You or Lift You

Why do we care what others think? Well, yes, people do have the power to bully, shame, and kick us out of the “in” crowd. But does that matter? If you have to compromise who you are, maybe the “in” crowd is actually the “out” crowd. Stay true to your integrity no matter what. As some wise person said, at the end of the day, you’re the only one who has to live with yourself. Make that person the best possible you, not an imitation or reaction to someone else. Working on yourself is never wasted. When things are going well, when things are going wrong, when you are down, when you are up, when you are single, when you…Read More

Discover the Teen Stress That You Just Made Worse

Until you’ve aged a little and accomplished some awesome things, and come to a place where you know you are fierce and can kill it in any situation, “being yourself” is really stressful. Especially if you want to be a lot more than “yourself.” As a teen, I never wanted to be myself. I wanted to be the “self” that fit in and was liked for being myself. If I was actually myself, I would have never engaged in conversation, or done extra curricular activities, or been responsible with my chores. I only did those things to appear normal, to have the hope of being a better ‘self’ someday, and so that my parents would get off my back and…Read More

4 Steps to Help You Become a Badass Version of You

The teenage years can be some of the best or worst of your life. Or you might just survive with a few good memories and not too much humiliation. But no matter where you are on the spectrum, this is the time to start determining and designing the kind of human you want to be. Yes, it’s up to you—no one else. Becoming awesome and being a badass takes intention – and years of it. If you don’t think about it now, you’ll more easily fall and follow, because you will be reacting to the world, not acting in the world. So what can you do to make the most of the awesome years ahead? You need to vision yourself….Read More

When You've Lost Your Mojo - 8 Tips for Teens, Twenties and Beyond

Okay, aside from prayer, there is one thing you can always do to improve your life immediately no matter what is going on—and especially when something hard is going on. You might have lost a job, lost a friend, or lost your confidence, but not matter what trauma strikes, investing in yourself is never wasted time or money. And it pays dividends forever after. If you’re stuck and not sure what investing in yourself looks like, here are some ideas and most of them are free. 1 – Focus on your health. More sleep, long walks, lots of water. Do this every day and you’ll be ten steps ahead of most people.  When you are sick, it really does feel…Read More

What’s not to love about a feisty, red-lipped, red-haired poet sporting a new pair of dancing shoes? Nothing, I say! Especially when she is as financially successful as Edna St. Vincent Millay. I first discovered Edna St. Vincent Millay in a collection of poetry that had her famous poem “Renascence”, a poem she finished when she was 20. It has remained one of my favorites and enticed me to explore more of her work when I was also in my twenties, but I didn’t enjoy her other work quite as much. Edna, called Vincent by her family, was a child of divorce and was raised by her mom. Encouraged to explore the arts, she managed to learn six languages, and study theater and…Read More