The role of holistic health in my life

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Holistic health is an approach to life that seeks to find balance in mind, body, and spirit for optimal health by recognizing that these three factors of health are interrelated.

This is something I have been working toward achieving in my own life. So far, I have been moderately successful, but I haven't gotten to where I really want to be. But it's a process, so I'm still taking steps toward balance, one day at a time.

This year, I am renewing my efforts at living holistically and finding balance. This is not only so I can achieve my health goals this year (some of them have a timeline), but because it will be highly beneficial for my work as I make changes this year.

I've been hinting at a big change that was supposed to happen sometime this year, then at the beginning of the year, and now back to the summer. This change is officially happening this summer, so I am ready to start talking about the change and what it will mean for my life and career.

The work I have been doing as a freelance writer for the past seven years has been going increasingly well. I have good clients, a great deal of experience, and a clear vision of what I want to do in my career. To that end, this summer I will be taking the step to establish myself as an official business and shift from doing work as a freelancer to focusing on doing marketing work for small and midsize holistic health and wellness organizations. In addition, the marketing work we'll be doing will take a holistic approach to the business, seeking to benefit every facet of the business with its efforts.

I look forward to integrating my holistic lifestyle and my career as a writer/marketer. I hope that my passion for holistic health will not only benefit the business as we take this new, adventurous step, but will further benefit my personal life as I learn more about maintaining a balance of mind, body, and spirit in my life.

Marketing and industry analyses

As I'm preparing for the next big adventure in my career, one of the things I'm doing is conducting both a marketing and industry analysis for my new business plan.

The industry analysis gives me an idea of what's going on to see what my competition is, what I offer that they don't, what I need to be mindful, and things like that. It will be a bit more broad than what I'll be doing because of the specifics of the business (details to come soon!), but it will still be very valuable as I'm moving forward.

The marketing analysis will help me identify and reach my target market, and help me develop a marketing strategy for both short- and long-term goals. This will also include competitive information, but from a marketing focus rather than an industry focus.

Analyzing both the industry and your marketing is valuable to do periodically. I'm doing it now because I'm getting set up to go in a new direction with my career, which includes launching all new services and quite a bit of re-branding, but once we're set up and working, we'll likely do these analyses at least annually (probably twice each year) to help keep tabs on what's going on and where we stand in the industry and within our target market.

I know that this part of the work can be tedious and irritating, but I also know it's valuable in order to be successful. So we'll compile data and insights and analyze information and use it to provide better services to our customers and ensure that they know exactly why investing in [COMPANY NAME REDACTED] is beneficial for their businesses.

Do you do regular analyses? How have they changed how you operate your business or services?

Renew your spirit with wedding plans

Bo and I are getting married in October.

So we're getting some initial planning done, securing vendors, organizing our ideas and making progress toward our happy day.

Yes, we're more than nine months away from the wedding, but it's the wedding industry so we have to reserve things early. Also, we live in a big city in a warm climate, so October is a busy wedding month. Add to that the fact that marriage equality just came to Florida, and it's almost surprising that we've been able to make as much progress as we have!

What started out as a low-key, laid-back wedding has become much more actual wedding than we expected it would.

We are doing some traditional things. Bo's dad will walk her down the aisle and we'll exchange rings. But we're definitely making it our own, too. The rings we're exchanging at the wedding will be our "pretty" rings, which are typically used as engagement rings. Our engagement rings are simple silver bands. We're having a reception, but no dancing.

I'm excited to see how things are already coming together, and how our brainstorming is transforming into plans. I can't remember the last time I was this excited.

It's going to be a beautiful October.

The year is changing already

Toward the end of the end of the year, I was optimistic about 2015. Bo and I had plans that would be set in motion this year that would mean very good things for our family. It was going to be our year.

Then, in the first couple of weeks of January, things changed, which has led us to re-evaluate our plans, shift some things, and adjust short- and long-term plans. Nothing bad or catastrophic has happened. In fact, I think even the challenging aspects of what has changed will ultimately lead to a good overall outcome.

One of the significant changes is in Bo's job. Since I have been planning to shift/expand my career to the new business, she is going to step into the business as a graphic designer. Not only will it be good for her career path, but will allow the business to do more than I would be able to do on my own.

This has presented a challenge, but has moved up the timetable for the business which I think will ultimately be a good thing. The business will be up and running by the end of the summer (and some of my blogging will be moved to the business website once it's up, so watch for that change this summer!). I'll have the opportunity to do more of what I really love (targeting marketing content) in a market I'm passionate about (holistic health and wellness), and I'll get to do it with Bo!

Of course, there is also the upcoming wedding. (So exciting!) We're planning to get married in October of this year, so our summer will be spent getting ready for that. We've already been talking about some aspects of our wedding and making some preliminary plans (venue, colors, type of reception).

It's going to be a damn good year.

Love wins!

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On January 6, 2015, it became legal for same-sex couples to marry in the state of Florida. (Hooray!) There have still been some complications, but it is legal, and Orlando welcomes marriage equality.

This is wonderful news. Florida is finally on the right side of history,

On January 11, 2015, Bo asked me to marry her, and I said yes.

We love each other fiercely, and as cheesy as it sounds, I truly believe that she is my other half. I can't imagine sharing my life with anyone else the way I have shared it with her.

So we're going to get married.

We haven't set a date yet, but we have some ideas of what we'd like to do for our wedding, as well as when. Right now we're just in the beginning-est planning stages, thinking about the wedding in more abstract terms, especially because of some significant career changes that are happening later this year (more on that in the next couple of days).

In the meantime, we're enjoying the excitement and anticipation of this new adventure in our life together, and sending lots of thank you messages to friends and family.

It's going to be a good year.

This year's theme

Last year my theme was No excuses. I used it as a mantra when I started to feel overwhelmed or needed something to ground me a little bit. It worked well.

This year's theme is Keep moving.

I'm using this year's theme in the same way I used last year's. It's meant to be an encouragement and inspiration to me, and to help motivate me when I need motivation.

I chose this theme because a lot of the goals I have this year are dependent on my ability to keep moving forward, even if I have to take things one baby step at a time. In addition to the goals I've set for myself and that we've set as a family, there are changes that could be occurring sometime this summer that will mean a significant shift in our lives, and if I keep moving, I can meet the impending challenges with ease.

Do you have a mantra or theme this year? Why did you choose it?

Happiness

Gerard ter Borch [Public domain]
via Wikimedia Commons

In my book, the "cover page" for each month comes with an inspirational quote or saying. Some of them are pretty cheesy, but they're all valuable reminders. So I decided this year that I'm going to use those sayings each month as a sort of mantra. This month:

Happiness is never out of reach, for the sweet miracle of life is that we are free to follow the path of our dreams.

I am one of those privileged people who gets to do what I love every day. Not only did I go to school to be a writer, but it's something I truly, truly love. I can't imagine doing anything else except what I'm doing right now.*

When I started college and made the decision to major in English (writing concentration), I was told that I had two real options for a career: journalism or teaching. After all, what could I really do with a degree in English?

After graduating, I discovered there was a whole society of people in business who don't like writing or feel that they "can't" write, and are happy to have other people do the work for them, especially when it comes to regular blogging and updating web content.

I started freelancing in 2008, and while I've taken breaks from it here and there, I've never gone very far from writing as my career.

I have been fortunate to be able to make a path for myself doing something that makes me very, very happy. I work on my own terms and in my own way, and after all the work I've put in over the past six and a half years, I've proven what I can do.**

I know there are a lot of people with degrees (advanced degrees, even) who are not working in their fields. Or who have taken whatever jobs they can find because there's just nothing available where they live. I'm fortunate enough that the work I love to do continues to be in high demand.*** (In fact, my primary client is expecting significant growth this year, which translates to more work for me.)

I have found that the path I am now is really the key to my overall happiness. I have had traditional jobs, and while I didn't abhor them, they didn't really make me happy. Even my most recent "real" job, which was in marketing, was the closest to happy I have had outside of freelancing, but the enjoyment I got from that job is nothing compared to what I feel now.

All of this is confirmation to me that I'm doing the right thing in my life. And to stay happy, I'm just going to keep at it every day.






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*Specifically, I adore working with my current primary client. It's a great gig!

**As evidenced by the conversation I had with my writing manager over the weekend. More on that another time.

***My primary client is an organization that provides academic content for individuals and groups. I've written white papers, business plans, thought leadership content, and a wide variety of other academic-style content on many, many subjects. I love doing this kind of research and writing, and would be very happy sticking with this client for a long time!

Renew your spirit with new plants

Winter is over in Florida. It's already back in air-conditioning weather, and the garden department at Lowe's is ready.

Today, Bo and I took Puck and Tink to pick new plants for our patio. Each of them got to pick a plant they wanted, and they both picked pretty flowering plants (with Puck's being big and in full bloom, of course).

Our patio looks like spring with pretty plants and brightly-colored pots all over. It's wonderful.

I know that, in most of the country, there's still a long way to go before it's time to start thinking about flowers, but I'm glad it's warm enough to add some plants to our home. I love having plants around. They bring a little bit of the natural world into my home--which is important on days I'm working 10+ hours--and make our apartment feel a bit more homey.

I love having lots of plants around, and now we have two more beautiful flowering plants, thanks to Puck and Tink. It's going to be a good spring.

Character sketches

One of the things I like doing is writing stories and character sketches inspired by people I see during the course of an ordinary day. In an effort to make more time to write fiction, I'm going to commit to writing at least one character sketch a month (to start).

I miss coming up with stories when I see someone walking down the street or sitting in a restaurant or wherever else people exist. I think this will be fun. And definitely good for my writing.

My plan is to post some of the character sketches here, as much to hold me accountable as it is to share writing.

And I encourage you to write and share your own character sketches and scenes.

We can make it a thing.