Just Write!

The last time I wrote a poem

It feels so good just to write again.

It feels like everything is right again.

I find myself getting lost in the “That’s right!” again

Not knowing that I just need to use my mind again

 

When my mind is all over the place

I just need to sit down and not pace

Look my problems right in the face

But I say I don’t have time to sit and debate

 

I have a deadline to meet

The problems, this mind, it just won’t sleep

I wish I could just escape and think

When really all is need is a page and ink

 

So writers, just write, no thinking

Just a moment of meditation and being empty

You are the greatest, just speak it

Better yet, no speaking, just ink it

 

Writers, do what you do best and write. Your mind is a beautiful thing. So let the world see. Don’t keep all of your thoughts inside. We need to know what you are creating inside there. Don’t be selfish. We need it. We need you.

-xoxo Candice

 

F*%& the blogs….

Boring damned people. All over the earth. Propagating more boring damned people. What a horror show. The earth swarmed with them.- Charles Bukowski

Hey guys! I am pretty sure you guys have thought of this before or it may even be the reason you started your blog in the first place but I started writing in hopes of monetizing my blog. I wanted to be rolling in the dough! RICH! WEALTHY!

Now let me tell you the reasons that I don’t think that is what I am going to do anymore. 

So, I have this concept in my mind: I don’t work for money. And I don’t. You see every job I ever had, I quit. I don’t regret it. Hell, half of the jobs that I quit I can’t half way remember it. So no love lost. However, I thought to myself that this would be a better way to “work”. I thought that I could share my ideas in a none judging way and get paid for it. Too bad I was wrong. How many of you thought that once you started your blog that all of the big dough was going to roll in?

ME!

To be honest, I haven’t been writing for long but I am exhausted because I am not receiving any money. I feel like money will never come my way and I am wasting my time even expressing myself. So I want to quit. Thats the right thing to do, right?

WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

I know many of you have searched the internet in search of: WAYS TO MAKE MONEY FROM BLOGGING.

But that is the absolute worst thing you could do. Because then you start ‘TRYING TO FIT IN TO A CROWD” or “MAKE YOURSELF MORE MARKETABLE”!

OR TALK ABOUT THE SAME OL GENERIC SHIT EVERYONE ELSE ON THE INTER-WEB IS DOING.

I encourage you to STOP! DELETE! DO NOT PASS GO! WRONG WRONG! UGH WRONG!

Listen, eff the money!

Do not let your expression become a job to you! 

Do not express yourself for the money!

Do not let this release become another JOB that you hate!

I had one with my middle finger up….but I censored myself 🙂

Share at your own pace. Share what you truly want to. Share what you truly feel because honestly, all of that other shit is boring.

I want to hear YOU! I don’t want to hear clones of everyone else. I want want to read generic blog posts!

OMG, every single soul is different! That is what I crave! I crave the uniqueness! I want to hear about your flaws and mistakes. Your stupid choices and your bad days! That is what I want to read. Let me hear how much you sucked today! Express yourself! To the fullest! DO NOT CENSOR YOURSELF FOR THE MASSES! I IMPLORE YOU!

So, that is why I am here to say, I will not monetize my blog. Nor will I do any degrading BS that will make me feel pressured to make money! I am going to share my truth and hope that this touches someone! 

I hope that it touches you.

-xoxo Candice

You Deserve It!!!

That is my sister….I forgive her.

One common theme on my blog is: “YOU DESERVE IT!”

I say it a lot because I mean it. I believe that you deserve all GOOD things. I believe that you deserve every single thing you desire out of life. I believe that all people are good. Sometimes we run into bad situations or other bad people and that may change us for a bit but otherwise we are good people.

I believe you are a good person. Yes, YOU! You need encouragement. You are looking for words to make you feel better. I wish I could come to you and tell you how much you deserve. I wish that I can come walk you through it. I want to touch the lives of millions. Just to show you that you are special and unique and NEEDED. That is what I want for the world. I want every one to get what they want for the greater good of the world.

I was in a tough spot and wished someone would tell me these words. I wish someone would have told me that I was worthy. But they didn’t. So, I am giving you what I needed. Pass it along. Ask people what do they need or want and see if you can give it to them. It may not be as complicated as you think. Most people just want someone to talk to….

• Or to hear an encouraging word
• Or they just simply want someone to LISTEN.

For your next conversation, I encourage you to ask if they need anything, I guarantee you will get fulfilling results!

-xoxo Candice

When Motivation Leaves….

F*$& IT ALL!

It’s difficult to stay motivated. I know it is for me. Sometimes I want to give up on all of my dreams. Sometimes I want to say to hell with this and go back to my regular job. Sometimes I want to stop everything and sit in my dark room away from the world.

Sometimes you don’t see the growth and that gets discouraging. You don’t see how far you’ve come or how far you can go. You only see that you aren’t where you want to be.

It makes it hard to chase that dream you always wanted. It makes it hard to be that person you always wanted to be. You see other people and think, Damn they sure do have their shit together and wish and hope to be like them.

I wish I could be like those people. I mean who doesn’t want to have their shit together? Who doesn’t want to get up in the morning and know exactly why they are on this earth and DO that live that exact reason out?

Well, I am human just like the rest of you so I have these feelings day in and day out. HOWEVER, If my memory serves me correctly, as soon as you want to give up, you strike gold SO you have to keep pushing. FAILURE is only FAILURE when you give up. Not because you tried. It is by our own perception that we think we will never make it. However, reality could be dealing a different set of cards. The future may look bleak to you right now but something totally better could be in store. So, I encourage you to follow that spark, KEEP AT IT. It is going to lead to amazing things. It is going to lead to victory. Your heart is pulling you towards where you need to be. Continue to follow it. Continue to trust in yourself.

I wonder why people trust in other people without question but yet won’t trust in themselves? Like a job. A salary. A boss.

What if you knew you could do it? That in 1 year all of your efforts would pay off? How would you treat it? We have more control over ourselves and our outcomes more than we do job stability.

If we keep being persistent in what we do…it is going to crack! We are going to make it to where we want to be.

• We never heard the story about the guy who gave up on their dreams and lived happily ever after.
• Or we never heard the story about the girl who stopped chasing her passion and it just magically worked out.

I don’t know about you but I don’t think these stories exist.

BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAPPEN!

The point is to trust in yourself. Trust that it will all work out because it does. Every great you hear about IS great because they refused to give up. You don’t have to be perfect. None of us are. So just KEEP GOING. KEEP GOING.

Those silly imperfections make you…..you. 🙂

-xoxo Candice

We are creators. We create.

We are creators. We create. That is what we do. We direct movies. We write songs. We write plays. We take what was in our head and make it a reality. We design clothes. We make jewlery. We paint pictures. We make art. We are creators. We have a silly little thought that turns into a motion pictures because thats how we envisioned the world to be. That is how we envisioned our slice of the world to be. We are of this world because we were created and we are continuing to make new entities. This blog, my vision, was merely an idea sparked by Live Your Legend and now it’s come to fruition. I dreamt of having a location independent life purpose that would inspire people to pursue their dreams. Here I have it. I create useful material for people. If you want to be a writer, then write. If you want to be a singer, then sing. If you want to be a website designer, then design. All it takes is a thought and and consistent action…then you recieve what you have been desiring. Being a creative comes with many things. Here I will only list 3 to keep this post short:

1.We are highly sensitive because we value the work that we do. Our art is a reflection of us so to judge our work is to judge our very selves. We are in tune with the world around us. We can pick up on all emotions and the like.

2. We are day dreamers. We spend our lives in the clouds. We aren’t spacey. We are constantly trying to make our dreams come true. Or someone else dreams come true. We like to take the dream and make it happen.

3. We do not like the word “impossible”. We believe that most (if not everything) is possible. All you need is the right mindset and courage, then it is possible. I heard a quote:

“Everything was impossible until someone did it.”

So get out there. Go create!

-xoxo Candice

 

6 Steps to being happy and job-free

“Don’t be a complainer; make things better, let it go, or take action to make it better.” – Tina Roth Eisenberg, Tattly Founder

Steps to quitting my job:

1. Quitting over 100 jobs

Well, my first step to quitting my curent job is self explanatory. Every single job I have ever had, I quit. Or I fired myself. I said to myself that I deserved better. Whatever “better” meant. I worked there for a month and quit. The list includes being a

Kroger cashier

call center representative

knife salesman

Comcast Cable representative

social worker

laundry lady at a country club

and even a flight attendant

I wasn’t bad at these jobs, I just disliked them with a passion.

2. Admitting that I wasn’t a good employee

Oh!, I worked as mall concierge for 3 years, too!

Hey, if anyone needs to tell the truth, it needs to be you. I am not a good employee in fact I suck. I don’t have any enthusiasm for the work that I did. Not that I didn’t show up orwas late but…. I didn’t care. When I was truthful with myself about that, I opened a lot of doors for myself. I, then, became honest about the things I did care about. Which was building something that mattered to me. I realized that I wanted to do work that mattered. I didn’t care for the money. Money didn’t drive me but making a difference did.

 

3. Minimizing the s*** out of my life!

I became a minimalist. Not in a “I only own 100 things way” but I did my own variation. I owned a truck. A nice beaut. A 2011 Dodge Ram 1500. Boy oh Boy did I love Chocolate! She was my baby. I didn’t drive her much because I still owned my get-around-car (I’ll tell you more about her later). I drove Chocolate on the weekends. Music loudly playing as I zoomed down I75. Well, Chocolate was an expensive little thing. She cost me $475 a month plus $150 in car insurance PLUS premium gas. (Now, you see why I only drove her on the weekend). That was eating all of my meek check as a Social Worker. Then, I had to pay rent & eat! Well, if I have to choose between eating and paying for a weekend truck, the choice becomes quite apparent. So I sold her. Yup I sold her AND was upside down $4,000. I had to pay the dealership $4,000 for them to take her. Not including the $4,000 I put down on her at the time of purchase or the repairs within the year and a half I had her. I kept driving my get around car and it was okay and it still is okay 10 months later. 🙂

3. I stopped worrying about what people thought of me

I began being okay with what I had. I had to mentally and emotionally decide that I didn’t need the newest iPhone or the most expensive heels. I didn’t need an expensive wardrobe to feel good about myself. If I did need something, I thrifted for it. But I haven’t NEEDED anything so far. My sneakers no longer cost $90 but I got some nice ones at Sears for $15 and guess what, they still cover my feet just the same. 🙂

4. Eating healthier

I still splurge on eating out from time to time but I do a lot more healthy eating. It saves me so much money! I would spend $40 a day on food by eating out. But now, I don’t

spend money on food daily but I practice a healthier diet by cooking at home. Even as a fight attendant, I eat more fruit that I can just carry with me instead of eating airport food.

5. I got rid of people who didn’t support me.

It is amazing how many people will support you and your new way of life. You just have to weed out the ones who don’t. Get friends who understand your decisions to stop eating or spending money therefore they won’t invite you out to do those things but will encourage other ways to have fun.

6. Trying to work for someone else once more.

I applied to be a flight attendant.

Well, I don’t have to tell you how that’s going….you see the title.

All of the above are my steps that I took to be where I am today. It was more mental than anything. Now that I am not tied to material things, I can get more creative. Yes, I still have bills and responsibilities but I saved a lot and I was able to budget for those things. My goal is to be realeased from my job but I can’t if I still hold an attachment to all of the things that kept me there. I began to evaluate what I really needed for my bills. Most importantly, I had to see who I was without the job title.

I will repeat that.

I had to see who I was without the job title.

That is the biggest challenge to date. Not knowing who I am without a job description telling me so.

It is possible to leave your soul sucking job. You just have to make a plan to make it happen.

Come on guys. Is your job sucking the soul out of you? Do you have a plan to leave? If so, I want to hear it!

-xoxo Candice

I am about to quit my job (Part 2)

So You’re Thinking About Quitting Your Job?

Ahhh the joys of walking into work! The sweet smell of burnt coffee! Unhappy coworkers are all frowning as you flash a “Good Morning” smile. Your fellow coworker who is always late is…..late again. Housekeeping switched your chair again so now you are stuck with the chair that juts in your back every time you move AND things are shifted on your desk for the 15th time. Yes! Another day of work! 🙂 WAIT, where are ALL OF YOUR PENS!

Or maybe this sounds like you…

That boss who you couldn’t care less for is there today. He’s back from vacation. You had a whole week without him. So you were just beginning to tolerate this place. But he’s back so you wave hello and smile and he ignores you like he didn’t even see you. But you sit down and smile again because under any other circumstance….well…kids may be reading. If you smell Maria’s fluorescent perfume again you really may crack up….

Or if you ring up another gallon of FREAKING milk…

Or serve another d*** party of 12…

Or if you say another…

“Sure, I’ll get right on it!” After you was JUST COMPLETING THE LAST THING YOU WERE JUST “RIGHT ON”!!!!

Or,

Taking lunch and you forgot your lunch today so you have to sit in a Wendy’s line totally shattering your diet. Or remembering your lunch but rushing to the car to eat it alone. Or eating with coworkers is DEFINITELY worse than doing your job so you would rather get back to work.

The list could go on and on…

But I beg this question WHY?

Why does life have to be this hard? Surely, you were not put here for hardship. So why are you taking yourself through this? Why are you choosing pain? Why do you have to spend 9 hours doing something you absoutely hate for a car you only drive in traffic? Or to pay for a home you are never in? Or purchase furniture you never get to enjoy? Or purchase things for your kids you never get to see them enjoy?

I don’t know guys…..this doesn’t sound like “Living the Good Life”.

Maybe it is time to reevaluate.

-xoxo Candice

The Only 3 P’s You Will Ever Need To Be Successful

Note: Success is relative. What some people may deem as successful, you could probably care less about. Remember successful is how you define it. Paying attention to what you want is vital. Self reflection comes before the list but once you know yourself and what YOU define as successful, then and only then are you able to apply the following:

   1. Passion

You might as well quit if you don’t have passion. If there isn’t a PULL towards what you want to achieve, then ask yourself are you really passionate about it. True internal success comes when you accomplish something that is near and dear to your heart. All others is not worth it. Everything will fall in line once you set your desires on it. The fire behind your butt will be hotter because it means just that much to you. Think about the last time you encountered something that was uninteresting. It got pushed down to the bottom of your to do list. However, something that is “fun” or “lights that spark” will be done first.

Some parts of us wants to make that inner child in us happy. But once we got older, we learned to quiet that child-like wander inside of us. That may be the ONE voice we need to listen to. Ask that voice, what will make you happy? (Responsibly. Now, don’t listen to everything it says. Have some discernment 😉) But that inner voice will lead you exactly where you need to go.

Ignore what society says. Ignore what friends says. Ignore what is “acceptable”. Ignore what is “in”. DO YOU. Do you in such a way that people wonder how it was done. Follow your instinct because IT KNOWS WHATS RIGHT. It will always lead you to success because YOU know whats the best for you! Society doesn’t know whats best for you. Only you do. So why listen to everyone else? People will tell you it’s impossible! That doesn’t mean you can’t…. It just means that THEY couldn’t. 🙂

2. Persistence

Persistence is probably more important than Passion. Persistence has proven that if you stay at something you desire, it will come to you. It’s like sawing away at a piece of wood. Stay at it long enough, it has to give. Once, you have your sights set on something, keep at it. Don’t give up on it. Not only will you be an expert at it but you will also HAVE IT! Only if you DON’T GIVE UP ON IT! Your dreams are worth it.

I remember when I graduated from college and I wanted to work as a Social Worker. I told myself I will get up at 5:00am and send my resume to all of the counties who were hiring for the next 6 months- EVERY SINGLE MORNING. And I did. And I got exactly what I wanted because I was willing to go for it with Vicious Persistence. I KNEW it was worth it. I KNEW I was worth it. I stuck at it until I got it!

Persistence even beats talent. Think about all of the talent you have seen throughout the years. Some have come and gone. However, the persistence ones are still around. They are still DOING IT. The talents sometime goes away because they feel like they don’t have to work for it. But persistence knows it does. That is why persistence always wins. Passion + Persistence will have you living out your wildest dreams. Passion will get you out of bed and persistence will keep you working your a** off until you get it.

“Be wild for a little while”

3. Patience

I know sometimes we get impatient. We feel that we should have all of what we want RIGHT NOW. And when that doesn’t happen, we get discouraged. We want to outright quit. But it is only by having patience that we can see that we will become successful. Practicing patience is simple but it isn’t going to be easy. But we learn how to be less stressed if we learn to practice it. We allow success to come to us easily. When was the last time you make a hasty decision only to regret it? Overnight successes are myths. Patience not only shows confidence that we know we are good at what we do but it gives us a chance to improve even more.

People go to university for at least 4 years to hopefully find a job after graduating. What if you put in that same 4 years into your own dreams? What wonders will come of that? Imagine that. 4 years may seem like a long time but the time is going to pass anyway. Building that foundation is far more important. A carefully thought out brick house is sturdier than a house thrown together in desperation. If you know that you are working diligently at what you want to accomplish- having patience will be the icing on the cake. Imagine how happy you would be loving that process of going after what you want. Fall in love with the process and have patience.

So, when success comes, you can greet it with a smile like…”What took you so long? Welcome. 🙂”

-xoxo Candice

17 signs that a 9-5 job IS NOT FOR YOU…

Them: So what do you do?

Me: I fly. I am a Flight Attendant.

Them: WOWWWW!

Me: 

Being a Flight Attendant is all that what you think of AND MORE. Heavy emphasis on the AND MORE! When I applied a couple of months ago, I thought that this job would be a breeze! How hard could it be? Serve some crackers and pour some drinks. Smile and look pretty and travel everywhere that I could ever want to go! Right? That’s not hard! Anyone could do it! A freaking toddler could do it!

But boy was I wrong! ANYONE could not do it! The interview process is like American Idol (you stand in front of judges to perform your set and if they like you, you are chosen to go to the next round, if not, you are dismissed). However, they are judging you based on your appearance, smile, and more. There are thousands of “contestants” all competing to be the very best flight attendant the judges have ever seen. (Sounds familiar to all job interviews) However, the chance of getting picked for EVEN an interview is 2 of out 10 applicants. Okay, so after you go through the interview process (which last a minimum of 12 hours) you are sent home to pack for training. That is when sh*t gets real! You have to pass the 4 week training with a minimum of 90% on over 30 tests. If not, you are dismissed. You have to wear the uniform precisely the way they want you to. If not, you are dismissed. You have to wear the exact MATERIAL shoes they want you to. If not, you are dismissed. You have to have your make-up the EXACT way they want. If not ,you are dismissed. So on and so forth. This is just the training portion.

It is extremely restricting. If you are anything like me, you are thinking, to hell with ALL OF this. However, you know the idea of being a flight attendant is far too good to let go. So you prevail. But your soul is screaming! Your soul is screaming out for it to BE LET FREE! So do you push through to wait to see if you get this FREEDOM that a coveted Flight Attendant PROMISED or do you give up?

When I graduated, I got my wings and cried. I cried not tears of joy but I felt sorrow. I FELT TRUE SADNESS. I felt trapped. I felt like I just got sentenced to DEATH. I felt like nothing I did within the last 4 weeks even mattered to me. I shed blood, sweat, and tears and none of it mattered truly within my heart. I didn’t truly care about being a flight attendant. I just knew it was a difficult job to get and I wanted to prove that I could get it. We started out with 80 people and only 45 people graduated in my class. I should have been happy that I made it. But I wasn’t.

That is when I knew. I knew that any type of job, no matter the hours, working for someone else was not for me. Working for someone else may be for some people. It is just not for me. If you experienced anything like death when they told you that you have the job….you should explore other options. Here are more signs that a job may NOT be for you:

1. If you work 40 hours out of a 168 hour week and it feels like a waste of close to 1/3 of your life…
2. If they tell you that “YOU HAVE THE JOB!” and you cringe…
3. If you equate having a job to being “trapped”….
4. If you count how many things you lose instead of gain once you get that job…
5. If once they give you the job, you already have plans on quitting…you have JUST wasted your time.
6. If you didn’t even like the people you interviewed with….
7. If you applied out of desperation…
8. If you looked for confirmation that you did the right thing from a friend or spouse….
9. If the moment they told you your work schedule, you needed to change half of it….
10. If having that job RESTRICTS you from doing the things that actually make you happy…
11. You use their wifi for Youtube or Pinterest…
12. If the only reason you are excited to go to work is because you know you get to browse the internet for hours…
13. You feel the same way about this job that you did at the last 3 JOBS YOU QUIT…
14. You have called out for at least 5 days in the last 6 months for “personal reasons”…
15. If you tell yourself it will get better and you are only one month in…
16. If you only took the job to please your wife/husband/mother/friends….
17. If you just stopped going and instead you sit in your car for hours until 5pm comes and then you go home like as if you had a hard day at work…

It may be THAT job in particular. However, whatever the case may be, it deserves to be explored. Maybe you don’t like that job or maybe you don’t like working for anyone in general. Either way, it is time to rethink and reevaluate. It is a pain that no one can understand. It is an ache. You deserve to explore what makes you happy. You soul needs it. You deserve it. Your heart deserves it. The solution may be a simple…quit. Or pursue a side hustle that actually interests you. Or find what about the job attracted you in the first place. But don’t ignore the nagging pain that you feel…it is time to explore it.

I know it is hard but you deserve the very best that life has to offer. Don’t you agree? Explore it. I dare you.

-xoxo Candice

I am about to quit my job (PART 1)

Note: If you have a 9-5 and you think its awesome sauce and you wouldn’t change it for ANYTHING in the world, this post is NOT FOR YOU!

Now for those of you who DO hate your 9-5…Do you want a change? Are you tired of the rat race? The drudgery of getting up at all hours of the morning?

What about driving your nice car across town through an hour and a half of traffic? Are you tired of being stressed out by that those EQUALLY stressed out people on the road? Thousands of people on that exact SAME highway and they all trying to get to work before you…when you all have to be there by 8:00am. To top it off, you all work off of the same highway exit. Not to mention, you left the house at 6:30am and you are still sitting in traffic at 7:50am.

You are so stressed out because are afraid that you would be late? You sit in traffic listening to podcasts just to drown out the misery. You entertain yourself for the hour and a half with some productivity podcast BS because you hate that you are even at that job in the first place.

“How to be more productive at your job when… yada yada yada!”

Remember when you were young and they asked you what you wanted to be when you grew up and you smiled big and said A WRITER, or AN ACTOR, or A WORLD CLASS CHEF? What happened to those dreams? Now you get up and drive to a job you never had ANY intention on working at for the last 9 years OF YOUR LIFE!

So you ask yourself how did you get there. How did you get to a point where you are stuck in a job that you hate? How did you end up pushing a pen for 9 hours of the day at a desk job, or taking orders, or doing mind numbing calculations all day.

When all of your day dreams consist of you starting your own yoga business or selling your aweosme drawings or even writing that book. But you got lost along the way. How did you let the very part of you that makes YOU…YOU get away? How did your daily routine turn into unhappiness? How did you get so damn unhappy? How did you become sad?

Well, if this sounds like you AND you absolutely hate it, then why not do something about it?

P.S. I repeat…If this does sound like you and you love it, this post is NOT for you.

Stay Tuned for PART 2 tomorrow.

-xoxo Candice