Surprise and Delight New Moms this Mother’s Day!

My passion is to inspire you to be creative with your Mother’s Day celebrations. With a 15 month old son, I still put myself in the “new mom” category!

Are you ready to recognize the special women in your life? Yes – YOU! We all have mothers – whether they are still on Earth or not. However, many of us usually overlook the other incredible mothers in our lives – our sisters, friends, coworkers and role models!

Men – I hope you’re paying attention too!

No matter how much or little the gift or experience costs, surprise and delight as many special “moms” in your life with your authentic self. Get in touch with your creative side. Wrap it up in something unique like a piece of newspaper, or make a gorgeous bow out of things you find around your house! As a rural girl, I’ve been known to use baler twine. I trust you’ve discovered or heard of http://pinterest.com and also get inspiration from the amazing images on the website.

The six gifts I’d love to receive and I’m convinced most new moms would also are…

1) MOMMY hours!

A guilt free escape for Mom! As a new mom and mompreneur, when I get the opportunity to escape for some “me” time, I am ecstatic! I always come back from a couple hours or days away feeling refreshed, reenergized and with the ability to be a more amazing Mom.

Surprise and Delight Detail: Consider adding a gift card, but not just for anywhere! I want you to do some research – what a concept. Be a listener and find out where they love to go and fill up their cup. Personally, two of my happy places are Starbucks and Edo Japan (a Canadian fast food Japanese Teppan-style experience). I love my own mom to pieces; however, her standard gift card is for The Keg or a movie theatre. I’m grateful for both; however, a more personalized destination would be fun!

Amazing Dare: Tuck $5 or $10 in your pocket. Do twice the listening the next couple weeks. With your two ears, find out where a mom in your life would love to escape to and surprise her!

2) Experience

As a mom of a 15 month old, I’m working hard to get “hotter and thinner!” One of my personal goals is to complete a ½ Marathon. The first step for me is getting into post-winter shape and completing 5K and 10K runs. I would be tickled pink if my husband treated me with the registration fee for an upcoming race, such as the SportChek Mother’s Day Run & Walk 2012. Even a new running accessory that supports my goal (e.g., new gear like a top, bottoms, shoes, etc.) would be thoughtful. My husband reminds me often of something he read: couples that exercise together are more intimate! Just saying…

Surprise and Delight Detail:Get creative with how you wrap up your experience gift by coordinating with the experience. For example, a running/walking theme could be wrapped up in a shoe lace or wrapped in motivating images and phrases that correlate with completing a goal.

Amazing Dare: Find out what item/thing/goal is on Mom’s dream/vision/life board! Use this new found knowledge to create an experience gift that supports or even achieves this dream board item.

3) Invest in Yourself

My car is my new self-help university! As I drive down the road to doctor appointments and play dates, I listen to self-help, business and inspirational audio books. Fictional books are lovely, but I prefer non-fiction, kick me in the butt books that make me a more amazing mom, wife, friend and mompreneur.

Surprise and Delight Detail: Give her an Amazing Experience Card to visit the library or a local bookstore as a family! Even more exciting – pay for her to attend a Women’s Day event in your area or to attend a workshop/conference/seminar.

Amazing Dare: Find out what authors or books Mom enjoys or ask her friends for ideas.

4) Lingerie

Yes, you read correctly! I realize Valentine’s Day has past, but read on! As a new mom, I was ecstatic when my husband steered me into Victoria Secret’s a couple weeks ago. The infamous images of the “angels” caught his attention. You know which pictures I’m talking about – the knockout models sporting gorgeous lingerie. He subtly pointed to a bra that he wanted me to try on! I was flattered and felt very attractive. As a new mom, I haven’t spent as much on myself the past year. This new piece of lingerie had the wow factor and I started wearing it that day – why wait? Life is worth living – right now! Gentleman, the best part of this experience was that I got to share it with my partner. Quality time happens to be one of my top love languages. Plus, it was a surprise and every woman loves a surprise!

Surprise and Delight Detail: Wrap up an Amazing Experience Card – stating that this special “mother” receives one special trip or gift card to the lingerie store of her choice! Side note: Lingerie shopping is like picking a new bathing suit for women – it’s personal and can really stress us out! Instead of just “assuming” the size a woman wears – bless her with a gift card!

Amazing Dare: Men, step out of your comfort zone and be spontaneous! Women, you can also gift this idea to your sisters and girlfriends.

5) Card – a hand written, possibly even handmade card!

In my opinion, a Mother’s Day gift can cost you nothing but your time. Tread water with this one and ensure you know what each “mom” expects or what her love language is! I highly suggest you read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman or learn about your love language at http://www.5lovelanguages.com.

Surprise and Delight Detail: Make a card! My son received three cool infant paint containers for his first birthday. My creative husband took a blank piece of white copy paper and made a Valentine’s card for me with the help of my son. Find a fun tool to draw or write with in your home or office!

Amazing Dare: Write a card to someone you typically haven’t recognized on Mother’s Day – your best friend, a woman you look up to, or even a more experienced lady that has influenced you.

6) Sunday Brunch

This tends to be a standard outing for Mother’s Day in my opinion. However, have you considered trying out a new place? I recently attended a weekend long retreat at the Nakoda Lodge just west of Cochrane, AB. The Sunday Brunch was incredibly tasty and a fabulous experience. The pristine backdrop was breathtaking, plus the live drumming and dancing by the local First Nations members was a treat!

Surprise and Delight Detail: Leave clues the days leading up to Mother’s Day about where you’re going to go on May 13th! Example clues: It’s a gorgeous drive; it’s in the mountains; we’ll be leaving at ___am; we’re stopping for your favourite coffee on route; etc.

Amazing Dare: Make Sunday Brunch! Even more creative – have her go on a little scavenger hunt either by foot or vehicle. When she returns, have all the supplies out, ready to make your own omelettes or waffles with all the toppings as a family!

Gifts tend to last as long as you can remember what you received – experiences create memories and last a lifetime! I hope you take at least one of my dares and add your personal Surprise and Delight flare to your Mother’s Day gift.

 

Robyn Beazley is an Enthusiasm Expert from Alberta, Canada and the author of Live an Amazing Life. As a mompreneur, she also shares her passion for life as a motivational speaker, coach and consultant! Connect with her at www.robynbeazley.com.

If you would like to share this article, please contact robyn@robynbeazley.com for permission and include the paragraph with my bio and website when posting.


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My first…

Dream Board!!

As I wrote in my book Live an Amazing Life, my first dream board was posted on the back of my bedroom door at my parents. Whenever I see it, it reminds me of where I’ve come from. I wanted to share – to show you how simple your dream board can be!

To learn more about making dream boards – watch my Amaze Yourself Video 2 (that will only be available for a bit longer!) and read my Why We Dream(board) Together post!

Excerpt from the story “Vision” in my book, Live an Amazing Life:

“My first dream board consisted of four pictures. Three of the four images became mine within two years and the fourth another two years later. Here’s what those four images were:

  1. The logo for the Calgary Stampede Junior Livestock Scholarships, sponsored by BMO (a Canadian financial institute).
  2. A Red Chevrolet Cavalier.
  3. The Dodge City Community College logo.
  4. A house in a lush valley surrounded by mountains, with the word Montana included.

I went on to receive…” {Read the rest of this story & more in my book, Live an Amazing Life}

Do you have a dream board? Where do you have it posted?

Stay Amazing,
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How I Started My Blog and My Book

During a conversation with my bestie, Laura, a year and a half ago, I told her that I was thinking about writing a book. For about 10 years, I had been making notes, jotting down ideas and stuffing everything into file folders for a rainy day. My wise bestie suggested I start a blog to get my creative writing juices flowing.

I questioned what a blog was and she referred me (for at least the third time) to The Pioneer Woman. I visited the site for the first time and finally got it. Ree’s website is now one of my favorites, and she is one of my idols.

Blogging has become one of my new passions. I absolutely love it. I’m always taking pictures of everything, and scribbling blog entry ideas down. Having a place to unleash my daily random thoughts has been one of my best therapies for staying positive.

What my blog first looked like:


Social media has been one of the most amazing tools for me to help fuel my desire to finish this book. I have connected with some unbelievably driven individuals, in particular women solepreneurs on Twitter and Facebook.

In April 2009, I learned about a free tele-seminar called Write a Book in a Weekend being put on by Donna Kozik. This concept intrigued me and I was completely inspired during the call.

I happened to have the next weekend wide open, so I took advantage of my new knowledge and started writing. My traveling husband was away, so I started writing that Friday night and continued all day Saturday. A lot of the content of this book was written in those two days. However, it took focusing again to finish. Thanks to Donna for encouraging aspiring authors to pursue their dreams.

I recall mentioning what I was doing that weekend to my mom. She laughed out loud over the phone, and then quickly bit her tongue. I suspect she had déjà vu and was not giggling out of disrespect or lack of support. You see, my mom was a teacher, and she majored in English while getting her education degree. My sweet mother proofread countless papers for me from elementary school right through to University. Spelling and my use of the English language have always been subject areas that I struggle with. That day, my mom probably saw a manuscript sitting in front of her and her favorite red, ballpoint pen in hand proofing!

After writing lots that weekend, I put the content to the side in a filing folder and kept building my blog. I added a mock up of my future book to our dream board.

Mock up image on our dream board:

It’s cool how the actual cover of my book, has the same color scheme and imagery of this mock up!

For the next 10 months, I looked at this image almost daily. Finally this past spring, I dug out my previous writings and the process of self publishing my first book unfolded. Since announcing the launch of Live an Amazing Life, I have had many people ask me how I did it, was it hard, etc. I plan to put my journey into a series of blog and vlog entries in the future – for those interested in learning from my experience.

If you’re aspiring to do something in your life, attract the people to help you achieve it.

Over the past 18 months I have had some of the most moving experiences of my entire life. I’m so blessed that I could work with my network and create new relationships along the way,that have helped my dream become a reality.

Thanks for your support – as a follower, friend, and cheerleader, you’ve helped me become the woman that I am.

Live an Amazing Life,
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Day 23 & 24: A YouTube.com video – Inspire

This topic cracks me up! Since I’ve been doing YouTube.com videos the whole time for the 30 Day Challenge, I’m going to spice it up a bit.

I’m combining yesterday and today’s topic by sharing a bit of inspiration with you, just for the fun of it!

Day 23 & 24: A YouTube.com video – Inspire


Live Inspired,
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Why We Dream(board) Together

HE Said (John):

Have you ever wondered why some guys have all the luck? A beautiful woman, a great job, big house, the time to go on vacation or getaways, it seems like they have it all. Just lucky right? What if you could discover a way to get what you want, anything at all?

Well the first step to getting what you want, is to know what you want. A great way to help define exactly what you want is to create a Dream Board. That is a poster board or large piece of paper with images and words of your specific dreams, goals, and aspirations.

SHE Said (Robyn):

Dream Boards can be whatever you want them to be. It can consist of pictures, cut outs, models, words or any image that you want. As Jack Canfield talks about in his book, The Success Principles, be specific. If you want to go on a vacation, then research resorts in the country you want to visit and find an image of the specific resort you plan to visit. Your mind doesn’t know what you want; it just goes after what you visualize.

HE Said:

You should put this dream board in a place where you see it when you wake up and before you go to bed. I put mine on the mirror in my bathroom between my sink and my wife’s sink, we didn’t share very well the first year of our marriage so two sinks was on our mental dream board before we built this house. We put it on the bathroom mirror so we can both look at it while we get ready in the morning and before we go to bed at night.

The mind is a very powerful tool and will work towards these goals and thoughts even while you sleep. In the Napoleon Hill’s book Think and Grow Rich, Hill said, “If you can conceive it and believe it, you can achieve it.” That book was written in 1937 and only came as a result of twenty years of research on the wealthiest men in the world. If it worked for the wealthiest men in the world I figured, what the heck, I could give it a try. Believe it or not I was excited to work on this dream board based on a few books that had promoted the idea. I told Robyn that I wanted to make a dream board and she was so excited to work on this project with me. It made a great date activity and we shared lots of laughs and even scratched our heads at some of the things that each other was cutting out to put on the board. And fellas, I also found out that this type of quality time is well rewarded.

SHE Said:

Anyone can make a dream board! I had the most fun creating my most recent dream board with my husband and partner in life, John. This process allowed me to discover more specifically what John desires, wants out of life, and specific goals he wants to attain – that he hadn’t communicated.

The first two dream boards that I made, I put in my office; however our masterpiece is pasted on the mirror in our master bathroom. We are able to look at it every day -when we’re home! John and I both travel lots – for work and pleasure. As an Auctioneer John is gone more than I am, so our time together is measured by quality, not quantity. This schedule works for us, as we both love to experience new culture and see the world. Having our Dream Board in a shared space, allows us to visualize our joint goals often and do actions that get us closer to achieving them together.

July 2009 while I was away, I received a call from my husband. “I want to make a Dream Board with you!” My jaw dropped – were my ears dirty? I was completely shocked. I had constantly dripped my positive energy and dream big mindset on him for over four years and did NOT see this coming at me. This amazing desire hit me like a train – I was overwhelmed with emotion – it “may” have been around that time of the month and I was overly sensitive and emotional! However, I knew deep inside that I had been attracting this moment for three or five years. When you get married to your soul mate, everything is perfect the day you get hitched. Then reality sets in, challenges face you, bills are due, and life blinds your dreams – when you least expect it. As a new wife, I constantly tried to keep our connection fresh and intellectual. John not only accepted, but instigated the energy I was craving.

HE Said:

Only people who are serious about improving their current living conditions or achieving success should invest their time in looking on the Internet or through magazines for pictures that depict their dreams or things they want to achieve or obtain. It can take as long or short as you want and should be specific. My wife and I spent about an hour going through magazines and cutting out pictures and printing pictures from the Internet. The hardest part was actually sitting down and doing it; once we started we had a lot of fun and learned a few things about what each other’s dreams were.

SHE Said:

I had to laugh because it seemed that everything John picked to put on our board – was a material item. While I was selecting lots of the things I wanted to experience. My husband spent hours looking on the company websites to find images of the exact items he plans to own – to name a few, his private jet, and custom motor coach.

HE Said:

I put the logo for Rosetta Stone on my board because I wanted to learn Spanish, being from Texas I had the basics down but wanted to become fluent. As a result of my dream board I now have Rosetta Stone and am still working to improve my Español.

SHE Said:

Examples of what I included:

- A Copper West logo (brand of a company) that we own that John and I are re-launching.

- A woman with the face cut out wearing a gorgeous red strapless gown, which I plan to wear to my car presentation, when our Arbonne team promotes in the near future.

- A camera and the phrase, “Pursue Your Passions”: Photography; which represents my desire to take a class on taking photos.

- A written list of different goals that I didn’t have images to represent yet.

THEY Said:

Many items we included – we chose together. A picture of an Austin Stone style bungalow home with an outdoor swimming pool represents our desire to have a home in Texas and Alberta. That way, we can travel back and forth to spend time with both of our families.

HE Said:

Just remember your mind is the only limiting factor, so dream big. Be specific. Put it where you will see it daily, and most importantly have fun with it. If you have a partner to share your life with you should build your dream board together. This is a great way for guys to communicate what we are thinking, since we are not always the most eloquent in expressing our thoughts, and ladies back me up on this, women are not mind readers. As we learned early in our marriage it is important for both of us to be on the same page, headed in the same direction. (But that is another story in itself) We can achieve more together than we ever could apart.

THEY Say:

If you know what you want, and work towards it, you can Dream your way to the Good Life.

John & Robyn Beazley

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Debuting our first “She Said/He Said” blog entry from my fabulous husband and I! (This post follows – Dreaming).


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Dreaming

Something strange has happened at the Beazley’s. I’m still investigating the case and will have to report back with – what on earth changed!!!

Clues:

  • Just before I left for the Calgary Stampede, I noticed one of my personal growth/self improvement books on the back of toilet. I didn’t put it there… (Did you know men do most of their reading in the bathroom? Hint hint, when you want them to read something, tab it, highlight the parts you want attention to, and just leave for them to discover!)
  • When I talked to John a couple times during the Calgary Stampede, he would respond to me with uplifting, motivational positive affirmations and principles. A few statements were very familiar, ones I know I’ve recited to my husband with a cheery tone in the past.
  • John excitedly informed me he’d like to make a dream board together. This one still has me in SHOCK!

These 3 books have been spotted in strange places:

artofinfluence   thegogiverbook   thesecretsoundtrack

A bit of background, for the past 3 years I’ve made and continued to develop a dream board, (which I highly suggest YOU do also!) however John has never seemed “moved” or interested in them before.

One evening this week, I suggested we play a game after supper. I was surprised when John suggested we work on our Dream Board instead. My amazing, passionate husband lit up with excitement just talking about the idea.

WorkingDreamBoard

Is it just me, or am I dreaming?

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