Conversely, do you know people that always seem to be grumpy or in a bad mood?  You know the type, the negative Nelly that just refuses to see the good in anything or anyone. When you are around this type of person you can almost FEEL them draining your energy!

Well, these two types of people really have a lot more in common with each other than you think! The commonality is that they both have the opportunity to CHOOSE how they want to look at life. On this week’s podcast Leah and Jen discuss the fact that we ALL have a choice each day as to what attitude we want to wear.

For example, when you are getting ready to start your day you probably look in your closet and CHOOSE which outfit you want to wear based on how you are feeling that day, or what the weather is like outside. Well, the same is true about our attitudes. We really do get to pick how we want to view our lives! We can be positive and upbeat, or we can be negative and unhappy.

In life everyone will face their own challenges, obstacles, and not so happy situations, that is inevitable. You cannot know joy if you don’t experience pain. However, you can choose how you want to deal with it! You can release the anger and sadness and move forward with a positive mindset, or you can hold on to the unhappiness and let it fester inside of you until you can’t see the forest for the trees!

So, next time you are around someone who is positive, upbeat and happy….thank them for making such a wise decision on what attitude they chose to wear!

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Have you ever wrestled an alligator? Have you swung from a trapeze? Driven a Formula 1 race car??

Well on this week’s Creating Your Masterpiece Show, Leah and Jen have to opportunity to chat with speaker, author and television correspondent Casey Wohl, who has done all this things and more!

Her book, the Girls Getaway Guide to Orlando: Leave Your Baggage at Home®, is the first in the series and was published in September 2007.  The second book, Girls Getaway Guide to Key West: Leave Your Baggage at Home®, hit shelves in October 2008.   These guides focus on where to stay, shop, eat and spa, as well as annual happenings and side trips for each city. She is currently working on her third Girls Getaway Guide to Nashville.

Casey shares her personal journey with Leah and Jen of how she discovered her passion in life after having gone through some difficult times. After a devastating divorce and getting fired from her job, Wohl found solace in traveling with her girlfriends and realized an unfilled niche in the travel industry as no one was writing city-specific travel guides for women.  Casey is passionate about traveling and spending time with friends. By combining these two loves, Wohl created and launched her unique and helpful city-specific travel guide series for women worldwide.

Her books (and her message) are all about empowerment and living your life to the fullest potential. Her tag line is: Leave Your Baggage At Home. And, she is doing that everyday of her life and encouraging and empowering people all over the world to do just the same.

To learn more about Casey and her Girls Getaway Guides, click here. And be sure to listen to this week’s podcast.

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When we were children, we had no problem unleashing the power of our creativity. Heck, it was practically a full time job! Playing with toys, building tree houses and forts were just some of the ways we were creative. Even in school we were encouraged to let our creative side shine! We finger painted, danced and sang as part of our educational curriculum. But, then something happens as we get older…..we get *real* jobs that require a lot of left brain thinking, and our creative outlets get smaller and smaller.

However, we have options and choices everyday to let this creativity shine through! When we are in our creative mode, we are honoring our authentic self! We are setting free the right side of our brain! Oftentimes, as adults we feel guilty when we do this, and maybe even a little silly too.

Some ways that YOU can begin to optimize YOUR creative outlet are:

1. Enroll in a dance class! Salsa, ballroom and tango dancing is very popular these days.
2. Exercise in a unique way. Yoga, ZUMBA, and pilates are create ways to get creative and get into shape.
3. Pick up a paint brush and paint a picture!
4. Pick up a pen and write in your journal

Remember, we are never too old to let our creativity shine through! If you get stuck trying to find an outlet for your creativity, spend the afternoon with a child. We guarantee you will discover many different ways to have fun and be creative. Let your imagination run wild!

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Leah and Jen call two of their loyal listeners and interview them! Tune in to hear what Bob – from Matthews, North Carolina – and Wendy – from Charlotte, North Carolina – have to say about the show!

Jen and Leah ask them to share their favorite podcasts moments and also to discuss how listening to the podcasts has changed their lives. And, as an added surprise, they are asked to sing a favorite song with Leah!

It is always nice to hear how the podcast is impacting other’s lives in a positive way. If you have any comments you would like to share with Jen and Leah about the show, be sure to send them an e-mail. You might just get a phone call back and be put *on the air*!

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No matter how you slice it, there are never going to be more than 24 hours in a day. So, begin charting y our day out by writing down what it is that you need to do and what it is that you want to do. This way you have a map of the items that you can now create a scheduled time for.

Next, create blocks of time for each of the items and then put it into your calendar or day timer, and treat it as a scheduled event. Include everything from exercising, meeting with friends, going to the grocery store. Once it is in your calendar, treat it the same way you would as a doctor’s appointment or a business meeting.

Another critical factor for effective time management is Trashing Tolerations. Get rid of all the outstanding items that are zapping your time and energy. Once you get rid of those items, you will have more time to do what you want to do.

Finally, start planning your day the night before. Remember when you were a kid and at night your mom made you lay out the clothes you were going to wear the next day? This was an easy way to save you time the next morning. Well, it also works for adults when planning their time. This way, when you wake up in the morning, you will have a general idea of the things you need to do and you won’t be overwhelmed by it all.

Remember, your time it precious. It is something you never get back. So make the investment in managing your time and making the most of it.

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This week, Leah and Jen will share with you their top tips to keep your MOJO going when you need a little self MOJO-vation!

Some tips include:

1. Tap into the power of social media! Re-connect with friends and family on Facebook, or check out some of the wonderful motivational websites that are available! Simpletruths.com is fantastic!

2. Read a good book. There are so mnay excellent motivational and inspiration books available! Louise Hay is an excellent author and her writings are sure to get your Mojo going!

3. Get together with your friends! Make the time to meet with them, even if it’s just for a cup of coffee once a week.

4. Head out to the movies or rent a dvd of one of your favorite movies. Watching a movie is a great way to “escape” for a little while and just allow  yourself to absorb the show.

5. Purchase the Creating Your Masterpiece cd, The 30 Day Guide to Becoming the Artist of your life! It offers 30 powerful and motivating coaching messages and challenges!

6. Write in a journal. Make it a habit to write your thoughts, dreams and visions down in a journal. Expressing yourself through the written words is not only motivating but also very powerful!

In today’s world, it is easy to get caught up in all the issues and not so pleasant stuff we read about in the newspaper or see on TV. But, YOU are in charge of what YOU want to see and hear. Remember the old adage: Garbage in/Garbage out. So, to keep your MOJO going, start putting the Good Stuff in!

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Most people tend to do one of three things when they are dealing with an uncomfortable situation, whether past or present:

1. They worry about it! Even though they have no control over the past nor can they predict the future. When we worry about things excessively, we are absolutely depleting our greatest resources….our time and our energy! You know the old  saying there is no use crying over spilt milk? That is so very true. What is done, is done….and the longer you worry about it, the less time and energy you have to move forward with your goals, dreams, and life!

2. They fix the problem. If we are faced with a situation or circumstance that we don’t like, we ALWAYS have the option to try to fix the situation. For example, if you have had an argument with someone that has led to a very tense relationship, you can always step up and apologize, even if you don’t feel you were the person at fault. The outcome of *fixing* the problem is much more important than who is (or was) to blame for it.

3. They forget about it! Sometimes there are things that happen in life that we just can’t fix. Life presents us with situations like divorce, death, losing a job, not getting the promotion, illness, etc.  These can be life changing events and the manner in which we deal with them can carve out the map for how the rest of our life plays out. Do you want to spend years of your life replaying these events over and over in  your head or do you want to put it to rest and move on with your life? When we learn to forget about it, we are releasing the anger, fear, resentment, etc and choosing to move forward.

So, think about what category you think you fall in to. And, if it isn’t the category you want for yourself, determine how you want to deal with issues in the future.

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Basically what this question is really asking is, who are you when you are around other people? Are you being your true authentic self or are you *wearing a mask* and being someone who you really aren’t? Are you sending your representative or your true self?

All of us have an inate desire for people to like us and to be accepted by others. However, what lengths do you go to in order to insure this result when you are with other people?

For example, when we are in the early stages of dating, we often are on our best behavior, and are very much in the *pleaser* stage. We seem to go along with whatever it is that the other person wants to do. We act happy and joyful and REALLY want that other person to like us. Often times we cover up those things that we consider to be *flaws* in ourselves. In a sense we are putting on an act in order for this other person to like us! We are sending in our representative! However, any one who has been married for a while knows that thie *representative* can’t stay in the marriage forever! Sooner or later you have to let your guard down and be who you were born to be!

The same can be true when we meet people for the first time. We agree with their ideas, their concepts, their politics, and sometimes even their religion all because we want them to accept us. But is that really fair to our authentic self? Isn’t it a shame to not let YOUR voice be heard?

Or, how about when we go on job interviews! In this case, we are truly sending our best representative out there to land the job for us! It is certainly appropriate to put our best foot forward when we are on an interview, but we also need to be ourselves as well.

When we continually send our *representatives* out into the world for us, at the end of the day we come home exhausted!  So, why do we wear these *masks* or *send our representatives* instead of our true self? Well, several reasons! One of the main reasons is fear. We fear that if we don’t conform to what others expect us to be that they won’t like us, we won’t get the job, the boyfriend, the promotion, etc.  Another reason is that we want to impress people, and we feel as though if we act a certain way or say a certain something, people will like us and be impressed!

This week, we challenge you to leave the representative at home and go out and be your true, authentic, wonderful self! You are unique and this is your gift to share with others! Let your self shine!

“Well, we all have a face that we hide away forever and we take it out and show ourselves when everyone has gone. Some are satin, some are steel, some are silk and some are leather..there the faces of the stranger and we love to try them on.” – Billy Joel, The Stranger

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For those of you who live up north, you know that spring time also means the weather finally gets warmer and you just naturally feel better when you can get outside and enjoy! Flowers are blooming, the grass is getting green again, and the days last a little longer…it is enough to get ANYONE feeling better!

It is also a tradition for many people that when spring time rolls around it’s time to do a little ‘Spring Cleaning’ in the house. This is when people go through their homes, room by room, dusting, vacuuming, cleaning and examining their items to determine what stays and what gets tossed. This is one of the primary reasons you see so many folks holding garage sales this time of year.

On this week’s podcast, Jen and Leah discuss how to incorporate the annual spring cleaning ritual into our *internal* home as well as our external home.

Spring is not only an excellent time to clean your *external* house, but it’s also a good time to clean your “internal* house as well! Basically, we all have two houses, our external house – which is the physical structure in which we live; and our internal house – which is our mind, body and soul. There is a direct correlation between these two houses! If our external houses feel cluttered and disorganized, then our internal house is probably feeling a little discombobulated as well!

In order to have focus, motivation and joy in your life, you must take the action steps required to create a balance between your two houses! Have you noticed that when your external house is cluttered and disorganized that you tend to feel anxious and overwhelmed?
So, why not use this time to take a good look at yourself and examine all areas of your life. Go through each *room* of your life and determine what is working – what isn’t, what things you want to keep and what things you want to toss. An easy way to get started with this task is to refer back to the Five key Areas of your life (your life palette).
Those five areas include:
Health/Emotion
Physical Environment
Financial
Relationships
Spirituality

So, let’s take charge of our lives and do some ‘spring cleaning’ for both our houses!

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Are you making time to live in the Present? On this week’s podcast Leah and Jen take a look at the reasons why so many people don’t actually live their lives in the present moment. Most of the time we all get caught up in multi-tasking, that we lose site of the actual moment. Or, we are so pre-occupied with worrying about the past (which we can’t change) or trying to predict the future (which we know we can’t control) that we forget to enjoy the moment!

We need to begin looking at our lives as an adventure! Our life is our big screen movie production, and WE are the star of the show!

Admit it, you have texted or read your e-mail while driving before, right? Well, this is dangerous and in more ways than you think! Not only could you get into a traffic accident, but you could also lose the present moment! When we multi-task like this, our life becomes on giant ‘TO DO’ list and we get so caught up in checking things off the list we forget to savor the moment! We only get this one moment, so why waste it? Enjoy the actual activity at hand.

We have all been so pre-conditioned to think that if we are not doing 15 things at once, we aren’t accomplishing anything. However, we would challenge you to turn this around and start thinking about how much more you can truly accomplish if you put your entire focus and energy and attention on the task at hand. Slow down enough to really embrace what you are doing at this exact moment, without diluting it with all the others demands of the day.

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