Dedication takes a lifetime, but dreams only last for a night.

This quote is from All Time Low's song, Stay Awake. We all have dreams about what we're going to do and who we're going to be as we grow up. We have this wonderful picture in our head that includes our dream career, love life, success, family, but just dreaming and thinking about these things are not enough. In order to get the life we want and become who we want to be, we have to dedicate ourselves to working hard to get there. We cannot expect things just to happen out of thin air...that one day I'll just wake up and be skinny, or I'll wake up with a boyfriend. No, that's not going to happen. I have to work out and eat healthily to lose weight. I have to put myself out there, date some douche bags, and find the man of my dreams. If we really want these fabulous lives that we deserve, we have to put our heart and soul and all into everything we do. One day, we'll get those things that we want, but we will never get them if we don't dedicate ourselves to making those dreams become a reality.

“Beauty isn’t judged by the size of your jeans"

Jack Barakat~All Time Low

A new year has just started...be honest, how many of us made "losing weight" or "get skinny" one of our resolutions? How many of us say that we are going to do these things and have our hearts set on these things all the time? Now has it ever occurred to anyone else that framing our health and our bodies this way says so much about what culture and society has done to us?

How about this year, instead of resolving to get skinny or get hott, let's resolve to get healthy and be happy. If you think about it, they're really the same goals, framed in a more positive light. I'm a curvy girl and I always say that I want to be skinny, but since I'm curvy, skinny and thin are not realities for me.

I believe that true beauty comes from within. A happy person radiates beauty from the inside, and that inner beauty is the only beauty that we can hold on to throughout our lives. Let's spend this year making ourselves truly beautiful: do what makes us happy, focus on our lives-whether it be school, a career, our family, and really put your all into where you want to be.

Happiness makes us feel so much better about ourselves. A person may be beautiful on the outside, but without happiness, self satisfaction, and confidence, that beauty fades fast.

This year, let's be the best that we can be and build ourselves up to be beautiful from the inside out.

Well what is a family anyway? They're just a group of people who make you feel less alone and really loved

This quote is from the series finale of Mary Tyler Moore. This quote holds so much in it, that I know that the first time I heard it, I did not understand it. In my journey in life, I have encountered so many people telling me, that I can't, or that I'm not good enough. Some of these people were those who I considered good friends. Now that I'm on my own, living away from my family, I have become closer to my family as well as those friends who I know are on my side and will support me being me. I am really seeing now how friends can be family and how some family can become close friends. We need to surround ourselves with people who will love us and support us. That to me is the definition of a family and that is what I strive to look for in my friends. We deserve people who help us become the best that we can and we owe it to them to do the same.

I let my haters be my motivators

I heard this quote in the trailer for "The Sitter"...I wish I had heard this sooner in life, but funny enough, I heard it a perfect time. I won't go in to what's been going on, but I know that this quote will be huge for me at work in the next few weeks, maybe months. Really though, it's always useful. There will always be people who dislike you for reasons that you may not be able to understand. It's hard not to dwell on this because it's in our nature to want to be liked, no matter how much we say that we don't care what others think about us. We need to use this to motivate ourselves; work harder on whatever it is that you are trying to do. This way, even though we may be upset about the negativity, we have created more positivity for ourselves by working hard and getting closer to success. We need to do things that make us happy and we need to do things for ourselves. Sometimes, this includes using someone else's negativity to make our positivity.

Live for yourself, Love those around you but realize they’ve got their own agendas

~Alex Gaskarth [All Time Low]

If there is one thing that we all need to remember in life, it's this. We need to live for ourselves and please ourselves. Yes, it feels great to know that we made someone else proud of us, but we deserve to feel pride in ourselves too. Do things that make you happy and find your own path to success. Your sense of success, happiness, and pride is probably different than your parents', best friend's, or sibling's idea of those ideas. There's no shame in that! The only shame is doing things and working towards things that aren't really what you are passionate about and what you want to do. Those who care about you and love you the most will be proud of you no matter what you do as long as you are happy and proud of yourself.

To do Good...

I'm the type of person who loves quotes and anything that means something to me. I'm always looking them up. The other day day I came across a quote that someone had tweeted and I really liked it. "To do good, you actually have to do something". I like this quote because it's very true. We can all say were going to do something and make something better but until we actually do it were not accomplishing anything and no good it being done.

Believe In The Best Version of Yourself

“You can choose to live in a place of fear or you can believe in the best version of yourself.”
–Mac Taylor

I heard this quote today while watching an episode of CSI: NY called “Green Piece.” Even though a friend of mine had told me about this particular scene countless times and paraphrased the quote to me, it struck something new in me, hearing the words exactly like that. In the scene, Detective Mac Taylor is talking to Detective Danny Messer about marriage, and Danny’s fear of failing the woman he loves, but wants so badly to be with. The quote isn’t rooted in that though; the statement on its own can be set in a million different situations.

We all have our fears. Human nature is rooted in being afraid. Some people are afraid of everyday things, like spiders or clowns. (I plead guilty to both.) Sometimes, they’re silly fears, and we wish we didn’t have them. (Pleading guilty to this as well.) In some cases, these fears are much deeper, and much more life-altering. Staying with a boyfriend you know isn’t right for you, because you’ve been together for 5 years and the fear of being alone is just too much to handle. Passing up the job opportunity you desperately want, because you’re comfortable at the job you have now. So, fear takes over us and limits the possibilities we wish we could have in our lives.

There is no cure for being afraid. Sure, I can kill a spider and once it’s dead not have to worry about it anymore. But there will always be another spider to be afraid of. All we can do is face our fears one day, one situation at a time. It’s not always easy and there might even be times when it doesn’t feel worth it. But there will always, in every person’s life, come a time when we need to overcome our fears in order to live up to the potential we all see in ourselves. Like Det. Mac Taylor says, we need to believe the best version of ourselves.

So, Danny and Lindsay got married. I still need my dad to kill the spiders for me, and I refuse to go to the circus. But that’s all okay. The best version of ourselves doesn’t have to mean being fearless, or conquering all our fears every single day. It just means that we have to conquer those life-altering fears one situation, one day at a time. That’s when we become the best people we possibly can be. But we can only become the best person we can be once we believe in ourselves first. So believe in yourself, in the very best possible version of you. There’s nobody else who can believe in the best version of you unless you prove to the world just how awesome you are.

A Quote to Live by

There was the quote that I came across today and it instantly became one of my favorites. "There won't be a better tomorrow if we can't move on from today." To me this quote means that we all worry about what happened in the past and because of that we never truly move on. So in the end we never really enjoy want comes next. If we stop worrying about things that we can't control we can move on and the next day will be better than the one before.

Find Your IT, Make IT Happen.

"So stop talking about IT and do IT. Remember your dreams. Chase after IT, whatever IT may be."

For myself, personally, I have always loves quotes, song lyrics, etc. I think it might be because there always seems to be one quote, or song lyric that fits your current mood or feelings just perfectly. Then there are also those quotes and song lyrics that just hit you and have this immediate impact. You might not feel that exact way when you read it, but it just hits you and has this immediate impact because it's inspirational. It's telling you something that's true.

Tonight, I found this quote while browsing around online and I loved it right away. I feel the need to share it with everyone because well this is a true statement. I feel like all of out there have so many things we would like to do, so many things we would like to accomplish, and of course we talk about them. We talk about them with our friends, with our families, with anyone who will listen, but we never actually do anything about it. Talking about something is all fine and good because it helps get your feelings out there and you can express what you want to do, but we all need to take action as well. We need to talk about it and then do something about it.

Whatever your IT is, go out and do it. There may even be more than one IT, and you know what it doesn't even have to be a BIG IT like a career or traveling the world. IT could be simple and small. For example, tell someone how you feel about them, take too many pictures, etc. Take a look at all the musicians, actresses, actors, athletes in the world. We all look up to these people because they are talented and following their dreams. Well guess what, YOU can do the same thing. Sure, not all of are musically talented or star athletes, but WE ARE ALL good at something. We all have a talent that we can contribute to the world. Just because it's not music or a sport doesn't make any less relevant. I think we are all held back by our fears. We are afraid that we won't succeed. We are afraid that we won't be great, we're afraid to fall. But you know what, that's why you KEEP trying. Just like the quote says, you keep chasing IT.

So I propose that we all stop talking out ITS and we just go out and chase after them. Don't be afraid. Remember what you love. Remember what you want to do. Remember what you want to accomplish. Remember ALL of you dreams, remember all of your ITS and just DO. It may not happen for you all at once or right away, but in time you will be able to achieve IT. Never forget what IT is, and never stop trying to chase it.

-Stephanie (http://www.twitter.com/smiley_steph)

Do your best to be your best

Excellence is not an art, but a habit

Excellence is not something that anyone is; instead, it is something that we create on our own. The only standard of excellence is the one that you create. As long as you put your best into everything you do, you will find excellence.

Life is a Journey

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step"
-ancient Chinese philosopher

To achieve our goals in life, we cannot only dream. Dreaming big is great; that's how we decide what we want to do; it can keep us inspired, but it really doesn't do anything. Wanting something so bad that you can taste it does nothing. The only way something is going to get done is if we go out and take steps to make these things happen. Start with baby steps; do some research, ask around. Convince yourself that these dreams and wants can become a reality. The more you know about something, the more enticed you will be to actually approach and work towards these goals. The things that we want in life will not be just handed to us; we have to work towards them, taking steps towards the achievement. Think of how many things you've achieved so far. Not all of them were easy, and it probably took a long time and hard work to get to where you are now. The steps may not be easy; you might want to quit at times, but think of how good it feels to achieve. The achievement can give you the fuel to go on and work towards something else. The next time you're feeling down, think of all that you've done, and all that you are working towards doing. There is so much to be proud of, and you can thank yourself for having the courage and drive to take that first step. This is how we begin to become who we want to be; taking the steps to do things that we want to do, no matter who is behind us and who is telling us we can't. These steps make us stronger and builds us up to the amazing people that we are and will be.

To live is to learn is to grow

"What you did is not important, what you learn from it is"

I was going to blog this on my personal blog, and I probably still will, but I wanted to share it here as well. I am not sure who said this, or if there is a certain person to attribute to this quote, but I think that it is one of the best quotes to live by. Life is a learning experience. We live, we do things, we make mistakes. The only way we can grow is to learn from these mistakes. To become the best person; the person who we want to be, we must take cues from both our mistakes and from what other people tell us (even if they are hinting subtly or silently) in order to truly become us. No one is perfect, and no one will ever be perfect, but to be happy, we must let ourselves learn, grow, adapt, and prosper. Life is learning, growing is learning, becoming a better person is learning. Mistakes are only opportunities to learn and grow.

Enthusiasm for life

"Enthusiasm is excitement with inspiration, motivation, and a pinch of creativity"~Bo Bennet

Life can get boring; sometimes it seems like we are just waiting for things to happen instead of making things happen. Slumps and ruts in life suck, and it takes a lot of effort to even find the drive to get out of them. Every day, we should try to find little things that inspire us and motivate us. It can be a person, a song, an event, or just something that you saw or heard somewhere. Be creative and make your life fun; try something new and mix it up a bit. Make some plans and have a great night out with your friends. Spend a great night alone, pampering yourself. All of these things can really help us get the spice out of life that we look for. It can lead to self discovery, happiness, and a more fulfilling sense of self overall. All we can do is try; trying is how we find what works and what does, what we like and what we don't, and how we grow. Finding happiness in life is truly what will help us get to where we want to be. It's not easy, but putting forth the effort can really begin to make a difference in the way we feel about every aspect of our lives.

Something Inspiring

"Nothing is impossible to a willing heart"

It's hard to believe on some days...especially when some days turn into most days, but even the simple act of believing in yourself and that you can do something can help push things from seeming impossible to being possible. All goals take work to achieve; some will take more work than others, but once you start thinking and believing that you can do something, the goal will seem closer and closer to being fulfilled.

Keep this in mind every time you start getting down on yourself because something is not going the way that you want it to. Just like the little engine that could from our childhoods; "I think I can" gets your further than "I can't".

A defeatist attitude will get you nowhere; we all have it in our hearts to do whatever we set out to do. Go for it!

It's all about being unique

As human beings we strive forth to be unique; to stand out in a crowd, to be an individual. With that being true, Graphic Designer Primo Angeli once said:

A great trademark is appropriate, dynamic, distinctive, memorable and unique.


We should all strive for these attributes in every day life, for they make us who we are, and who we choose to be.


Love,
Cara
Let's Go Carazy

Inspirational Quote 01/21/2010

Sometimes a great quote can make you feel better or even just put a smile on your face. I actually wrote this one for the Ladies Club...but I really like it:

A lady shines, even when there is no light in the room. Keep your light bright for all the world to see! - CLE


So, take your light and shine it all over the world. Be a star, a motion, a movement, a revolution. Be the change you want to be in becoming the you!

Love,
Cara
Let's Go Carazy