Putting Yourself First

I found this little excerpt in the February 7-13 issue of Weight Watchers Weekly

If it's hard for you to accept the value of putting yourself first, think about being on an airplane. The flight attendants always tell you to put your oxygen mask on before helping others.
The Message: When you take care of yourself, you're better able to take care of others.

Who knows the definition of perfection?

I'm a big music fan. Any genre, any artist, you name it, I'll give a listen once.

I've been listening to The Summer Set for probably about 2 years now.

Their band members, as well as lyrics are inspirational, and here's a little example.

When creeping guitarist John Gomez's formspring (http://www.formspring.me/johngomez) today I found this...

Question: Advice for people who are trying to find their place in this world?

Answer: Be yourself, you DONT need to look for your place in this world, you have ALWAYS been in the right place you always will

Don't change who you are just to fit in. You're perfect the way you are, and everyone who tells you otherwise sucks ass.

Xoxo, Allison

I'm Not Sorry For All My Imperfections

The title of this blog post is actually lyrics from one of my favorite songs by the band Days Difference, who are friends of mine.

The song is titled Imperfections, and the moment I heard it, I fell in love with it. I fell in love with the lyrics. This song means a lot to me. I relate to it in a very personal way. A lot of times we beat ourselves up for all of our imperfections especially when it comes to having imperfections in a relationship. In my last relationship, I used to constantly blame myself for everything. Maybe if I hadn’t done this, maybe if I hadn’t said this, things would have turned out differently. But you know what? It wasn’t all my fault. Nothing is ever all one person’s fault in a relationship, and this song kind of explains that you shouldn’t have to apologize for your imperfections, period. You don't have to apologize for your imperfections in a relationship because it's not all your fault. Never let your partner tell you it is. It takes two to tango. Besides, our imperfections in a relationship is how we learn and grow and what makes the relationship stronger. You also don't have to apologize for the imperfections you have as a person. We all have flaws but that is what makes us who we are. And someday you will find someone who loves you for all of you, even for your imperfections that you might not like. Embrace your imperfections. Embrace who you are. Never apologize for it.

I am going to leave you with the lyrics to the song. If you want to hear the song, you can youtube it or look it up on itunes. It really is a beautiful song, and the arrangement/backing vocals are stunning.

Imperfections by Days Difference:

It's just a quarter past eight
Right by the phone you wait
Stay up all night to hear my voice
You don't know where I am
The truth is I'm all alone
Right by the telephone
Three days have passed since we've last spoken
I don't know where I've been

Say what you want to say to me
We're running in circles
Take what you want to take from me
We're going nowhere fast
I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections
I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections
I'm not sorry, I'm not sorry

An ocean we'll never cross
I can't replace what we've lost
This Brooklyn bridge is burning down
Between your heart and mine
Words that we never spoke
Promises that I broke
It doesn't matter if I'm wrong or right
Cause I'm wrong every time

Say what you want to say to me
We're running in circles
Take what you want to take from me
We're going nowhere fast
I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections
I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections
I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections
I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections

I can lose you
I can find you
If I chose to
I can't hide it
I can't fight it
I'll admit it
I said too much
But not enough

I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry, no I'm not sorry
For all my imperfections

Thoughtful Thursday

“Love sees not with the eyes, but with the mind” – Helena, A Midsummer Night's Dream, William Shakespeare

I adore this quote. It's the first thing I'd read of Shakespeare that stuck with me. I'd read some Shakespeare before, of course, and liked it (Sonnet 130 (I hope I got the right number) is one of my favourites, it's like the Anti-Sonnet “My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun...”). But this, “Love sees not with the eyes...” intrigued me and, in some ways, and though cheesy as it may be, inspires me.
When I first read it, I had very low self-confidence (working on it, but that's another story), and I felt I related to poor Helena: unrequited love, somewhat downtrodden, the so-called 'ugly friend'. But I didn't have her... lets call it 'gumption', I didn't have the sort of power behind myself to stand up and be myself.
Believe it or not, this quote (among other things) gave me that.
The idea of the consciousness being that which attracts the other is uplifting. I have personality, I have humour, I have compassion... Those are some of the things that I feel make up (well, contribute to) “mind”, and to be honest, my “mind” is something I feel I can be proud of. If love, any sort of love: friendship, family, romantic, is not perceived solely by the eyes (I won't be naive enough to say that eyes have absolutely nothing at all to do with it), then there's hope for me yet, right?
And that's it, it's a hopeful quote, it's one that simply inspires me to stand up, and be who I am and say “This is what you get. This is what I am. Try me, you might like me”, and not be afraid of it. It puts words to how I'd always thought about other people, and it helped me to think that maybe other people (obviously at least one person in history has) think the same way. So I can stop hiding inside my shell, I can remember that people can see beyond how I look, no matter how good or bad I think I look. Because what matters is the "mind".
Because if love sees with the mind, then wouldn't love see the mind?

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.

Knowledge Is A Wonderful Thing.

"The only true knowledge in life is knowing you know nothing." - Socrates.

Knowledge. It is something that many of us strive to have. We all attend school to obtain some sort of knowledge; knowledge about the past, knowledge about how the world works. We obtain skills that will help us in the real world; skills that will help us in our careers. Most of will go on to college to gain even more knowledge, only this time we strive to learn more about what we want to learn about, what we want do as a career in the real world. There is more than one kind of knowledge, though. Knowledge from schooling is for an educational purpose. But there are different types. What about common sense or street smarts as many like to call it? This could be considered a kind of knowledge to. This knowledge can help one survive on their own; survive when put in a sticky situation. There is also knowledge that comes from the wise. This kind of knowledge is knowledge about life and the world from someone who has had many life's experiences behind them.

Knowledge is great. Being educated is very important. But, I believe a huge part of knowledge or being educated is knowing exactly what Socrates said, "the only true knowledge in life is knowing you know nothing." If you think about it, this is a fact. This is a true statement because absolutely NOTHING in this life, in this world is certain. Things are constantly changing so even if something is true at one point in time, a few months, years or maybe even decades down the road, it could very well not be true anymore. This applies to educational knowledge and life knowledge. Think about the career you want to pursue. I know that with my career, working in the education system, I learn something new everyday, and the educational policies are CONSTANTLY changing. So things that were once true are no longer true, and I have to change my method of teaching or view to fit the new ways. This could apply to every career; music industry, doctors, etc. And then we get to the life knowledge. Yes, it's true that a person can learn from their experiences, but life is constantly changing and it's surprising. How many times has life throw something at you, and you were like, "Woah. I wasn't expecting that." I guess we call those the curve balls of life. Yes, we get through them. We use our strength and even our knowledge to move on but we didn't have the knowledge to prevent it because we never knew it was coming.

Everything about our lives and our world is constantly changing, and we're lucky if we can stay in the game. There is the saying that says people will fight to make their way to the top but the truth is most of us just fight to keep up. And with all of the changes and unexpected curve balls, we're lucky if we can keep up. So just know this, even with all the knowledge you acquire over your lifetime, you still really don't know anything because you will have to adjust to all of the changes that come with life.

Deny Yourself...

In Luke 9:23 Jesus says we are to "deny ourselves take up our cross and follow Him." So I got to thinking about the "deny yourself" part. What does that look like?


When you can watch your peers and those close to you prosper and succeed without feeling jealous but rather rejoice in their success, then you know the meaning of deny yourself.

When you see other people's needs being met with abundance while your needs are far greater and you don't question God or fail to be grateful for what you do have, that's denying yourself.

When you chose to serve your wife or husband or children and put their needs ahead of yours, that's denying yourself.

When you don't seek praise or fish for compliments and approval from others and when you can live without constantly being recognized and applauded, that's denying yourself.

When you draw out the other person in conversation rather than telling your stories and opinions, that's denying yourself.

When you accept criticism willingly and learn from it with a teachable attitude, that's denying yourself.

When you place the comfort of others ahead of your own comfort, when you allow others to do a job that you know you're better trained to do, when you submit to authority over you even though you don't understand or agree, that's denying yourself.

When you can be content with less than the best of circumstances without griping or complaining, when you can accept interruptions that God places in your schedule and patiently endure irritations, that's denying yourself.

When you are content to let God settle the score and content to wait for your reward in heaven, that's denying yourself.

When you have the attitude of Jesus in all things, that's denying yourself.

The more I think about it the more I realize that the fundamental challenge of life, the biggest battle you will ever face, is the battle over self centeredness. It is life's fundamental challenge.

Philippians 4:13 - "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me."

Source: http://aboveyourcircumstances.nextmeta.com/content.cfm?id=151&blog_id=331

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.

Let your dreams soar

For those of you that know me, you'll know that I am a huge There For Tomorrow fan and my favorite member happens to be Christian Climer.
Among his many tattoos, there is the above quote...

To me, it really just means don't let anything stand in the way of your dreams. Your dreams can never be a reality unless you get over the fear of failure and let them take you where they will.
So in closing I say, good luck to all of you dreamers, and fuck off to your fears.

Xoxo, Allison

Which do you want to be?

There are three types of people in this world:
Those who make things happen
Those who let things happen
Those who wonder what happened

Who are you? Who do you want to be?


Take control of your life; don't let other people do things for you because it's easy. In order to be truly happy with your life and your accomplishments, you've got to make things happen for yourself. Start with small steps; even those baby steps that start things out eventually build on to bigger and better things. In a rut? Try different things to get yourself out of it; you never know what you will discover and what you will make happen. Be confident that you can do things and build yourself up; just think about how amazing it will feel. We can all be one of those who makes things happen if we try. I can do it; you can do it; we all can do it.

Think about it.

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.