25

This is the year.... The year I make LIFE come true, not just dreams... The year I stay true to myself and my husband and our vows... The year I fight for what I want and believe in. 

     Today I turn 25 years old. A quarter of a century. To me it is only a number, but I want it to be an unforgettable one. Between my first year as a wife, an official bonus mom, a Doctor of Chiropractic, and traveling to live in unknown territory, this year is sure to be an adventure.

    

    I have been working toward my dream career now for 6 years. To help people live a life of wellness and vitality. To love my patients and grow as a family in our practice, and serve my community as a healthcare practitioner. These are things I will accomplish in my future, and it is getting more apparent to me everyday that I chose the right path on my whirlwind of a journey. 

    

    I cannot be the only 25 year old who simultaneously feels ready to conquer the world and yet scared as hell I don't have what it takes. That is a daily struggle, but ultimately I WILL be prepared and I will succeed in this life with the help of my husband, family, friends and God. I have an amazing support system and I cannot Thank everyone who has helped me enough. I will have ups and downs, but I promise myself and my support system that I will fight harder each day to learn something new, and to be better than I was the day before. FAILURE is NOT and option. 

    

    My husband, C, I love him with every inch of my being. How amazing it has been to share the past few years getting to know him, getting to be one with him, and getting to build a dream together. This next year of OUR lives is sure to be a BIG one. This year we become business owners, Dynamic Duo Chiropractors, and a thriving married couple with an ever-growing journey. This year I will strive to better myself to Love him and my "Bonus" kids as well as trusting in the Lord with what He has planned for us and our family.

    

    Today I turn 25, but over the next year of my life, I will grow as a person in more than just age. I will grow as a woman who works for what she wants and needs. I will enhance my knowledge in every aspect of life. I will love unconditionally and fight for what is right. To the readers; I challenge you to strive for greatness, for a healthy and happy life,  and to create goals that force you to dig deep and work hard. 

25~ The year I begin my Life Aligned

 E xoxo

My Why

                Quiet mornings with the dogs and coffee; positively effecting my patient's lives during the day; Pandora radio while I cook at night, and my best friend's arms around me while we sleep: This is my serenity, my WHY.

These few examples of what makes my life fulfilling only scratch the surface as to who I am and how I got here. From my mountain prairie town in Colorado to a tiny Nebraska town, and now the big city life, I have been fortunate enough to experience many different lifestyles, heartaches, achievements and life lessons.

My greatest adventure yet has been meeting my husband and growing in life and love together. We have been married now for almost 2 months, but we have been in complete and crazy love with each other for almost 4 Years. FOUR years seems not that long, but man has my life enhanced in content and I cannot imagine going through everything thus far with anyone else. What an amazing thing, Love so deep you feel lost without each other if only for a moment. C and I met in doctorate school and we are now 6 months away from graduating as a dynamic duo of Doctors of Chiropractic. We have been with each other everyday since the beginning and we haven't grown tired of each other yet! ha! Through this journey with him I have become more patient, more caring, more enriched by the family he brought into my life, and more whole overall.

I am not only a doggy mom, but I am a "bonus mom" now too. Our daughter is 11 and son is 10 and it has been an absolute pleasure watching them grow over the past four years and feeling my love for them grow in the previous years as well. C and I have had plenty of ups and downs and changed plans, but the final goal has remained the same: committed to each other in love; in our careers, and with our family. Our journey will be changing greatly over the next year as we make yet another move to a new part of the country, open our very own family practice, uproot our dogs and lives and make new beginnings.

On this journey of life with my husband, my career, my doggies and my bonus kids I will work hard at remaining in tune with what matters the most: Commitment to marriage and a successful and a healthy lifestyle will be the foundation in our lives and I would like to use this blog as a way of sharing all of our adventures throughout our ever changing lives.
I will be honest, raw, and passionate throughout this journey and I hope you enjoy getting to know myself and my crazy little family.

Working to live a Life that's Aligned,
E xoxo

Don't let your idea slip away

How many times have you had an idea and let it slip away?

Throughout our day as we talk to other people and consider our thoughts I think its fair to say that all have ideas.  Some of those ideas are excellent and require us to act on them, while others probably should be forgotten.  What is it that turns thought into a finished product instead of a memory?

Over this past weekend I was working with a national organization that I am involved in as a social media director.  For an extended period of time their website has advertised some really amazing resources.  However, until recently those resources were never actually available. 

Someone had an amazing idea, wrote it down but there the idea stalled.  The idea was great, members and potential members needed these resources, but project remained unfinished.  Over the last week the project was resurrected by individuals who finally applied action to the idea.

I am sure there are many reasons why this particular idea stalled and they all probably sounded familiar.  They are likely the same reasons your last idea never materialized.   The process of turning an idea into a finished product is process that takes deliberate and purposeful action.  I think its safe to say that not all good ideas become good products while not every poor idea result in a bad product.  The finished product is a result of the entire process.

The first step is to have the idea.  Many times just identifying when something is an idea reminds me of a scene from Step Brothers “Did we just become best friends?” “Yup.”  I feel like my ideas run through something similar “was that an idea?” Yup!”  Usually followed by “was that a good idea?”

Secondly, evaluate your idea; my thought process is usually pretty simple. 

I start with is it something that should be done? 

Can I turn this into something useful for myself or for other people? 

Finally, I ask has it been done before?  If the answer is yes then I consider what can I learn from the original and how can I do it differently.  Constantly evaluating for my unique selling proposition.

The final requirement to produce that final end product is a combination of ongoing and deliberate planning and execution.  This stage is where you actually have to move on your thoughts and what actually leads to an actual product.  This stage may also require new ideas and evaluation but most importantly it is predicated on action.  This action must be purposeful and focused on the end product. 

As I’m writing this blog I can think of example after example where I go through this thought process and plan execution.  I used to be the king of winging it, and most of the things I did that way sucked!!  I am constantly learning and perfecting my processes, they still take work and focus but I am always thinking and I am always producing. 

So here is my challenge, the next time you have a thought pause and evaluate that idea.  Decide if its something that needs to be worked on.  If it is, then formulate a plan then put that plan in action.  If you find the usual excuses start appearing then evaluate them.  Update and adapt your plan accordingly but keep the plan moving forward.  Consciously and with purpose take your idea to a finished product, like exercise as you begin to work on this it is tough at first but gets easier the more you do it.  Don’t let your idea slip away and become something that someone else has to finish.

My Purpose

“I vow to you that I will work on our marriage with a purpose, this is not something that I take lightly. “

These are some of the words that I spoke to my bride on the morning of August 24^th of this year.  These words express an idea that has become an inspiration for my life and to help start this blog.  It is so easy to become caught up in daily stuff and just go through the motions of life.  We find a job that we go to every day, we get married and live with that person, then we find a couple things to do every weekend and just repeat over and over and over…  We eat whatever food is the easiest and cheapest, find a couple restaurants where we become regulars and that becomes routine of it’s own.  Sometimes we even throw in a gym membership that makes us feel like everything else is ok because we got a few workouts in.  These routines can become mind numbing as we go through them from day to day.

Many people find themselves struggling at life and looking for answers.  As we see divorce rates remain high, obesity and diabetes rates are climbing and as many businesses fail ???succeed.  In early 2011 I found myself in a similar situation, I was divorced, unemployed and recently bankrupt.  I began looking for answers about why I found myself in that situation and what I had to do to get out of it and never return to it.  Initially there was a temptation to blame other people, my ex-wife and old supervisor jumped right to the top of that list.  I slowly began to realize that the change had to come from me. 

I began seeking a new career that would allow me the freedom to build my own way.  I was interested in the medical field and the thought of being a chiropractor had crossed my mind a few times.  Over the next few months it kept coming up, some guys in my apartment pool were chiropractic students and talking about it one day, and a new friend was a recent graduate and highly recommended it.  I finally decided to investigate it further and ended up enrolling at Cleveland Chiropractic College in Overland Park, KS. 

It was in one of my early undergraduate classes that I met the woman, who three and a half years later would become my wife.  I began the whirlwind of classes and tests and weekend seminars that all go into becoming a Doctor of Chiropractic.  Even while going through these classes I never lost that concern in the back of mind.  I never wanted to end up in that low place again.  I knew people didn’t always get divorced or end up unemployed and bankrupt. 

As Erica and I began to build our relationship and plan for the future I began to look at what made the difference in people who were successful in those areas.  I started to notice the idea of purpose.  It’s easy to go through those motions of living and when it derails, you have no idea how you got there.  On the other hand I noticed the people who were successful did not arrive there by accident, they worked with a plan and a purpose.  That was what I wanted to bring into my life, my marriage and my business.

This blog is a result of that purpose, as we work and learn about our marriage and business it will be documented on this blog.  We will continue to seek out others that we can learn from and share those lessons here.  We will seek to help others in anyway that we can.  Most importantly though, I will work on my marriage with the purpose to make it the best that it can be.

C