Fortunate Fridays

Hey everyone!! Ugh! another busy week. Although it was a short week (thank god) I barely had time to come on the blog (as usual). However, cant miss Fortunate Fridays, can I?! So here goes...this week I feel fortunate for:

1. My sister and the fact that she loves to run and is motivating me to sign up for several races! I have a goal in terms of the number of races I want to run this year and I have several super fun ones on my radar which I will be signing up for within the next week. So excited! 

2. Jillian Michaels DVDs! I swear her workouts WORK! I feel so much stronger and although she kicks your butt she gives you results. Plus- I cant mention enough how much I love the fact that the workouts are only 20-3 minutes. Amazing.

3. The text message I got from one of my friends today thanking me because she was able to raise her credit score significantly, save on her 401k, get out of debt and started investing. About a year and a half ago I wrote up a financial plan for her and she followed it to the T!!! I always tell her that it was her focus and hard work that has gotten her to this point. My plan may have been a blue print but it was all up to HER because SHE wanted to improve her life. Either way, that text made my day and made me feel incredibly grateful that I was able to help her. The greatest satisfaction is simply to see her reach her goals and I cant wait to see how much further she goes.

4. Living in America! Okay this is going to sound random but I LOVE this country and I feel incredibly blessed to live here. So many opportunities to do some many things I probably would have never been able to do had I never moved here. I feel really, REALLY blessed. 

5. On that same "I Love America Note" I feel fortunate for the Stock Market and for being able to participate in it. This is another random fact about me-- I LOVE investing. Is one of the things that I am super passionate about. I follow market news, listen to podcasts, read the books, etc. etc. Such an exciting world. If you arent in to stuff like that you may think I am crazy. But everyone has a passion or two, right?! I may share more about this stuff on the blog. What do you think? Would you be interested? I dont see enough females excited about the market and I feel that this is a skill everyone should have! Is often known as a "mans world" but it should not be! I would love to change that.

6. BONUS FORTUNATE: Cant forget the blogger award I got this week!! I get so happy when people find my blog and enjoy my posts. Thank you!! I am still finalizing my list of 11 bloggers I will nominate so, cant wait to share it with others.

Okay this is it for today! Its been snowing in NYC but I want to see if I can run tomorrow. With my work schedule I can usually only run on weekends. When he weather gets better I hope to be able to run outside more often.

Cheers to the weekend!!!

Question: Any plans for the weekend? anything great happened this week that you are feeling grateful/fortunate for?

FORTUNATE FRIDAYS

So glad we’re finally at the end of the week. Waiting for weekends is such an oxymoron. We anxiously wait for weekends without putting much thought on the fact that every week that passes means time is going by quicker and quicker. That doesn’t mean I am not thankful for the weekend though because I sure am.

Welcome to another round of Fortunate Fridays. Here is what I feel fortunate/am thankful for this week:

1.    The cup of decaf with soymilk and almond biscotti I had on Tuesday night before my class. Tuesday was such a good day in terms of my eating because everything I consumed was because I was listening to my body. ‘Intuitive eating’ I would say. If you missed the post check it out here.

2.    The friendly reminder that is good to get out of our comfort zone sometimes always and do the things that we want to do/express how we feel because you never know what the outcome may be. I was pleasantly surprised with the response I received from my 'tuesday confession'. You just never know! Also, realizing that in life we should not always focus on the outcome of things as long as we do what we need to do and leave the rest up to God, he knows what is best for us at all times. I listened to a sermon by Joyce Meyer the other day that said we should learn to put our faith in God and not in other people as God will never let us down. That has stuck with me this whole week and that has helped me to let go of an incredible amount of anxiety. 

3.    Good Fathers. This morning as I was sitting in the bus I noticed a father with his young child. He was making sure his son was warm and fixing up his jacket, hat, etc. Then he held his hand while they sat on the bus. My heart was just melting the whole time. Then I started to think about my own father and what an amazing influence he has been in my life and continues to be. I love him to death and I can proudly say that I grew up with an amazing father and would not trade him for the world. I am definitely fortunate to have him in my life.

4.    I feel fortunate for the people that tell me I am a good influence on them. I try not to take things personal because I feel that people do things because they want to and not necessarily because of someone else. However, I think sometimes we influence people in a positive way without realizing it and give them that “extra push”. A friend of mine told me this week that she started school because after one of our conversation she realized that she ‘could do it’ and she was thankful that I had faith in her. That without a doubt made my day.

5.    Last but definitely not least—I feel fortunate that I won a scholarship at work to help me with my tuition. A few weeks ago I applied for a company-sponsored scholarship and yesterday I was called in to a ceremony where my name was called and I had to give a small speech of acceptance. As a side note—I am thankful that I wasn’t nervous at all when standing in front of an audience. For some reason I was able to comfortable speak with ease and gave a short and sweet thanks to everyone present. God knows that I’ve often struggled with speaking in front of audiences because I used to get extremely nervous but I’ve come such a long way!

6.    Bonus:  I must add that I also  feel fortunate/thankful that on Monday the final presentation for one of my courses went great. My group and I were a little nervous doing last minute things on the morning that the presentation was due but at the end of the day we did amazing. Plus, we also went last which was a blessing in disguise (we were worried at first) as the professor had no time to scrutinize us with many questions. Ha!

What an amazing week of fortunate things. Hope everyone has an amazing weekend! Is crunch time for me as I have a final next week. And then I’ll finally be done with the semester!

Sunday morning I am running my first 10K ever! (more on that on next week posts). Besides that, I will spending the rest of my time  locked up at a local starbucks or library studying my life away!

Cheers to a productive weekend!

What are your plans?

:)