“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”
Melody Beattie
Today is my Dad’s birthday. It will be the first time in 45 years that I cannot pick up the phone to call him, or give him the super special poems, CD’s or handmade cards I found so much joy in making for my #1 guy. Instead, I dedicate this post to him, and hope that since he got to heaven 10 months ago, that he made sure they got an Internet connection. Cause if anyone could make it happen, it’s my Dad.
So what does this have to do with gratitude you ask? One of the gazillions of lessons I have learned on my amazing, difficult and crazy journey, is about focusing on gratitude. And when I do, it makes dealing with the hard stuff a way easier. The quote above has incredibly deep meaning to me, so much so, that I tattooed on my arm, just in case I forget to be grateful. It happens.
So many of us get stuck in all the craziness that life throws our way. Each of you take in so much everyday, listening to your clients and team mates troubles, and sometimes we absorb that energy, sound familiar? The awesome news is we have a choice of what we get to do with the crazy, and when we choose to focus on gratitude, its amazing what can happen. Try it, I dare you!
One thing I was taught several years ago is when I get into a dark, sad place, which for me, is more often than I think people know, is to get out a piece of paper, or phone or whatever, and write 5 things I am grateful for. Even in the toughest of days, we can all find 5 things. Here is my list for today.
Nina’s Gratitude List
1. The 45 years I got to spend with my awesome Dad. I cherish each moment and memory, even the not so pleasant ones.
2. The love and support of my family and friends, no matter which decisions I make for myself, they’ve always got my back.
3. My unconditional loving dogs, Faith + Zen, without them, my life would be beige.
4. The journey I have been on learning how to match my outsides to my insides.
5. For Passion Squared (and my biz soul mate Gordon) which allows me to share my passion with the people I love.
Now it’s your turn. What 5 things are you grateful for today? If you are feeling courageous, jump on over to our Facebook page and share your list on our wall, or click here to share it just with us. Or text it to a friend. Just make one. It works.
(shared with LOVE + GRATITUDE from your passionista Nina)
PS: Happy Birthday Dad, I love you infinity and beyond.
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
One of the greatest gifts of working in the beauty biz is the beautiful people who touch our hearts and minds each day. And while you spend most of your time helping others feel beautiful, we just wanted to take this moment to remind you, that you are beautiful too.
Your passion, commitment, compassion and talent make our world a more beautiful place. Your healing hands and hearts help bring so much warmth and happiness to people around the world.
So if you have one of those days, we all do, when you are not sure of yourselves or feeling down, just remember, we love you. You are beautiful.
Share this post with your friends, family, teammates and loved ones, you just never know whose day you are going to make better by letting them know they are beautiful too.
(shared with LOVE from your passionistas Nina + Gordon)
So Twitter surprised the social web yesterday when they changed their page layout.
If you are up for an adventure and love change, here is a simple step-by-step.
1. Log into your Twitter account
2. Go to Settings
3. Click on Design
4. Click on Change header to upload a header image (you can preview it and play around a bit with different photos to see what looks the best)
5. Click Save Ta-Da! You did it! Awesome!
Do you like the “new” Twitter? Do you use Twitter for business, fun or both? Lets play on Twitter, you can follow us @passionsquared2
(shared with LOVE from your tweeting passionistas Nina + Gordon)
“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared”
Buddha
Have you ever wondered what makes a Facebook post engaging? And by engaging, we mean the post earns likes, shares and comments. Is it magic? Is it a secret? Well, maybe a little, but there are some key elements to consider in developing engaging posts on Facebook.
As we write this blog post, we still are freaking out (in a good way) about the most engaging post in our history (that’s 2 months and 25 days). Which earned 133 shares and 49 likes. WOW.
What about this post resonated with our Passion Squared community? Here is our take…
Are you posting for your Target Audience?
Our community is passionate about making the world a better place, and this is done by starting with ourselves, which this quote was speaking to. In our industry, we crave inspiration, growth and personal development, which is why inspirational quotes and images resonate with many of us.
Are your posts drenched in Authenticity?
The most engaging posts are those that people can feel the authenticity of your message. The message from this post was just that, authentic, as was our intention in posting it. People know when we are being “real”, the social space is no different, authenticity rules.
Are you enchanting your audience with Pictures?
On Facebook, posts with pictures or videos are typically the most engaging. Makes sense, doesn’t it? We all love images that make our heart sing.
Are you part of the Conversation?
The social web is the ultimate cocktail party. Its designed for us to engage in two-way conversations. This means its super important to always be checking your page, looking for posts, questions, comments, and responding, acknowledging and engaging your followers.
So many of us have thought that our Fan count was most important, when in reality, its the “Talking About This” number that counts. This number represents the actual people engaging your page either by likes, shares or comments.
There are tremendous insights available on your “admin panel” of your business page. We recommend taking a look to see what your pages most engaging posts have been, and doing more of that.
Facebook has given us all such a cool opportunity to engage, empower and share with each other. We are so grateful for our friends of Passion Squared and for all the love and support we feel from each of you every day.
