Things that Make Me HAPPY!

By answering questions about things that make me happy, the goal is to find any response that is repeating itself over and over. That response is undoubtedly key to finding my passion.

JOY AND MEANING
These activities make me happy: drawing, looking at design, giving myself a makeover or other people, helping people decide what to wear, looking at anything minature like dollhouse furniture, having sex








Activites where I lose track of time: drawing and coloring, working on my blog, window shopping, looking at illustrations, cuddling with my husband, hanging out at book stores and libraries... a lot of things that I said make me happy
Movies that inspire me: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Mathilda,
What makes me feel good about myself: when I help someone with their relationship, health, communication or somehting that i have more experience in or knowlege about. when i am on time and accountable (still working on that) When I get all my homework done on time, when I get people the perfect gifts, when i draw something that looks awesome!
What excites me: exploring cool new place like inside of a custom designed home or fancy hotel resort in an exotic place, and watching shows that have to do with makeovers of any kind. Looking at anything miniature like rik pierce's sculptures

what makes me satisfied and fulfilled: when I do things for other people and it makes them happy, when I make something like a drawing or a book or dinner and it comes out good
What I find meaningful in my life: being able to make the world a more beautiful and happier place through my art and relationships with people. Having fun with friends and family

Past Careers and Work
Past jobs that have been the most enjoyable: designing the poster for the internship office at RCC, designing the website for my parents and jim, drawing vector illustrations for istockphoto
Past jobs that have been the most meaningful: my volunteer work with Service for Peace and witnessing at the CARP center

Things that Interest Me

Personal interests
Thinking about what exactly are the things that interest me helps me get one step closer to discovering my passion.
Fav things to do in the past before I got “too busy”: play in the forest, draw, color, collect stickers and figurines, look at dolls and toys, take dance classes, read Harry Potter and any graphic novels, go to the library and look at the children’s books (Jan Brett)


Fav things to do in now: Go to the coffee shop and Barnes and Noble, surf the internet, sleep in late with Yung, window shop with friends at the mall, redesign my bedroom and the rest of my house on the website website www.designmyroom.com
Hobbies: draw vector art and work on my blog, look for cool books and music at the library or barnes and noble
Fav topics of conversation: husbands, internet memes, creative ideas, religion and culture, in laws, the war on iraq, what people have been up to lately, sex tips, anything design related, makeovers, health, fashion, education

Lord of the Rings and Star Wars

Book that I would read: the rest of the Harry Potter books, Elf Quest, The Golden Compass, any books by Roald Dahl, books that have to do with design either on fonts, interior decorating, makeovers, fashions, and sex tips.
Magazines that I would buy: Metrolpolitan home or any other interior design magazines, Cosmopolitan, gaming magazines, any design Magazines. I really want to get the catalogue for play mobil so I can look at all the different set that they have. I would also buy Playboy , if I wasn’t too embarrassed (I like to draw beautiful women and the fact that they're not wearing clothes makes it easier to get the body structure right)

My skills and talents

I really believe that everyone has their natural skills and unique talents to offer this world. At the seminar, I was encouraged to really focus in on these unique abilities, either learned or inherent. The first step is to discover what they are and then understand how they might be used fulfill my passion. Here are my personal responses.



My personal strengths:
Things that I am good at doing good at: learning, explaining, designing, working with a computer, drawing, analytical thinking, memmorizing, choosing colors, dancing,

My personality strengths: understanding towards ppl in all situations, caring, thoughtful, patient, creative thinking problem solving, knowing when someone is upset or needs to talk, listening (i’m getting a lot better), communicating, being direct and to the point
Things that I am skilled at (learned in school/church/other): graphic design, art history, fundraising, witnessing, running, cooking healthy food, web design, marketing, drawing
Things other people say i am good at: dancing, drawing, physical fitness, cooking, writing, good people person (Yung), budgeting (mom),
Natural talents i have but i don’t use are: drawing skills I don’t use them nearly enough as I would like to and I think it’s because I didn’t think it was so “practical”
If I had to teach something I would teach: How to have mind blowing sex, redesign your home interior, and have more effective communication with your significant other as well as anyone else in your life
Someone could call me to get help with: How to be healthier and how to talk to their husband or wife about budgeting, communication, and sex.
My unique abilities or my niche is: education/mass communication through visual and artistic means, help people organize their living spaces or whatever

Recent Discovery

I love dancing. I always loved dancing since I was 5 years old but I gave up dancing when I decided I didn't want to make a career out of it. That's why in 6th grade I quit ballet. I thought there was no point in continuing to take lessons. Then about a year ago I heard about swing club at my school, I realized how much I missed dancing and how the thought of learning dance again was so exciting for me. Last night I was over at a friend's house and we were watching dancing with the stars and I kept thinking "I would be so awesome to be on the show" or at least perform in front of a live audience. I think I'm going to sign up for Salsa lessons now.

Money Management Tips that I Learned

Yung and I used to fight about money constantly. We both had and still have different styles and ideas about how to spend our money and since we got married until recently, it's been the number one subject we argued about. To give you an example, I love to buy people gifts and I like to be spontaneous about it and not worry about the price. Yung worries about the price and would rather spend time with the person than buy something for them. I also like to spend money on clothes for myself. Yung, on the other hand, doesn't care about what he wears. I have to throw away his old t-shirts for him because even if there are holes in them he will keep wearing them if I don't. About a year ago I told him I wanted to buy a new pair of jeans since I only had one other pair and he asked me "Don't you have a pair already?" I had to explain to him that I needed a second pair, you know, in case one was dirty.




Christmas is my favorite holiday because I find so much joy in buying gifts for people and watching them open them. I look forward to Christmas shopping and have no problems spending hundreds of dollars on the holiday. Yung thinks that buying gifts for Christmas is a waste of money because he feels that most the time the gifts aren't things that people actually want and he doesn't like shopping anyway. In the past, Christmas shopping would stress him out and when I volunteered to do the shopping alone it stressed him more out because he didn't trust my spending or the gifts that I picked. We used to fight about that a lot. On the other hand, I couldn't understand why he would get mad at me for spending 300-400 hundred dollars on gifts when he put a grand into the stock market at the risk of losing it all. I felt like I was trying so hard to be frugal and not buy another pair of jeans only to have him gamble with our hard earned savings. He said he was working on our financial future and I appreciate that now, but at the time it felt like he wasn't allowing me to enjoy the present.



Using the Money Management system helped us find middle ground because now I use the "Give Account" to buy the Christmas gifts and Yung doesn't have to worry about whether I am spending too much because I can only use what is in the account and that's it. If I want to buy more gifts we need to make more money. I love the "Play Account" because we can use it for going out and having fun. I can also use it to buy the clothes that I want, even if Yung doesn't think I need them. Yung is only allowed to use the money in the "Financial Freedom Account" to invest in the stock market so that makes me feel comfortable about whatever investments he wants to make. Soooo finally, when it comes to money we can talk about it like civilized human beings.

We actually learned this system at a different seminar of Peak's. Because people were asking me about it I am putting it on the blog. Since we found out about this system and started putting it to use, we haven't fought at all about money.

Self Discovery continued...

Self Discovery

At the workshop one of the first things I was asked to do was:
1. Take out a photo of myself when I was little.
(we had been told to bring one ahead of time)
2. Look at it.
3. Close my eyes and picture it in my mind.
4. Then I was guided on a meditation exercise to recall what I really wanted when I was that age. A time before I was influenced to think differently by my parents, teachers, religion and society. Before my parents told me that having a horse was too much work and too expensive. Before my teachers taught me that artists don't make money. Before my religion taught me that rich people are greedy and that the best way to help the world is to give up your career and become a full time missionary. Before society taught me that playing with dollhouses was for little girls not adults and that if I'm not going to dance as a career then there is no need to continue taking dance lessons. I "should" focus on something that I'm good at. I "should" not be rich but still have plenty money to tithe to the churc. I "should" become a missionary. I "can't" make money if I want to pursue fine art. I "shouldn't" get a horse because it's not practical.
Kieren says "Stop should-ing on yourself!"
5. Later I was asked to take out a more recent photo and reflect on what my dreams are now and what of my childhood dreams have I accomplished since that time until now.

This exercise was the most exciting part of the workshop for me. I felt like there were so many things that I loved to do as a child and I still want to do them but somewhere along the way I came to believe that there weren't practical or they were too juvenile.


For example during the childhood reflections we were given time to create a list. The list was of things I wrote that I had always wanted to have my very own Arabian horse to go on adventures with in the country side. I loved rearranging my dollhouse furniture and thinking up my own designs for dollhouse accessories as well as trying to make my own out of clay and paper. I remember looking through the PlayMobil catalogue and wishing I could be the person who sets up the dolls and funiture in the doll houses to be photographed for the catalogue. I realized that in the moment of remembering these dreams I felt so excited aboutk my life ahead of me and inspired to make something artistic.
Like this fairy cottage below that I found on google. To whoever made this....you're awesome!

Past Conditioning

During the Life Directions Workshop I was asked to reflect on what beliefs were engrained in me as a child mostly by my parents and reflect on how my life as reflected those messages. Here are my responses:




Beliefs that were ingrained in you as a child? I remember my mom couldn't emphasize enough how important it is to tithe to the church and pay taxes. She said you never want to owe the spirit world/the universe. She also said that it is good to think wisely before you to speak less is better than to speak too much. She also taught me that I should try different things and always be open minded. There is always more to learn. She paid for my ballet lessons, music lessons and for boarding school abroad even though our family had to borrow money to pay for it.

Growing up she was encouraging about almost all my endeavors expect my art. I used to draw my mom pictures and make her cards but I when I would see them in the trash later and would ask her about it and she would explain that she said she didn’t know what to do with them. She said she doesn’t really appreciate art but Dad does. “Show Dad he understands art.”

My dad said “Always leave a plus.” He was always extremely generous and he loved buying gifts. That's how he showed that he cared. He would spend top dollar on gifts for people including me, without appearing to think twice about it and I remember mom being angry that he spent too much. He told me that if you buy something on sale you won't appreciate it as much as when you pay full price for a quality item that you really want. I also remember him getting frustrated at me when he came home from work and wanted to be along and I bothered him. He didn't like it when I asked him questions. I remember him telling me “Don’t ask stupid questions or you’ll get a stupid answer.” One time we were talking about why he likes to make fun of me and my sisters and he said “I don’t want to complement my kids because then they’ll become arrogant.”


How has your life reflected these messages? Well, I think I learned from my mom that it's good to try new things and travel. From that influence, I've moved around a lot, I also changed my major in college about five times and I love to listen to different peoples perspectives of life and anything else that makes them unique. I have been told that I am open minded and a good listener. On the other hand I find that in my artistic career it has been difficult for me to make money through my work because I have a hard time putting a price value on it. It's hard to believe that it will be appreciated by other people and so I often severely under-charge if i charge at all, for all the hours and hours of work I spend on a design. I'm thinking that might be connected to the fact that my mom had a difficult time understanding and valuing my art as a kid.

I think my dad influenced me in the way spend money and my desire to buy gifts. When I do get money I immediately feel like I have to spend it all on other people, or donate to a good cause (that's more from my mom). If I get a pay check for $500.00 I automatically think of buying a $500 gift for my parents in law because I want to even the score since my husband and I don't pay rent, even though as a couple we need that money for our necessities. I feel a sense of urgency to pay back my parents-in-law even though in reality they really don't even think about it. People have told me I am very generous. My husband thinks I'm too generous. I also find it hard to express how I feel/think because I'm afraid people may think it's dumb. I'm starting to realize it doesn't really matter if they do.

What is the "Life Directions" Workshop

I just attended one of the most inspiring workshops that I've ever been to, and that's saying a lot because I've been to so many already. It was called "Life Directions" and it was about finding your true passion and how your career can be a vehicle to help you fulfill it.

Just to give you some background, the workshop is just one of an entire series developed by Peak Potentials, a company started by T. Harv Eker, author of the book "Millionaire Mind." The book is about how people's unconscious or conscious beliefs, their "past conditioning," regarding money directly affects how much money they make. He said "Give me five minutes and I can predict what your financial future will be for the rest of your life." Based on his research for "Millionaire mind," he realized the same theory can be applied to the a person's health, relationships, mission, happiness, etc. and he decided to make a whole series of courses to help people re-condition themselves so that they can be successful in all areas of their lives.

The reason why I wanted to start a blog about the one called "Life Directions" is because I thought is was the most inspiring and I wanted to tell people about it. And since the Peaks courses are pretty expensive to go to, I thought it would be nice to help those who are interested but can't afford to go, by sharing some of my experiences.