5 Ways To Be Free & Live Life Without Worry

Happy Wednesday guys! So I've been commissioned by the wonderful folks at Sprint to share with you all how I live life worry-free. Here are my top five ways to take the edge off when things in life are getting a little crazy:

1. Keep Inspiration Nearby

At the beginning of the year, I wrote a whole series about How To Create a Vision Board. Having inspirational images, quotes and written goals nearby can instantly make your current situation seem less of an issue and more like preparation for attaining your goals. Don't have time to make a vision board? Check out websites and even twitter streams that are dedicated to inspiring daily.

How To Create A Vision Board: Part III

Happy New Year everyone! Can you believe it's 2012 already? I'm so incredibly happy you guys have been my faithful readers for another year and I'm wishing you the utmost success & happiness in 2012. So far Ive instructed you on how to make a vision board (Part I) and I've showed you how it helped me (Part II). To close out my How To Create A Vision Board series, I'm shining the spotlight on you! I had an open call for people to submit pictures and stories of how they did their own vision boards, and how they've achieved success. I received some amazing submissions from three special ladies. Here they are:

Ty of GorgeousInGrey.com writes:


I just read your post and I wanted to share a picture of my mini vision board that I created on my journal. I wanted to be filled with positive vibes so I put different words and things on the inside of my journal.

I even put the logo to our local newspaper, just because it was the letter b and my former last name is Brown. So I started actually reading the paper and thought about contributing.. about 4 months later I emailed the editor with ideas and I'm now a freelance writer for them.

Mia Anita of Bigger Than Hair and The Style Edit writes:

My board focuses A LOT on career paths and professional goals and desires. It has a touch of spiritual and romance but not as much as the financial, career, etc.

Last year when I still lived in L.A., I had a vision board party for my close friends. I didn't tell them what we were doing, I just led them to believe it was a normal girls night event I usually had but just with a bunch of magazines. I then revealed what we were doing and we got to cutting. The process of creating the vision board really put into perspective of a persons goals or lack thereof. It makes you sit back and began a goal oriented thinking process that everyone doesn't do automatically.

Blake of BlakeVonD writes:

I'm submitting a pic of my vision JOURNAL. I wanted to give the traditional vision board a little twist (see her post here). I like this idea because I can carry it around with me AND write down things that are important to me/pertain to those goals. I love the idea of having them in the same place. And I can add to it as the year goes on! :)

And there you have it ladies & gents! If the vision board concept can work for them, it can work for you. Do what suits your lifestyle best. Just remember to stay focused and all your dreams & desires will come true for you - one after another.

P.S. If you're a fellow blogger, check out my post on IFB - 5 Tips For Creating a Blog Vision Board That Works. Similar to my series, but more focused on blog goal-setting!

How To Create A Vision Board: Part II

I'm back with another one! In Part I of How To Create A Vision Board, I walked through 5 easy steps to putting your visions and goals down on paper. If you haven't checked it out, that's a good place to start (click HERE). In Part II, I'm going to demonstrate from personal experience, how powerful vision boards can be. Below is a representation of what my vision board for 2011 looks like, and in this post I'm going to lay out how I accomplished each and every goal on my board.

Aside from adding in the pretty frame digitally (I didn't have it in a frame this year, but it's actually a pretty chic idea for decoration), this is exactly what I looked at, day after day throughout the 2011 year. I put my visions up in my bedroom on the left side of my bed so I literally saw it when I woke up in the morning and before I went to bed at night. Like I mentioned in Part I, what worked for me was separating my visions into different categories. My three main sections were focused around Career, Health & Beauty. Here's a breakdown of my board:

In this section, I included images of women I look up to, who demonstrate the level of success I want to achieve and images that embody or represent goals I wanted to achieve in my career. Starting from the top left and going clockwise, here's how I accomplished these goals in 2011:

1) Goal: Entrepreneurship
My fave girls Ginger & Liz, who own the nail lacquer line of the same name, represented entrepreneurship for me. Hence the "I'm A Hustler Baby" phrase underneath.

Accomplished: This year, I finally applied and got myself a real business license. On top of that, I placed runner-up in a local business plan competition, which gave me the confidence I needed to know that when I do officially start my business, I'll have support.

2) Goal: Meet DVF 
Diane Von Furstenberg represented excellence for me. As a woman of distinction, she really inspires other women to be who they truly want to be. I've also always wanted to go to her show at NY Fashion Week, literally since I was 14 years old.

Accomplished: This year, I met Diane von Furstenberg three times! I was blessed to win a FREE wrap dress at her Fashion's Night Out party (see here). I was privileged to attend her Spring 2012 show at NY Fashion Week (see more here). And I was also selected to participate in her NYC Wrap Rally to launch her Diane fragrance, which garnered major press (see pic below, I'm on the right!)

3) Goal: Become a Contributor
Since I started my career in journalism, I dreamed of becoming a contributor for some of my fave magazines. I added the word "contributors" to my vision board, and also put up a picture of Essence Magazine's Editor-in-Chief at that time, Angela Burt-Murray.

Accomplished: This year was huge for me in regards to contributions. This is the first year I was featured in major national publications! I had an advertorial in Essence Magazine's October Issue:

On top of that, I was quoted as a blogger/expert in Ebony Magazine's Beauty Awards, LoveBrownSugar was declared one of Essence's Top 40 Fashion Blogs, I landed my first article on The Huffington Post and I secured contributor status in a plethora of other publications, which I'm truly proud of.

4) Goal: Travel
This year I wanted to get into worldwide travel. I placed images on my board that represented that, like the main character in Eat, Pray, Love and pictures of the Caribbean. I also put words like "Passport" on there.

Accomplished: This year I visited Ecuador for 10 days (see HERE), and just 3 weeks ago I spent a luxurious weekend on St Thomas and St John. Two unexpected places, but two amazing experiences I'll never forget. And both trips were sponsored, so I was able to do them without suffering financial strain.

1) Goal: Develop a healthy lifestyle
Another major part of my goals for 2011 was improving my health. This year, I focused less on losing weight on more on developing healthy habits like working out regularly, eating less fast food & processed food, and drinking more water.

Accomplished: This year I participated in a 6-week program called NY Lean (see here). On that program I lost 12 lbs in a 6-week period and I felt absolutely amazing. It showed me that these health goals weren't as hard as they seem. I also eat much more organic food, and I barely eat fast food. Of course, there's more work to be done, but I did manage to accomplish a few goals and for that I'm proud.

1) Goal: Stay natural & grow!
As most of you know, I've battled on & off with going natural for over 5 years (see here for my hair journey). I was natural all through college, then I broke down and relaxed my hair when I went into the corporate world. Shortly after that, I regretted it and went natural again. So this year, after doing the big chop in November of 2010, my goal was to maintain my natural tresses, learn more about them and keep my hair growing beautifully.

Accomplished: I grew my hair from teeny weeny afro to almost collar-bone length over the year. I couldn't wait to out my hair in a high bun!

I also successfully waited an entire year until I got my hair straightened or applied any heat to it, which I'm proud of (see my video at Hair Rules Salon here).

All in all, I've had an amazing year and I'm looking forward to a successful 2012. Stay tuned for Part III (update: see it here) where I highlight how others have successfully created vision boards. Have any of you created a vision board? If so, I want to chat with you!

Email luvbrownsugar@gmail.com with either a) a picture of your vision board or b) a story highlighting how it helped you in 2011.

How To Create A Vision Board: Part I

Note: This is not my 2011 vision board, just a digital representation

So this entire year I've been raving about how much creating a vision board at the beginning of 2011 has helped me go above and beyond. It's truly miraculous all I've been able to accomplish this past year as a result of staying focused on attainable goals and literally staring at them everyday. So I'm going to let you in on a little secret: Vision boards work. Seriously. If you don't believe me, keep reading. In this 3-Part series "How To Create A Vision Board", I'm going to walk you through what I did to make mine, how mine helped me achieve success and then finally how others have achieved success using these methods. Happy December - get ready to take 2012 by storm!

Step 1. Decide on your goals for 2012 and write them down.

They should be concrete, attainable, and well thought-out. Don't just throw "Win a Million Dollars" on there. Take a few days to truly reflect on the things that you lacked, the things you really craved for but couldn't have and the things you regretted not pursuing this year. This should drive your goals for next year. Feel free to steal inspiration from people you look up to and admire. There's nothing wrong with that, and they don't have to know. Warning: Positive goals only. If your motivation is to see your ex-boyfriend's new girl fall off of a cliff in 2012, this is not the right exercise for you. You're better off seeing a hit man. Better yet, you might need Jesus. Just saying.

Step 2. Shop for Materials.

Ok, once you've taken some time to reflect on the goals you'd like to accomplish, it's time to go shopping! Head to your local pharmacy, bookstore, and/or craft store to pick up your favorite magazines and other inspiring materials. Search for publications that truly represent your personal goals. Some of my faves for personal/career motivations are Essence, Ebony, Uptown, and Black Enterprise (these publications normally contain images of people I personally wanna be like one day). For fashion, I love Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Nylon, and Lucky. Whatever your goal is, choose mags that center around that theme.

Step 3. Research.

It's time to research the images you'll be looking at all year long and set them aside for Step 4. This is another activity you'll want to set aside at least 2-3 hours for. Remember, your vision board is a year-long image that you'll look at daily. It's a work of art. You want to clip images that really represent your goals and tug at your emotions and motivations when you look at them.

Step 4. Put it together.

Source

So here's the tricky part - you'll want to arrange your vision board so that everything flows together well, and so that it looks pretty. Again, you're going to look at this e-v-e-r-y-d-a-y. It should look as fly as you!

My personal recommendation is to separate different parts of your board based on your goals. In Part II, I'll show you how I did mine but basically you can arrange the images in different sections of your board to correspond with each goal. So for example, have health in the upper right corner, career at the bottom left and spirituality in the middle. Whatever you prefer!

Step 5. Hang It In A Visible Place.

The point of the vision board is just that, vision! You must be able to see your board easily. Hang it in your bedroom, or living room. Wherever you spend the most time, that's where your board should be. If you're a workaholic, keep it at your desk at work! You can even take a picture of it and make it the background wallpaper for your cell phone. Whichever way you choose, just make sure it's easily visible and always in your face. It pays off, trust me.

Stay tuned for Part II (update: see it here) - I'll show you how I put my Vision Board together for 2011 and how each of the goals on my board were achieved this year. In the mean time, have any of you created a vision board? If so, I want to chat with you!

Email luvbrownsugar@gmail.com with either a) a picture of your vision board or b) a story highlighting how it helped you in 2012.