Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Just to clarify: Details of the $25 free offer

Just to recap: I'm offering $25 in free Mary Kay product if I haven't written in the blog in over 10 days. Here are some details about that:

1) From now on, you must be an official follower of the blog in order to win.

2)If already have an MK Independent Beauty consultant, or are yourself a consultant, you are not eligible to win.

3) Only the FIRST person to contact me past my blog deadline will win.

4)You can only win the prize once within a 3-month period. So if you caught me in August, you can't win again until November.

5) If you are the winner, you can shop online at www.marykay.com/gnorman7. Once you've selected your free product, all you need to do is select the "contact me for payment" option, and I'll process your order for free. I'm not going to chase you down to claim your free product - so once I've announced the winner, you need to contact me for your prize!


Thanks all! Goodnight.

Just ASK!

Yet another tardy entry. My apologies, dear readers! However, I have good news! The boyfriend is now not only working, but has found a place to live. So things are ducky, but they have been busy(Too many exclamation points???)!

My entry will be short and sweet: "If you ask and someone says 'no' to you, nothing has changed. A 'yes' can change everything, but you won't ever get it if you don't ask!"

I am afraid of being told no sometimes. Not just in my MK business (which really gets in the way of growing my business), but also and perhaps especially with God. This really gets in the way of growing in spiritual maturity! I anticipate that what I want to ask God for will be met with 'no', so at least half the time I never even vocalize it.

Now, this is silly on the one hand, since God by definition would already know even if I haven't asked. However, in the words of "Grams" from Dawson's Creek: "Prayer doesn't change God, prayer changes me". I'm realizing more as the years pass that God withholds from us sometimes because we haven't given him permission or access to do what He'd like to. We don't cultivate a relationship, we don't orient our lives toward grace, we don't give Him the freedom to say 'no' to us without coming to the conclusion that He doesn't love us. Can you imagine if that translated to our relationships? What children we can be... 'If you don't give me what I want, you must not love me'... and equally off-base, not trusting that our Father is GOOD and wants GOOD for us.

So in my spiritual life and in my MK business (as this blog is meant to show, I have noticed that whatever's going on with my MK is usually just a miniature of my spiritual challenges, etc), I am realizing that in order for God to bless my efforts, He has to have efforts to bless.

So I say to you, dear readers (and you, too, self!):
Ask.
Ask the question you avoid out of fear that you'll be told no.
Ask for a raise.
Ask her out on a date.
Ask that person you know deserves what you have to offer, be it pampering or the Gospel.

Just ask.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Be weird

Life has changed really drastically in the past couple of weeks - my boyfriend has moved here with me and started work today at his new job! We have been crazy excited, but busy, too! - specifically trying to find him a place to live and make a game plan so we are running on the same track as we move forward.

In light of our country's financial... erm... dealings, I've been listening more and more to NY best-selling author Dave Ramsey, whose Financial Peace University I recommend to the whole world (including Capitol Hill!). One of his humorous quips is something like: Most people in the US have debt - you could say it's 'normal'. So, be weird!

There's more weirdness in Tim Ferriss' 4-Hour Workweek. He discusses how most people are still attempting to follow the model that we work in a career for 30-40 years, then we retire and finally live life the way we've wanted to. He argues that people can enjoy a millionaire lifestyle without being millionaires, and that we don't need to wait until our late 60s to enjoy that. He proposes people take frequent "mini-retirements" throughout their life. (It's a fascinating read I definitely recommend, just for the journey it takes your brain on. Destination: outside the box).

When I blend these two concepts with what I know about the direct sales industry, I'm convinced all over again that I'm on the right track, and especially proud to be a Mary Kay consultant. This business provides that mobile lifestyle and flexibility, and MK, Inc. is a debt-free company!!!

Although I cannot yet say that I am personally debt-free, I sure will throw a party when I am!

In short: I want to be weird. You should, too.

PS- Congratulations to my friend LS for catching me past my blog deadline! She is the first winner and has already picked out some great product as her prize!