Motivation from All Angles

Something that many of you may not know about me is that I'm very self-motivated. The key to remaining driven and at your best is to stay motivated at all times. A lot of individuals wait for the moment of inspiration to become motivated. Instead, try creating that moment as a dream and always strive toward that dream.

You can gain motivation in various ways. Reading, writing, singing, dancing, working out, going to school, working, knitting... Whatever it is, abuse that outlet to get where you want/need to be. I'm highly motivated by reading, writing and going to school. These 3 things drive me daily. I read about what's going on around me and in the world, whether it's about economics, finance, or poverty. I try to read for pleasure as well. I'm currently reading The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, and recently finished Precious by Sapphire.

There's also a very useful site for women, and I subscribe to their daily newsletter. It's called Little Pink Book. The newsletter has very useful and practical information. Just today I received a newsletter titled 'The 2010 Financial Checklist'. The newsletter contained a checklist of where you should strive to be financially, grouped by age. According to Little Pink Book, I should be setting goals, learning to budget, calculating my monthly income, subtracting my expenditures and contributing to my savings. All of which I have been doing. So I'm right on track!

Come the winter time (which has snuck up on us Michiganders), I'll be volunteering as a tax preparer for low-income families through the Accounting Aid Society. I'm very excited about this, as well as my 40-hr work week, 2 night classes and my internship course. Along with finding a job after my internship is over, and preparing for my last 4 classes as an undergraduate!

Basically, motivation is what keeps me going. It's what wakes me up in the morning, after which I've had a long night. It makes me appreciate life and actually gives me something to live for. Because I know that all of the things that I am doing right now are bettering me as an individual and will allow me to be an asset to society, and to teach these things to my offspring.

What are things/ways that you stay motivated? Inquiring minds want to know!

Tips and Tricks for Women: Winter-Proof Your Car

If you live in an area similar to mine (Michigan... Midwest) or maybe even the East coast, some of these tricks from Woman's World may come in handy. I'll be trying some of these myself, because there is nothing worse than your locks freezing causing you to be late for work.

**Keep your headlights clear with car wax

• The wax contains special water repellents that will prevent the messy gunk from accumulating on your lights. This technique lasts for weeks.

**Ice-proof your windows with vinegar

• Mix 3 parts vinegar with 1 part water and spritz on your car windows at night. Vinegar contains acetic acid which raises the melting point of water- preventing water from freezing on your windshield.

**Prevent car doors from freezing shut with cooking spray

• Spritz cooking spray on the rubber seals around car doors and rub it in with a paper towel. Oils in cooking spray prevent water from melting into the rubber.

**Fog-proof your windshield with shaving cream

• Shaving cream creates a protective film on the glass that prevents fogging. Spray some on the inside of your windshield and wipe it off with paper towels. The cream has many of the same ingredients found in commercial defoggers.

**Get unstuck from the snow with your floor mat

• Stick the rubber side of one of your floor mats under the spinning tire. It provides the grip you need to get going.

**De-ice your lock in seconds with hand sanitizer

• Put the hand sanitizer gel on both the key and lock. It contains alcohol, the main ingredient in most commercial de-icers. The sanitizer must be at least 60% alcohol, otherwise it's ineffective.

**Squeak-proof your wipers with rubbing alcohol

• Wipe them with a cloth saturated with rubbing alcohol or ammonia. This can cut the buildup of grease and grime, the main culprit that prevents wipers from working.

!!!!!!!!! New GAB Contest !!!!!!!!!!

So after much thought on my behalf, I realized that my last contest was a little too demanding for my readers. You guys need something simple, something that doesn't take long to do! Honestly, I wouldn't have participated in my own contest :-(

So to make things easier for you, I've designed a better contest (at least in my opinion). Since tis' the season to be jolly, I'd like for everyone to share their funniest holiday story. It doesn't have to be long in length; the only requirement is that it's FUNNY!

THE 3 FUNNIEST STORIES WILL BE POSTED ON MY BLOG! THE 50TH PERSON TO SEND IN THEIR STORY WILL RECEIVE A $50 GIFTCARD TO THEIR FAVORITE STORE FOR CHRISTMAS!

**Disclaimer: NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Contest ends Friday, December 18th at 5:00p EST.

Now there's something to pass on!

Cupcake Misfortune or Abusing Power

Sunday evening was an eventful for me. One in which I baked 60 cupcakes, split up for my job, my boyfriend's job and my mothers. Laundry, reading for class and video game playing with my boyfriend were some of the other events that took place. To top things off, the cupcakes were a new flavor that I was trying: Lemon cake with chocolate icing. I even went so far as to decorate the cupcakes with Wilton decorating tips! They were marvelous!!!

Monday morning I took in my pan of cupcakes, about 15 to be exact and had one for breakfast while I read The Economist. My normal course of work on Monday mornings calls for me to work in the 'vault', a secluded room with one computer, currency counting machine, and our cash vault. Those lovely cupcakes sat in the front office, waiting patiently to be devoured by one of my coworkers.

Mid-way through my work, I decided to take a bathroom break and noticed that my pan of cupcakes were gone! The pan and all! I found my supervisor in the hallway giving MY cupcakes away to students in the lobby without asking MY permission. When I returned to the office, she called me into her office to say: "You work in an office of fat women who are trying to watch their weight, so I had to get rid of your cupcakes."

Excuse me! But if I recall correctly, everyone that I work with are fully grown women and do not need a third party to decide whether they can have a cupcake or not. I'm sure that if people were watching their weight so closely, then they would have sat on the cabinet for the remainder of the day and I could have taken my cupcakes home to enjoy them with my mother! Our office consists of the front and the back. The back office workers weren't even offered a cupcake, which would have been the nice thing to do. If I wanted to make cupcakes for the students, then I would have put the pan in the hallway for them!

The interesting thing is, I'm not the first person to bring goodies into the office. I can recall several times in my 3 months here where other people have brought in cupcakes, brownies, lemon tarts, cake, etc. including the supervisor whom gave mine away!

This one little incident caused me to have a bad day at work. I couldn't believe that she did that and am convinced that that was an abuse of power! What do you think?

The Power of Initiative

I know I've been hiding under a rock lately, and that is due to a few factors. My relationship with my boyfriend has been a little rocky, I recently had to drop a class :-( and my mom hasn't had a car for almost 2 months, causing me to rely on everyone for a ride to work and school.

Well, since I had to drop a class, I'll have to retake it next semester along with the other 2 classes that I was already scheduled to take. That is a recipe for disaster, which leads me to my point. I've been catching on pretty well to my work in Accounts Receivable at my job, and was really looking forward to sticking with what I know next semester. But there's a slight dilemma. The other intern also wants to stay in Accounts Receivable for our second term. But one of us has to go.

On Tuesday, we both had an interview with the Accounts Payable department. It seems as though they were really encouraging me to come to their office due to my high level of experience, and the fact that having AP experience would really boost my resume.

Now, I'm really excited to find out which one of us was selected to go to AP next semester! Even though it'll be a change of pace and atmosphere, I really think I'd enjoy it. I'm always up for a challenge!
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