Do You Have Goals?

We pretty much all have goals, whether we realize it or not. I have my business goals and my personal goals. Some are short-term; some are long-term. Some are very-short-term. For example, last night my goal was to get up early this morning, no later than 6:00 am. And, yes! I achieved my goal! How I did it – my ‘action plan’, was to go to bed early with my earbuds and an Audible book and to just be ‘lazy’ till I went to sleep. And do you know what? It worked! I woke up early, found the place in the audiobook where I fell asleep, lay in bed listening to a little more of the story (had to get to the end of the chapter!), and got up a few minutes after 6:00 am.

I could have written out my goal and objectives (the measurable steps to get me to my goal). I could have even written out a task analysis if I didn’t feel comfortable about being able to complete any of the required steps. But I didn’t. I just did it. That’s how many of our goals are accomplished. Just doing it. And how many more of them are lost on the wayside. Just thinking about it and not doing it.

Recently I’ve been hearing a lot about S.M.A.R.T. Goals. At the beginning of the New Year, I couldn’t log into any Social Media platform without reading or hearing about goals. And, no doubt, the New Year is the perfect time to start thinking about new goals. If you’re a teacher or student, the beginning of the school year might be the best time for you to really focus on your goals. If you own or work for a company whose fiscal year begins at a different time (July 1 is common), then the month before the fiscal year begins might be when you want to look at your goals. But, seriously, whenever you want to and are ready is the best time for establishing goals.

I first studied creating Goals and Objectives when I was in college studying to teach Special Education. Each of our Special Ed. students had IEPs (Individualized Education Plans). An IEP is a legally binding document that dictates what is taught. Most of the activities that take place in the classroom are directly tied to the goals (always S.M.A.R.T.!) and objectives included in the IEP. The IEP also includes Present Level of Performance, beginning and ending dates, frequency, location, duration of services, and a requirement for progress reports. Individualized Education Plans are reviewed and revised annually (minimum) or more often as needed.

When I started looking at goals for my business, I realized that what I probably really needed was an IBP, and Individualized Business Plan. I still haven’t developed that plan, but now I have the framework to begin. These plans can also be applied to other areas of your life. The seven areas discussed in the book “Oola: Find Balance in an Unbalanced World” would be a good place to start. Start with the area of your life that is most out of balance and create a plan to bring balance back into your world.

But let’s talk about goals first. What is a S.M.A.R.T. Goal? It is Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Specific: That sounds a bit obvious, but maybe it’s not. Let’s say I want to work on fitness and my goal is to ‘get into shape’. That’s not really a goal. It’s a wish. In order to be a goal, I have to define what we really want my outcome to be. A goal might be to “be able to participate in a 5K run in September”.  That is specific.

Measurable: Is my goal to “be able to participate in a 5K run in September” measurable? Yes, you can measure 5K.

Attainable: Is my goal attainable? Yes, it is. If my goal was to participate in a marathon, it would not be attainable. Not for me, anyway. I know my physical limitations and know what is required for a marathon. I have never been marathon material. Now, I fully know it’s not a reasonable goal.

Relevant: Is it relevant? For me, yes. Though I’ve never been crazy about running, it is something I would like to be able to do. Walking is more my style, but for the fitness benefits, running would be a great option. If I have friends also participating in 5K runs, the fellowship or relationship factors would make it even more relevant.

Time-bound: Yes, my goal is time-bound. Indicating that I want to participate in a particular run held in September makes it time bound.

Please remember that your goals can be for any area of your life. The fitness goal was just an easy example. The areas that might be more difficult to develop goals for (for me, anyway) would be Friends, Family, and Faith. Those areas would require a bit more thinking on my part. For you, those may be the easiest.

What Are These Objectives You’re Talking About?

Objectives break down the goal into workable, progressive steps – just like eating an elephant, one bite at a time. This brief article explains the difference between goals and objects pretty well.  Objectives can be broken down into even smaller steps, but try not to get too nit-picky.

In the first paragraph, I mentioned my very short-term goal of getting up no later than 6:00 am. A long-term goal might be to sleep 7 hours per night, 6 nights out of 7 per week, by July 1. For anyone who has had a sleeping problem know how difficult this can be. Anyway. That would be my goal. Now I need to come up with objectives – the steps I must take to achieve my goal. It might look something like this:

Goal:  I will sleep 7 hours per night, 6 nights out of 7 per week, by July 1.

Objectives:

1. Drink only water or decaffeinated beverages after noon each day, 6 out of 7 days per week, for 8 weeks.
2. Turn off all electronic media no later than 9:00 pm each night, 6 out of 7 nights per week, for 8 weeks.
3. Pray, meditate, or read for 30 minutes, 6 out of 7 nights per week, for 8 weeks.
4. Set my alarm clock to wake me at 6:00 am, 6 out of 7 mornings per week, for 8 weeks.

To measure or track my progress with each objective, I would create a chart or checklist to record the days that I complete the task involved with the objective. I would also record the time (approximately) that I fell asleep and the time that I woke.

Strategies or Tactics

It’s possible that I’m not able to master the objective because I don’t have the knowledge or skills required. When that happens I might need to do research or learn a new skill. For example, if I wasn’t sure about which beverages have caffeine and which don’t, I would need to do some research and start reading labels. If I didn’t know how to set my alarm clock (and no, I don’t – Lewis sets the alarm clock), I would need to find the owner’s manual and learn to do that. (By the way, I do know how to use the alarm clock on my phone and I often do. But since I let the battery die pretty regularly, it’s not very dependable.)

But I think you get the idea about the strategies and tactics. These are the skills and information required to complete your objectives.

Task Analysis

If you find you’re not able to complete your objectives, you might need to take another look at your objectives to determine if they are appropriate and then at your tactics to determine if there is a missing skill. Task Analysis is an activity that helps you find those missing skills.

Task analysis breaks down an activity into the simplest steps required to complete the activity. When I did this in college as part of my coursework, I would break down the activity into each step. Then I would look at each individual step. Could it be broken down more? Mentally going through the steps, I would ask myself if there was a step omitted. And then, do I have all of the skills required for each step? What do need to do to be able to complete a smaller step in the activity? This information was listed, going down the page, in order that it occurred for the activity.

Triggers

Triggers are what happens before the activity occurs. Taking a good long look at what is happening and what you want to happen can help you find triggers that will support your reaching your goal or that will sabotage this. For the sleep example, I may look at my current routine and find that I check email or one of my favorite social media sites right before bed. Since this may be a habit that is interfering with going to sleep at my desired time, I may want to avoid that trigger – triggering ‘stay awake’ rather than triggering ‘go to sleep’.

Then I can think back to a time when I did go to sleep easily and slept through the night. What was I doing then that is different from now? What were my triggers then? As a child and teenager, I didn’t have a specific bedtime. But with 5 people in the house (I was the youngest) and one bathroom, routines were important. That’s how we all got ready for bed with the least amount of interference with one another. I might think back to my particular routine and see how I can adapt those activities to my bedtime routine now.  “Bath, pajamas, brush teeth, turn out lights” may be a trigger that I can rely on now to help me fall asleep quickly.

There is much more to goal setting and reaching them than I could include in this article. But this will get you started. My challenge to you this week is to write down two goals, one personal and one business or career related, and write out the objectives required for you to master the goal. Remember that two people could have the same goal. But because of their own different skills and abilities, the objectives required to reach the goal would be different. You can briefly describe this in the comments and then let us know how you’re progressing. I love to see people reaching their goals!

Are you familiar with the Oola Guys? I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here. You can learn more about them on the Oola website.

I discovered Oola about a year or so back. The Oola Guys, Drs. Dave and Troy, teamed up with Young Living because the principles of the two organizations are so closely aligned.  When you see me posting an Oola graphic, this is where it originates.

I highly recommend the Oola book. We purchased two copies last year when they were BOGO (Buy One, Give One – really buy one, get one free, but being Oola, giving one makes sense.) We ended up giving both. And I’m ok with that. We also purchased the audio version and listened to it when we made a road trip to Delaware with my father-in-law. Anyway. The OolaBook is now half off with the coupon code: liveoola at checkout.

If you have read the book, please post in the comments the area of your Oola Life that you are currently working on. I’m working on my Field – my job and business.

Have you ever heard that expression? I can’t imagine anyone old enough to read this hasn’t heard it. But have you thought about what it really means?

Many people interpret ‘faking it’ as a negative behavior and they would ‘never do that!’  But is it really negative? I don’t think so. I’m a big believer in FITYMI (“Fake It Till You Make It”). I see FITYMI more as practice.

• If you want to be a dancer, you’re going to have to dance – even before you know how.
• If you want to be a singer, you’re going to have to sing – even before you know how to make the right sounds.
• If you’re going to be a writer, you’re going to have to write, even before you know how to organize the story so it takes the reader down the path you intended.
• And if you want to be successful in your field or business, then you’re going to have to start acting like a successful person in that field or business, copying what others do who are successful, practicing what you should be saying and what you should be doing.

I’m not talking about lying or misleading yourself. You still have to be honest – especially with yourself. But if you don’t practice being successful – ‘faking it’ – then how are you ever going to learn?

FITYMI goes a little bit farther than just practicing or rehearsing. It involves believing. When you FITYMI, you begin to believe that you are the dancer, singer, writer, whatever that you’ve been practicing (faking it) to be. Little by little, you can begin to see yourself in that role. You become that character. And then you realize it’s not a role. It’s not a character. It’s you. And it’s your life.

What are you ‘faking till you make it’?

I’m a list maker. And I’m a journaler. And I like to write things down. Sometimes I write down too much. Then I can’t find what I’m looking for. And important stuff gets lost among the not so important stuff.

The topic of to-do lists came up in a business Facebook group this morning and this link was posted. It’s all about getting things done based on whether it’s urgent or important. And what I got out of it is that what’s important is important to you. What is urgent is important to someone else. I’ve got to learn to say no to or delay what is urgent (important to someone else) so I can do what is really important.

And this also reminded me of a system I used in the past that worked well for me. It involved a simple yellow legal pad. As I mentioned above, I’m a list maker, journaler, and I like to write things down. I also like to write those things in fancy journals. Or in simple journals that are neat and artsy. Or in something that’s just special. But, you know what? For actually getting things done, that yellow legal pad worked way better than any of the other planners or journals or whatevers that I’ve ever used.

When I was teaching, there were always things that came up during the day that had to be done. These were things other than writing lesson plans, teaching, whatever classroom activities that had to be done. My to-do list was things like consult with other teachers, calls to parents, reports to write, etc. If it was something that wasn’t routine, it went on the list. As each task was accomplished, it would be crossed off. There were few days in which I had ever item crossed off at the end of the day. There were items that would get carried over. Oh, and this was an un-dated to-do list. I may use the same page for almost a week, depending on what was going on at the time.

When I started getting to the end of the page or if the page started getting too messy, I would transfer the items not crossed off to a new page and start working from there. If I was at the bottom of the page and most of the items weren’t crossed off, I got busy doing what was on the list so I could get the crossed off and could start a new page. Because who doesn’t like starting a new page?!

Yes, it’s April. And along with all those April Showers comes the April aches and pains. Between Lewis’s knee and my feet, it doesn’t take much doing and going for us to start feeling it, especially with the ‘rain pain’.

But . . . we are still doing and going. There was a time that much less than we have been going and doing would have done us in. But these days, we have a lot more get-up-and-go. When we talk about the path we’re following on the journey to wellness, this is what we’re talking about.

And I’ve just changed it from ‘Journey to Wellness’ to “Journey to Awesome,” because this is pretty awesome!

What Is Your Motivation?

How Are You Motivated?

What is Your Why?

What is your Why? We are asked that pretty regularly when we start talking about goals. We really do need to know the Why. Until we know why we are doing something, our goals aren’t very important. We could accidently stumble upon goals that match up with our Why. But honestly, that’s pretty rare. Understanding your Why can mean the difference in success or failure. It’s that important.

When we’re talking about your Why with regards to Network Marketing businesses like Young Living or Wildtree, we often hear phrases like “to get out of debt”, “to be more comfortable financially”, “to be able to stay home with my children”, or “to bring my husband home from his job”. We even hear things like “to achieve a higher level of wellness and fitness”, “to share these awesome products with others”,

In order to find and clearly express your Why, you need to know what motivates you. What motivates you is often very personal and unique, but there are some motivators that many people share. This could explain why certain people are attracted to one another when they have seemingly nothing in common. But that’s another story.

There are two types of motivation – intrinsic and extrinsic, or internal and external. Intrinsically refers to motivation that comes from within while extrinsic is based on factors outside yourself.

WAIT! STOP! THIS ISN’T WHAT I WANTED TO TELL YOU!!!!!

What I really wanted to tell you is that everyone has an itch that needs to be scratched. What scratches your itch? For me it’s several things – the need to teach, my longing for deeper relationships – not a lot of relationships, but deeper, my intense desire to go to new places and experience new things, my need, yes, need to learn new things – not just facts and information, but how to do new things.

You see, all of those things are intrinsic. Usually, when you ask someone why they started a new business or new personal journey or whatever, you will hear things like “I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired,” or “I want to be debt-free,” or “I want my family to be able to take long vacations.” And no, there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those reasons. But those are extrinsic. When it gets down to it, those things alone will not scratch that itch. I may well be that there is something about those things, buried and not on the surface, that is intrinsic and will scratch your itch. But discovering your itch makes it a whole lot easier to find what will scratch it.

I love Network Marketing. With Young Living, I have finally found the Network Marketing business that I am truly passionate about and can stick with so my itch will be scratched. I’ve tried others – Stampin’ Up and Close To My Heart, both stamping/scrapbooking businesses – and learned a little about network marketing and myself. About myself, I learned that I love – no, I LOVE! – colors and patterns and textures. Yeah, I kind of knew that on the surface before these endeavors. But after immersing myself in the colors and patterns and textures, I realized it was something I couldn’t live without. (By the way, Young Living doesn’t really satisfy that hunger so I find other creative outlets.) But what I learned through Stampin’ Up and CTMH is that when network marketing is done right relationship bloom. And you know I’m all about the relationships!

What I missed with Stampin’ Up and CTMH was the teaching, the learning, and the experiencing something I was passionate about. Yes, I could do all those things and it was a great learning experience. But it wasn’t something I was passionate about so I was pretty much just going through the motions. When you find that thing you are passionate about and it does scratch those itches, then you know you’ve found the place in the world that you should be.

To be honest, though. It wasn’t the fault of Stampin’ Up or Close To My Heart. I wasn’t in a place or time in my life to be passionate about anything except growing my family. I had two teenage step-daughters in jr. high and high school. I was living in a new state (even after several years, it was still new to me). I had left my teaching career due to my health and was really floundering and searching for what I should be doing. If I had been introduced to either of these companies in the past year or so, I have no doubt things would be different with them. As with all things under God’s care, when Young Living came along, I was ready.

When I was introduced to Young Living, it was by a dear friend in Arkansas who I met through Split Coast Stampers (a stamping/scrapbooking forum) years ago.  When I joined as a Wholesale Member, I had no intention of building a business. But when I received my starter kit and saw what the products did for my family, I couldn’t keep my mouth closed. This was something that I was passionate about. And I could teach. And learn. And I met more people and deeper relationships began to grow. And I began to bloom. Young Living was scratching my itch!

While reading all this, I hope you have been thinking about what scratches your itch. You may or may not already be involved in a business or activity that satisfies your intrinsic needs. If not, please take a few moments to think about activities you’ve been involved in in the past and how they satisfied you. What was it about the activities that kept drawing you back for more? What about them did/do you feel you couldn’t live without? What would you be doing right now if money was not an issue?

When you find what scratches your itch, your WHY, then you will find your Purpose.

From Psychologia:

Intrinsic motivation comes from within, i.e. intrinsic factors are responsible for one’s behavior. Here are some good examples of intrinsic motives:

• fun
• desire to achieve
• challenge
• social contact
• sense of competence
• mastery
• sense of progress
• social status
• curiosity
• learning
• pride
• fulfillment
• power
• fear of failure
• anxiety

I’m not really sure that I would include Fear of Failure or Anxiety on my list, but there is no doubt they can both be strong motivators. “Money” isn’t listed by name on the Psychologia list. But it, too, can be an intrinsic motivator. Some people simply enjoy making money and seeing the numbers grow. I suppose that would come under the category of ‘desire to achieve’.

My assignment for you this week, if you choose to accept it, is to sincerely look at your intrinsic motivators and to let this lead you to your purpose. I have included a worksheet, below, that I found online with no link back to the source. If anyone knows where this comes from, please let me know so I can get proper permission to use the worksheet and give proper credit. Go ahead and print out the worksheet so you can mark it up and change your mind and then change your mind again. (As I was working through this, I realized I could just go ahead and scratch numbers 1 and 9 off the sheet. They didn’t apply to me at all!)

Since there were no specific instructions with the worksheet, I’ll just tell you what I did with it. I read through the list of 9 motivators. I filled in the blank in the first statement, listing 3 motivators I thought I would respond to best. Then I used the chart and circle the number of the two in each set that I would respond to better. After going through these, I counted how many times I circled each number and came up with my top 3. Two of my 3 were the same as those I predicted above. They were Autonomy, Affiliation, and Creativity. That was a little surprising in one sense, but not really. The teaching and learning that I expected (‘Search for Meaning’ is the closest motivator on the list) were not there.

And what about numbers 1 and 9? Well, even though accomplishment and achievement are important to me, status is nowhere on the radar. And Security? Who doesn’t want security, right? Well, I guess there are different levels of security. In my life, I have security in my Lord, Jesus Christ, and in my husband and his unwavering love. No other security can even compare to that. At the same time, I love changes and am willing to take chances and risks to respond to my other motivators. In fact, not knowing the end result is part of what motivates me.

But . . . in relation to my business, these were pretty much spot on. I am not in business for status, power, security, material rewards (though that is always nice!), or several of the others you might expect. I have a network marketing business so I can be the one making the decisions, to build relationships, and to express my creativity. The creativity comes in the opportunity to do things my way. Even as I am attempting to lead my team with duplicable examples, I’m always free to ‘do my own thing’. I can try something new and see what happens. I can even follow in the steps of those who have gone before me, but infuse the activities with my own personality, including what ‘scratches my itch’. What you do in your business may not work be what I do in mine. But if it gets us to the same place, why not?

But back to the assignment. Where does this lead me with my purpose? I think this pretty much says that I should have my own business and not be an employee of others. Right now I feel like my part-time job is killing me. Not just physically due to the inactivity required for the job – sitting at a computer, checking emails, sending messages, working on reports and data, etc. – but also for the soul-stifling work that it is. There are others who bloom in this setting. I’m just wilting. But that all goes back to the intrinsic motivators that make each of us unique and different.

So, what do you think? What are your intrinsic motivators? What scratches your itch? Tell me about it in the comments.

By the way, this was supposed to be an article about Intrinsic v. Extrinsic motivators. But it’s all about Intrinsic. And I’m OK with that.

Intrinsic Motivation Worksheet

#Terrific#Tuesday! pic.twitter.com/VxqaDH6oQZ

— Leonie Dawson (@Leonie_Dawson) April 19, 2016

By the way, Leonie is one of my most favorite people ever! She’s the kind of gal that makes you feel like her friend (I even referred to her as one of my ‘online friends’ recently!) even though I will probably never meet her in person. She’s one of my ‘kindred spirits’.

WHO WE ARE:

We are Lewis and Teresa Levite, Young Living Wholesale Members. I prefer “Wholesale Members” because I don’t want to sell you anything. I will, however, show you how you can sign up to get your wholesale account and save money on great products – much the way you would become a member of Sam’s Club or Costco.

Our goal is to introduce you to Young Living and Young Living products through our podcasts, periscope videos, newsletter, website, etc.

Along the way with our journey back to wellness, we have learned a lot that’s not directly related to our Young Living Network Marketing business. Another of our goals is to share what we have learned with you. Some of this about food and wellness habits. Part of it is about goal setting and how to achieve those goals. Sometimes, it’s just encouragement along the way because that’s so important – for all of us!

We named our Facebook page and group “Heart & Home”. That’s the name that we’re using for our website, Instagram and a few others sites. On others, like Twitter, I am ‘mrslevite’ because that’s what I’ve been for years and have followers through that name. I will have a list with links to our sites social media profiles and links to some of our favorite resources.

OUR JOURNEY:

When we moved here 2 ½ years ago, – and ‘here’ is the Village of Tilton, IL – there were a lot of changes going. Besides the new location and me learning my way around, I was without a job for a while and Lewis was transitioning from working to ‘retirement’.

During the first year here, I gained weight, was given new medical diagnosis, and additional prescriptions. I was sick twice during that year requiring trips to the doctor and prescriptions for antibiotics and was prescribed several different allergy medications.

When I decided enough was enough, I started asking my friend Darcy in AR about the oils she was using. She had told me before about her family using the Thieves blend to support their immune system. I placed an order for the Premium Starter Kit (I tend to jump in with both feet and wondered later if that was the best choice.) It turns out it was the best choice and the oils have changed our lives.

Thieves was the jumping off point to a lifestyle of wellness. There have been some changes over the past year and half that you can see – like the weight that we have lost, Lewis more so than me, but slowly and steadily, it’s coming off. And some you can’t see – like the energy and focus I have to do my work – even when I really don’t want to. Also, our bodies are returning to a normal state instead of a diseased state and wellness is being restored. By supporting our bodies, it is healing itself. We have made other changes, too, but it was the oils that started this journey and the oils that continue to support our bodies as we continue the journey.

SOME CHANGES WE HAVE MADE:

We began with Essential Oils. Within a week of diffusing the oils, we all noticed improvement – me, Lewis, and the dogs. Diffusing is an economical way to use oils because a few drops are diffused over a period of several hours and everyone in the house benefits from those few drops. Some oils work better when ingested. The blend ‘DiGize’ is an excellent example. It supports a healthy digestive system. It will work when applied topically, but I think it’s stinky. It tastes nasty, too. But I would rather taste it for a minute or two instead of smelling it all day. You can also put a few drops in a gelatin capsule and not even taste it. That’s how I take oregano oil internally. Oregano is a ‘hot’ oil so I’ll only apply it topically to my feet. And I don’t usually want the house to smell like a pizzeria, so I put it in a capsule and take it with food.

Some of the supplements that I’ve really been impressed with are the NingXia Red, Master Formula multivitamins, Mineral Essence, and Life 5 probiotics.

NingXia Red is more a food than a supplement. From the website: “This sweet and tangy drink’s formula includes wolfberry, which is touted for its health benefits. Also featuring plum, aronia, cherry, blueberry, and pomegranate juices and extracts, Young Living’s NingXia Red is packed with superfoods to support overall wellness.
In addition to these antioxidant ingredients, NingXia Red’s formula includes pure vanilla extract and Lemon, Orange, Yuzu, and Tangerine essential oils for a great-tasting, healthy treat.* “

This past fall, we started juicing. With a $20 ‘Restore’ juicer, we began drinking fresh vegetable and fruit juice for one meal per day. We don’t always get our juice, but if we miss it a couple of days in a row, we can definitely tell a difference how we feel and how well we can focus and deal with daily stress.

Then we had No Added Sugar November and spilled over into No Added Sugar December. With Christmas and then baking a wedding cake, some sugar eased back in to my diet. Then I got sick and it was put on hold again. But I’m back in the saddle with only a bit of honey in my tea. Sweet fruits are easily digested and processed by my body (not increasing blood sugar levels) and satisfy my sweet tooth pretty well.

For several years, we have been eating a (mostly) Gluten Free diet. Our digestive systems can definitely tell a difference. But we still don’t eat a lot of processed Gluten Free flour and grains.  It makes cutting back on processed carbs a lot easier than if we were hooked on regular pasta and bread.

These changes have been implemented a little at a time, one step at a time. By taking is slowly, the changes have been relatively painless and are long lasting.

DIFFERENCES WE HAVE EXPERIENCED:

It’s been slow, but steady.  Weight Loss is usually one of the first things people ask me about with Young Living products. There are products that support healthy weight loss. There is a “Slique” line of products – an oil blend, tea, chewing gum, meal replacement bars, etc. I have used the oil blend, but at the time I used it I didn’t have the rest of my diet in order and it wasn’t very effective. Now that we have a better grip on our eating habits, I’m going to try the Slique Essence Oil blend and the Slique capsules. I think these work best by helping you get your appetite and portions under control. There isn’t a magic pill. But even without the Slique products, we have lost weight. I’ve lost 20 lbs. and Lewis has lost even more.

More Differences: We have not taken over the counter or prescription allergy medicines in over a year. Before Young Living, we were both taking Claritin, and often Benadryl and I was using Zyrtec and prescription nasal sprays. Even the dog needed Benadryl.  Now we use lavender, lemon, and peppermint for acute symptoms. But by supporting our immune system our everyday symptoms have greatly decreased.

I was on some pretty strong pain meds and we were both taking Ibuprofen daily. Now we are both off of those meds and use oils for muscle, joint, and nerve pain. We’re using safe, non-toxic, side-effect free natural options.

After being told I was diabetic and needed to start taking medication, my blood sugar levels are normal and I’m not taking meds. And when I eat meals, I eat normal meals, not a restricted diet.

Before Young Living, I was a regular visitor to my doctor’s office. In addition to the routine checkups to get my prescriptions renewed, I was having sinus infections pretty regularly. I haven’t had to go to the doctor for a sinus infection since we started using essential oils.

This isn’t just about being fit and not taking medicine. This is about being in the best possible position to help others. If I’m sick and needing care, how can I care for others? I was put here to serve, not to be a burden to others. That’s my ‘why’ for improving my health.

WHERE WE ARE:

When we started using Essential Oils, it was just to support our various body systems and keep us above the wellness line. But we couldn’t keep it a secret and had to tell everyone.

Occasionally, I would start to tell friends about what the oils were doing for us and they say something like, “Yeah, I’ve heard about those.” Or “Yes, I use ‘such and such’ brand.” And at that point my mouth drops and I can’t speak. But I’m screaming inside is “WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME ABOUT THESE MARVELOUS LITTLE DROPS OF MIRACLE!!!!”

I don’t ever want to be guilty of not sharing something so powerful with people I care about. We now teach classes in our home and online and, 2 to 3 times a year, we host all day conferences to spread the news.

I’m also getting the social media thing together and will be sending newsletters, blogging, posting more content on our Facebook page and Facebook group, periscoping, youtubing, tweeting, and instragramming. (Is that even a word?!)

Anyway. Look for links to the resources that resonate best with you and check back often to find out what’s new at Heart & Home.