This week was my mother’s birthday and I wanted to highlight 5 things I learned from the most important woman in my life.

1. Guard your light. Mom has always been a proponent of reading self help books and practicing spirituality as a way to fill yourself with joy. I’ve worked really hard over the past few years to build my own spiritual practice that fits the life I want to build.
2. Be kind even when it’s hard. One of the qualities that I inherited from my mom is to try your best to consistently treat people right even when they don’t deserve it. She would always remind me that the things people do rarely have anything to do with us.
3. Talk to strangers. There has never been a time in my life where my mom didn’t strike up a random conversation with someone in the grocery store. I’m not nearly as extroverted as she, but I learned that some of your best friends can come from putting yourself out there.
4. Show up every single day. There are very few times I can remember my mom missing work, church or choir rehearsal. She continually teaches me the importance of honoring your commitments.
5. Life is so much more than money. Being a light in the world has nothing to do with financial compensation. Happiness is defined by the hard work you do, the people you love, and the experiences you have.

There are so many things competing for our attention these days and it seems like everyone is a little more irritable, a little more exhausted, a little more emotionally fatigued.

Given a limited amount of energy, we have to be careful where we direct our focus.

And recently I’ve found my face 8 inches from this magical device that houses all the information in the universe. More often than not, it’s primary purpose in my life is endlessly scrolling through photos and text and funny videos of little children saying ridiculous things.

When I decided that I wanted to start creating more, I knew the first step was to quiet the noise and focus on producing my own content.

What are you want to create today?

Make it something simple.

Then set a timer for 25 minutes and see how far you get it.

When the timer goes off you’re done.

If you’re in the groove and want to keep going, reset the timer for another 25 minutes.

Do this every day for a month.