I’ll Take “Zen Master in Training” for $200… written by Supermom

The Supermom Liberation Project is a blog written by a mom of 3 crazy high maintenance kids, whom she refers to as "The Munchkins". She is the life partner of one super-cool calm and collected Tattooed Guy who keeps her from losing her mind.

Supermom describes herself as being :
Confessed Chocoholic
Bold Word Addict 
Professional Daydreamer 
Lover of Salsa Dancing   (and Salsa eating)
World Traveler Wanna-be 
Blogger Extraordinaire
Rockstar of Life


With her blog she hopes to help moms around the world to liberate the fun, smart, sexy, awesome Supermom who is YOU!

you can visit The Supermom Liberation Project @ http://supermomliberationproject.com/

I’ll Take “Zen Master in Training” for $200… Written by Supermom

Why is it that no matter what you try to do, whether it be raise your kids as you see fit, live a life of generosity and kindness, try to get ahead in your career (or start a new one), or even travel down the path of self-reflection and improvement, there is always someone who has to voice their disapproval in an attempt to bring you down? I totally hate that – it’s one of my biggest pet-peeves!

Example: So I’m laying in bed last night after a busy day of launching my blog and I decide to check Facebook one last time before I fall asleep (mistake #1), only to find a snide comment under one of my posts left by a “friend”, who obviously does not approve of my new venture. As having “thick skin” is not one of my strong points, I lay there questioning why she would do such a thing, and in a public forum no less (mistake #2). At the same time, I did have a fan who shared my post and gave it a great review (which I am very appreciative of – THANK YOU!!), saying that she loved what I had written and was looking forward to reading more. Despite that, though, the pissy, bitchy little comment was all I could think about. For the next 20 minutes, I lay there in bed trying to figure out how to respond. Do I confront her? Do I type a pissy, bitchy message back for all to see? Or do I try to forget about it and not let it bother me (almost impossible).

Tattoo Guy (in case you haven’t read the “About” page, he is my calm, cool, and collected life partner) said “Don’t worry about it, Baby – who cares what she thinks. You’re trying to spread a message that is important to you, and probably to a lot of other women too. And, you know, she only has the power to upset you if you give it to her.” Excellent point…and after thinking about it, I came to the conclusion that he’s absolutely right. (Wow, my man is a total Zen Master in training!)

In the end, I just deleted it. No response, no confrontation, nothing. Why? Because, I realized that giving any attention to this petty b.s. would have given this woman even more power – and, after all, that’s what this was all about, right? Her slighting my work made her feel powerful; she tried to break my spirit, hurt my self-esteem, and make me feel bad, all because she didn’t like what I had to say. And, any type of negative response on my part would have just validated her statement.

Why am I telling you all of this? Because, this type of thing – criticism and judgment – is what we moms face EVERYDAY from friends, family members, acquaintances, and society in general.

This needs to stop!

Come on, Ladies – we are all women, we are all individuals who have our own values, beliefs, and identities, and we are all simply trying to the the best we can with what we have. With that being said, what if instead of putting each other down, we made a conscious, deliberate effort to start encouraging of each other? What if we put our own personal opinions and biases aside and started affirming one another? I, personally, think that would be pretty damn awesome!

I constantly hear people passing judgment: “Can you believe she did that? She should have done ________ instead. She’s gonna be sorry, just you wait and see”. To which I reply “Well, everyone has to live their own life. What’s right for you may not be right for her.” (though in my head I’m thinking WILL YOU FREAKIN’ STOP IT ALREADY! HOW ABOUT YOU STOP BEING A JUDGMENTAL PAIN IN THE ASS AND GIVE HER SOME GOD-DAMNED SUPPORT!!!) Maybe one day I’ll sum up the courage to say that out loud. Who knows, my inner self still a work in progress…

My point is we need to start being each others’ biggest cheerleaders! We need to start bonding together as a community of sisters and build each other up not cut each other down!! And we need to start right here, right now… TODAY!

Just imagine, if everyone did that, what an even more wonderful, amazing world this would be. And just imagine, if you had the support of your friends, family, and peer group, how much more you could achieve! In my life, I’ve found that frequently one of the biggest things that holds us back from being the very best we can be is fear of what other people will say – either to us or about us to others. Imagine if that was taken out of the equation entirely and you had nothing but support and encouragement. That’s the goal – let’s try to make support and positive validation of each other the norm instead of the exception.

Ok, my Supermom Lovelies, here is your next assignment: CHOOSE ONE MOM IN YOUR LIFE THAT YOU INTERACT WITH ON A REGULAR BASIS AND FOR THE NEXT MONTH BE HER BIGGEST CHEERLEADER!

You know, give her a sincere compliment – tell her you like her outfit, tell her how well-mannered her kids are, or tell her what a great job she’s been doing in general. And, if she does something that makes you want to pass judgment, DON’T! Bite your tongue, take a deep breath, and realize that the things other people do, in the grand scheme of things, have NO effect on your life UNLESS YOU ALLOW THEM TO!

For one month practice being a supporter. You can do it… you know why? Because you’re a Supermom! You’ve got this; you’re in control of your emotions and you’re going to start spreading a little, extra positivity in the world! (Not to mention that you’ll be setting a great example for the kids to follow too. I’m working on this as a way to get the Munchkins to stop fighting with and tattling on each other all the time. Because frankly, their fighting and tattling drives me FREAKIN’ CRAZY!)

Until next time, Ladies – LIVE YOUR AWESOMENESS!

(oh, and don’t forget – BUCKETLISTS! … DO IT!)

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What Makes You Happy?

I emailed a few of my blogger friends and asked them what makes them happy.

The following are some of the answers I got.

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This first response comes from a blogger known as Perfectly Imperfect. You can visit her blog at: http://iamexactlywhereiamsupposedtobe.blogspot.in/

Q. What do you do to feel happy when you're feeling down?

Ans. Feeling down sucks, and we humans are so prone to it. Anything that does not happen according to our way, we make a fuss about it and punish ourselves by feeling down. I'm a human too, when something happens in my life which I didn't want I get pretty hyper too and spoil my mood. Here, music comes into play. Music has it's super power that can lift up your mood or make it more worse. I listen to pop/dance/electro songs  full of energy and the beats cheer me up. Also, I'm addicted to the night sky. Whenever I'm confused or simply does not feel good, I gaze up at the night sky, the stars which twinkle like diamonds and the flawless floating moon. I think about my life while gazing at it's beauty and magically everything sorts out within me.

We just need to remember that whatever happens, happens for a reason. It makes you stronger and life is never meant to be easy but if you enjoy whatever comes your way, you are the most happiest person on earth! We tend to complicate things in our mind. Cheer your mood up by doing what you like ( I listen to upbeat music) and then sit down peacefully in a silent place away from your mobile/laptop and think about the problems you are facing. You would get your answer. ;)

Q. What has happened in your life recently that made you laugh just when you needed it most? or What makes you laugh?

Ans. I have a pet dog named Scruffy. He detects my mood and when he see that I'm feeling down, he comes up to me sit down on my lap and looks at me. I think it's his way of saying that he is always with me when no one else is but whatever the reason is, it makes me smile and anyways he is too cute and adorable! :D

My friends too get to know about my mood by hearing my voice on the phone and they start getting all crazy and cracking jokes for me. Knowing someone is there for me  through thick and thin makes me smile too :)

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Jamie Jordan contributed the following thoughts. You can visit Jamie's blog at: http://itsagaylife-jamiessmiles.blogspot.com/

What makes me happy when I am down are my friends and family.  It's so cliche, but I feel blessed sometimes with a unique mix of people who I can turn to for different things.  I have a strong support network, and wonderful people who genuinely care, as I care for them.  I think in the end sometimes you have to rely on other people. No man is an island.... a problem shared and all that;)

As cruel as it sounds, I laugh at people.  No, not at them, as such, but just the human bits of all of us that seem silly to others.  I laugh at my stupid friend, my brain dead friend, and they laugh at me.  My pet name for my boyfriend is "f****ng idiot", and his for me is "Dumb a**".  I think if you can laugh at yourself along with others it makes you a little more of the human experience.

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The nest entry comes from Bill Weber (aka Billy W.). It took him a little longer to respond to my question about happiness as he says High School+girlfriend=no free time.

Bill recently posted an article on his blog about the legal fallout in sports, check it out at: www.sportspinandstuff-billyw.blogspot.com

It really depends on the problem, if it's with a personal failure, such as getting below a 96 on a paper, I feel the worst, so I just bottle it up and write/listen to some hard rock. I know it's not the best suggestion, but I'm not a therapist. I have near-impossible standards for myself.  When something else happens, I usually talk to a few of my good friends, go on the coffee shop to take my mind off the current problem, or I listen to some upbeat music, or write.

I have to admit, I am downright hilarious when I want to be. I usually tell jokes and rant about the sociopathic maniac that is me. So I prefer to listen to comedy from Ron White. He fits me in the way that we're both like honeybadgers...we don't give a sh**....(Feel free to censor that mangled sentence if you want.)

hard rock is my release

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The last response I got was from a fantastic writer named Sara Lemos. It took her a while to respond as she had been traveling through the world.

You can see Sara's blog at: http://www.theninjatravels.com/

 I try and remember all the good times I've had on my travels, the new places I've experienced and the interesting people I've met. But it usually doesn't take more than just having a chat with friends and family to appreciate life. I also have a very cute picture of my nephew on my laptop which guarantees a smile every time I log on.

 Looking for work and a home in Bangkok has been pretty stressful at times, especially running around Bangkok in the heat of the day. This morning i took an air-con train to the airport to meet my mum from the UK. Her energy and excitement after a 14 hour journey made me smile and realize there is more to life than constantly stressing about the little things.

Thank you friends for reading this blog post. Your friendship makes me happy.

You're Just 5 Steps Away From Starting Your First Internet Business by Izzy Woods

You’re Just 5 Steps Away From Starting Your First Internet Business
With Examples From Financial Lead Generation

The fortunes that can be made online are alluring. Many, many people have tried and sadly failed to make money online. Many of these were simply unprepared - an online business is just as likely to fail as an offline one in the first couple of years. It’s important to go into your first online venture with a good understanding of the challenges. Once these challenges have been met you are one step on the road to success online.

1. Naming Your Business

This might seem the most trivial step involved. Perhaps you already have a ‘pretty neat’ name that you, your family and all your friends absolutely love. In the offline world this might be fine - go get your sign ordered and get cracking.

Online you’ll have to think about what domain names go well with that brand as well as whether those will be optimal for search engines. At the moment most search engines give a significant boost to domains that have your main keywords as part of the domain name. So a brand such as ‘Avertio’ would initially be harder by some amount to get near the top of the results than ‘financeadvice.com’ would be for the phrase ‘finance advice.’

This becomes a bit of a game of long versus short term. In the short term it might be easier to rank one of the two domains but in the long run ‘Avertio’ might become a household name or the search engines might start to see your site as an authority site in the niche you are targeting which negates this disadvantage.

2. Developing & Hosting Your Site

This is the most important and perhaps the most challenging step. If your business requires lots of tools, calculators (for example mortgage repayment calculators) and interactive graphics then there will be no alternative but to hire a competent developer. Luckily if you know exactly what you need there are many suitable contractors overseas (particularly India) who can complete the work for a reasonable cost. Unless you have significant backing outsourcing parts of your site development like this will be important.

The look and feel of your site is crucial and is often best conducted with a small, local design firm if you are looking to control costs and have face to face or at least regular discussions in your local language about your design and the brand you are trying to convey. Make sure you avoid anyone who seems to host a huge number of extremely homogeneous sites that clearly are the result of excessive template use. Look for someone who can do something for you that really stands out from the crowd - but is offering a service at a price you can afford. This step is important enough to spend a lot of time researching before you accept a bid for the work.

Make sure the hosting package you select is scalable as your business grows. A VPS deal from Hostgator for example allows you to simply increase the power of your package as your business requires it whilst keeping your costs extremely low to start with.

3. Developing Content Your Customers Love

This heading can stand alone as singly the most important part of your strategy as you launch an online business. Particularly if you operate in a less exciting niche such as finance, providing content that users share instead of just consume and forget will give you that extra little bit of exposure that is so important for new sites. Your first e-mail newsletter should be something people might share like “10 Predictions For House Prices In 2013” is much more likely to get forwarded to other landlords than “Yields Move From 6.74% to 6.87% In London This Year”.

Having a large number of regularly posted articles which contain a huge amount of useful information to your readers not only keeps them coming back and recommending your site to others but starts to make your site an authority in the niche. More and more long tail search terms will find their answer on your site.

4. Attracting Traffic To Your Site

In many areas this is difficult to do right off the bat. If you could only make a business out of cute cat videos (maybe you can? - have a think) then getting shares and social excitement about your site would be easy. Unfortunately you might be an expert in finance or accountancy and looking to generate leads in those areas to sell to advisers or accountants. Since there isn’t much interest online for cute accountant videos you will have to be a lot more creative.

I’d say first that by developing compelling content you will gain a lot of exposure on the search engines as time goes by. As a new business you will want to make things move a little more quickly and may look at hiring some search engine optimization firms. SEO is seen by many who are new to selling online as a bit of a dark art. Someone in India promises you ten thousand links and before you know it your site isn’t even listed on Google anymore because the spam was caught. Find a reputable digital marketing and SEO firm that talks to you about your customers, outreach to other interested sites with high quality content to obtain links, viral marketing (if your sector is appropriate) and avoid any firms that talk about guarantees, magic and number one listings in a week.

There are a lot of steps you can take yourself to increase traffic to your site. Offer to guest post on other sites in your niche - particularly if you are a known offline expert. An eye doctor might find some medical blogs are delighted to link to his surgery in exchange for some great, unique content. Becoming involved in communities is a great step. Forums, discussion boards, groups, and social networks all allow you the opportunity to communicate with people who are interested in similar products and services to the ones you are offering. Establishing yourself (without doing any aggressive promotion early on which will put people off) in these communities will have huge long term benefits as readers appreciate your input to their discussions and want to find out more about you from your site.

5. Don’t Get Ripped Off Along The Way

The Internet is a great shield of anonymity behind which many fraudsters lie. Treat every new contract, every new offer with the same skepticism as you would treat it from a stranger on the high street.

Think carefully before you believe those ‘too good to be true’ stories of easy number ones on search engines without the need for good content or any effort on your part. Don’t pick a cheap designer just because you would like to spend less money only to find your site looks pretty boring and doesn’t work very well on mobile devices.

If you’re going to be getting commission or selling leads for a share of the profit make sure you compare programs. A low converting program or partner who pays 50% might be worth way less than a high converting program that only pays 20% share to you. Make sure you keep a close eye on exactly what business you are sending and where it’s going - if something doesn’t look right to you, find out what’s going on. Never be afraid to ask questions of anyone you’re working with. You would do it in the offline world, and with nothing to hide they will have no problems putting your mind at ease.

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Izzy Woods loves nothing more than relaxing on her reclining sofa and scouring online stores for great deals. She works full time as a freelance writer and reporter, spending all her spare cash online, indulging in her love for online shops. As a writer she specializes in online marketing and branding among other related topics. 

 Reclining Sofa