Simply Linda

Like most people at the beginning of this year, I had set up to accomplish some goals. But unlike past years, I wanted to aim for more tangible feats that have been on my to do list forever now but were always pushed to the back burner due to having misaligned priorities and bad time management. Because I've grown to be more self aware of my patterns and behaviors, I've decided that this year I was going to reattempt some of my past goals and create habits to help keep my short term actions aligned with my long term values and beliefs. First thing I did in the beginning of 2019 was restart my blog. Writing for me has always been way I could express my thoughts and emotions through words. Back in 2016, I created a personal bullet journal to document and track my progress and experience in my new role as a cosmetic counter manager for the Downtown Seattle Nordstrom. My bullet journal became my baby during that period - I couldn't go a day without updating...

Image: Courtesy of Elite Fitness It is currently 7am on February 2nd and I'm sitting at my dining table having breakfast with my husband. We both like to get up early and sip our coffees together while we chat before our daughter gets up. I cherish these moments I have with my husband because it is during these chats is when we take time to reminisce on our past and plan out our futures together. At the moment, the Winter season is still in full gear in the Pacific Northwest and that takes away the fun from being outside. The forecast actually indicates that we'll have a couple frosty days with highs in the mid 30s degree F and lows in the mid 10s. So Cold!!! I'm really excited for the Spring and Summer seasons to arrive because that is when this whole region comes to life - literally. The Everett Farmers Market will commence once again starting in May and for once I'm actually be looking forward to my birthday month - July; I can finally start enjoying my spring ...

Through my entire life thus far, I was chasing this idea of happiness. As I navigated along the many peaks and valleys of this past decade, I found moments of happiness that I thought were finally going to be when...when I'd find true happiness and that emotion would carry me on towards all my other goals. But when life got a little rough at times; whether that be through ways of family, work or personal growth - I'd feel guilty for feeling any other emotion that resounded in my spirits other then happiness. That guilt would push me further into that ephemeral pursuit, causing more internal dissonance. However, I believe that I've finally reached a cognitive place of understanding about myself and my paradigm. It wasn't about just "being happy" and prolonging that state of mind at all times - that's actually the definition of being manic. Finding happiness for me actually meant finding purpose and meaning through my daily actions and future goals; th...

 I'll be honest and admit that managing my own money was always an underlying stressor in my life; an element of adulthood that I didn't derive any satisfaction from. Working hard was what I was taught while growing up, making more money was prioritized. But after many years of pushing the responsibility of managing my finances aside, on top of always paying on unsecured credit card and auto loan debt , I've worked up the motivation to look at my budget with a keen eye and figure out what direction I want to head towards. Recently, I stumbled across The Dave Ramsey Show on Youtube, which has over 880k subscribers, and have been binging all the episodes. He also has a podcast channel. Dave Ramsey is an expert in the field of personal finance. I find his debt paying and personal wealth building strategies to be straight forward and realistically tangible so once I realized he has a free money budgeting app called Every Dollar, I went online to look at the reviews before ...

Now that a new year has just started, I wanted to reevaluate the commitments, obligations, relationships and overall stuff I have in my life. Sometimes, life can get so busy that I find myself operating on auto pilot and allowing priorities to go by the wayside. For the last 4 years now, I have been investing in self development/awareness in the hopes that I'd gain the maturity and drive to be the better version of myself. Absorbing in copious amounts of empowering podcasts, YouTube videos and books have become practices I've implemented into my daily regime - and what a difference they have made. 2018 was definitely a year of much improvement and growth for my self and my family. I was able to re-establish myself with my previous employment role as the Estee Lauder Counter Manager at the Northgate Nordstrom location; there I met a group of amazing, caring and authentic individuals that I instantly connected with.  #esteelauder #countermanagers #flagship The N...

Hi Guys, welcome back to my blog. It's been five years since I last posted anything here. For a while now I was using Squarespace as my blogging/plantbased recipe sharing platform but I've decided to go back to basics with my original blog. I've always love to read and write since I was a child and have always aspired to be a writer since watching my first episode of Sex and the City back in 2004. The following post is a recently written essay I had done for my final English project pertaining to Job Burnout and my discovery of the Minimalism movement. Thanks for checking it out. Enjoy!           What is your definition of the phrase, “ the American Dream”? According to Cambridge Dictionary, the American Dream is defined as “the belief that everyone in the U.S. Has the chance to be happy and successful if they work hard.” For many 20 th century Americans, the American Dream was sold to them as the the ultimate accomplishment: work hard, get the degr...