Polish my Crown

Good morning beautiful friends! I have a bit of a Wednesday surprise for you as we take a mini-break from typical Words for Wednesday posts. The next three weeks, the lovely Eliza will be guest posting in a series all about investing in love and what exactly that means. I’m super excited; her advice is spot-on and she shares different ways/aspects of investing in love in each post. Enjoy her first post and don’t forget to follow Eliza on Twitter!

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“Where you invest your love is where you invest your life.” The lyrics from a lovely Mumford and Sons song rings true when you start to reflect on your day, your week, your life.

When Andi suggested that I write something for her blog, I knew I wanted to talk about investing my love in my life. A recent cross-country move, Chicago to Denver, helped me prioritize what I love right now. The decision to move came from a realization that if I didn’t invest in myself, my surroundings, today and tomorrow, than I wasn’t going to live the life I wanted to live – a life full of love. To start this three part series, I want to talk about your most important investment.

Invest in yourself – what do you love? What makes you love yourself? Invest in those things, guilt-free, and know that you are investing in your life.

• Nail polish: I feel darn good with a fresh coat of polish, so I’ve invested in one manicure per week (home-done on my budget, love none-the-less)
• Good sports bra: I feel sexy when I do any sort of physical activity, and it isn’t because I’m good at it – it’s because I love how it makes me feel! Proper equipment makes me feel even better, and a good sports bra is at the core.
• Exercise: I want to love this more because I love myself, and I’ll admit, I’m investing in this slowly, but the returns in the long run will pay off.
• Getting lost in a book: the ultimate escape of any kind, literary prowess of said book is not required, this is about investing in what you love.
•  Spirituality: I don’t care if you find it looking at pins on Pinterest, spirituality is like a good body scrub for the soul.
• Laughing: the best cure for all that ails and an natural expression full of love. Laughing is like an MBA in life-investment.
•  Education: you will get further with it and new perspectives have the ability to let you love in a new light – yourself and the world around you. In case you were wondering, this doesn’t have to be academic study. Education in yoga, the arts, foreign language, wine, anything that you have an inkling of love!
•  Travel: Even to the town next to you, traveling helps me love myself because it creates a memory, often with someone I love.

In the next part of this series, we’re going to talk discuss investing in your surroundings. Check out this video in the meantime about life-editing. It’ll set the stage for my thoughts on investing in surroundings.

- Eliza

Happy, happy Tuesday! I hope you had a fantastic long holiday weekend; I’m remembering Abraham Lincoln’s wise words this week: “Whatever you are, be a good one.” Such a wonderful quote reminding me that I can be whoever and whatever I want, but I should always focus on being the best possible version of myself.

Speaking of being the best possible version of oneself, I’m excited to share a guest post that talks alllllll about carrying yourself like a queen. What a crown polish! Anne {@annelw} is a fellow Ohio University graduate who writes at the blog Success and Stilettos; hope you enjoy her post as much as I do! Thank you again to Anne for letting me re-share your wonderful words! xx

My mantra has always been to keep a positive attitude at all times. Even when I feel like the
situation cannot possibly be worse {because trust me, it can, so why not be positive about
at least that?}

Hand-in-hand with staying positive is the idea of always wearing your invisible crown.

Carry yourself like a Queen and you will attract royalty. Not only is this true for a significant
other, but it’s true for everyone we come in contact with. Think about say, the Duchess of
Cambridge: before she really became royalty, she carried herself like royalty. Always be
gracious, always kinder to people than you feel like being, always having a smile on your
face, despite how you may feel inside. Carry yourself with strength and dignity. This
is the key to happiness (after all, we create our own happiness, and if you’re happy on the
inside, it will shine through to the outside). Trust me, it rubs off on people.

“Treat everyone with politeness, even those who are rude to you – not because they are nice,
but because you are.”

“Show class, have pride and display character. If you do, winning takes care of itself.” –
Paul Bryant

Be gracious and show class if it kills you. First and foremost, be proud of yourself and
display exemplary character. To me, this is what wearing an invisible crown means. Doing
this helps create a positive attitude and personal happiness.

Remember: always wear your invisible crown because being a queen is important.

Today’s guest post comes from someone who has known me since day one, who is a confidant, a role model, a best friend. My cousin Erin is someone that has inspired me and encouraged me for a very long time and she surprised me with this guest blog post last week. Her wise words resonated with me and made me even more excited to spend time with her in person laughing and catching up over the holidays. Enjoy!

Thanks again to Erin for sharing! Love you so much.
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A new friend recently asked me a thoughtful question. I immediately knew my answer, but how to phrase it took me some time. His question was wordy and involved, but simply put, he asked me this – “At the end of the day, where do you find your strength?”

Easy question, right? Not really. We all have bad days. We all get weary. Everyone faces disappointment in every realtionship on a myriad of levels. So, let me ask you – at the end of the day, where do you find your motivation? What do you turn to for comfort? Where do you find your strength?

Some instinctively turn to a friend or close parent; others look back on past accomplishments that bring them confidence or even look forward to future goals for motivation! Others turn to not-so-healthy habits like an addiction or maybe a bad relationship only adding to the already bad feelings.

Today, I want to share with you what I look to for strength. It’s a relationship! But it isn’t my mom (who I literally call every single day) or my latest boy crush (been a few lately) – it’s my Creator. Knowing that, at the end of the day, God has His hand in everything that is currently happening in my life brings me the greatest comfort of all! I am proactively involved in my life, and I’m always trying to make everything “right”.

Sometimes, as many of you can relate, that brings disappointment. No matter how hard you try, you can’t make everything happen that you’d like. You can’t reach every goal, and you absolutely cannot always control the craziness happening around you.

I find my strength in knowing that God loves me and is actively involved in what happens in my life today –  and every. single. day. If you haven’t come to that realization yet or if you don’t’ have that relationship yet, FIND IT!

Enjoy simple comforts – a cup of coffee with a friend, a phone call to home, and even those crushes however short lived they may be, but don’t lose out on finding the greatest comfort of all – your Creator.