Blog | Get inspiration to persevere!

Mar 28, 2018
3 min

Reflection Questions for Soul Searching with Your Business Model

In my book I wrote that “The hardest part about being a Misfit Entrepreneur isn’t building a successful business endeavor; it’s doing so while being true to yourself.” The challenge is earning an income while filling your cup. This is particularly difficult because the need to earn a living can trump the need to align your efforts with fulfilling your greater purpose. Furthermore, finding that sweet spot doesn’t happen over night. So many of us need to earn a living and so we

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5 Reflection Questions for Finding and Using Your Voice

Ariana Friedlander

Mar 14, 2018
2 min

5 Reflection Questions for Finding and Using Your Voice

One of the things I love about hearing other people’s journaling stories is that they often articulate benefits of their practice that I’ve experienced but haven’t put to words before. One such benefit I heard from a client a year ago was that journaling helped her to find and use her voice so she could stand up for herself. Finding your voice and expressing your deeper needs can be the most powerful final step to take in re-writing your patterned responses to triggers. Recog

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4 Reflection Questions for Developing Awareness of Your Patterns

Ariana Friedlander

Feb 14, 2018
4 min

4 Reflection Questions for Developing Awareness of Your Patterns

We are creatures of habit. And by habit I mean our brains are etched with neural pathways that create these patterned responses we enact every single day of our lives. That’s why you have the same reaction to certain stimuli – like when someone cuts you off while you’re driving. Or when someone utters a word that rubs you the wrong way. It’s just your brain running through a patterned response like a rat running a maze to it’s food bowl. As you begin to be more aware of your

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Stones of Remembrance – Try These 4 Steps for Reviewing Your Journal

Ariana Friedlander

Jan 31, 2018
3 min

Stones of Remembrance – Try These 4 Steps for Reviewing Your Journal

One of the joys in journaling happens when you go back and re-read what you wrote months or years later. It’s amazing the perspective you gain over time and the things you forget that felt so visceral, so painful, so consuming in the moment. I’ve found that routinely taking the time to review my journals has been a great practice for elevating my personal growth and development. Re-reading old journals was one of the many benefits I enjoyed from writing my book. Looking back

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4 Reflection Questions for Reviewing 2017

Ariana Friedlander

Dec 20, 2017
6 min

4 Reflection Questions for Reviewing 2017

And just like that, we are about to say farewell to another year! I’d by lying if I said this was my favorite time of year. Yes, I love the festive decorations and holiday lights. It is true, I enjoy watching my daughter experience the magic of the stories and traditions we carry forward. And I must confess, I like any excuse to write in my journal (i.e. year end reflections). Despite all of that, I feel a burden from the shorter, darker days. In other words, getting to the h

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Four Reflection Questions for Being More Present in Conversation

Ariana Friedlander

Nov 16, 2017
4 min

Four Reflection Questions for Being More Present in Conversation

This past week, we hosted our Annual Rosabella Tea and Cookies community celebration in honor and memory of our namesake’s birthday. I love everything about this tradition. Particularly the fact that it helps keep me grounded and connected to the source of inspiration that has led me down this path. I am also a big fan of Rosabella Tea, the scent of chamomile, spearmint and rose buds is so refreshing and calming. For five years now, we’ve been making and gifting Rosabella Tea

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Journaling Prompts for Moving From Judgment to Compassion

Ariana Friedlander

Oct 19, 2017
3 min

Journaling Prompts for Moving From Judgment to Compassion

It’s been over a month since I’ve published a blog on my website…therefore I have failed at my goal to consistently market my business this year, or have I? As I’ve geared up to get back in the game of blogging I found myself struggling with feelings of judgment and shame. Such failures have often been triggers for me to fall into patterns of harsh judgment and criticism of myself. And while I dabbled in that realm for brief moments again, I’ve rebounded more quickly and with

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Four Simple Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed and Start Getting Stuff Done

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 15, 2017
2 min

Four Simple Steps to Stop Feeling Overwhelmed and Start Getting Stuff Done

One sure fire way to de-clutter my mind from overwhelm like that is to do a brain dump. Of course I do this in my journal. In fact, the last pages of my journal are dedicated to brain dumps. Sometimes I’ll fill up over a page in 1 session. Other times I’ll write down just a handful of ideas. Either way, my brain dump pages are the inbox of my journal. Ideas go into my brain dump to ensure I capture them and integrate them into the rest of my planning efforts later. Otherwise

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4 Reflection Questions to Begin Re-writing Negative Conversational Patterns

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 8, 2017
3 min

4 Reflection Questions to Begin Re-writing Negative Conversational Patterns

Our bodies make some pretty powerful chemicals! I recently wiped out on my bike and despite being hurt I got up and went on. Right after my wreck I felt fine. Granted, I was a little banged up, but compared to how I would feel just hours, days and even weeks later…I felt like a million bucks. I was pumped up on adrenaline. I’ve heard other stories where people have far worse injuries than my own and have a similar reaction. Sometimes, it’s cool to have a go, go, go response l

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6 Tips to Make Your Journal More Functional AKA Lessons Gleaned from My Bullet Journaling Experiment

Ariana Friedlander

Aug 2, 2017
5 min

6 Tips to Make Your Journal More Functional AKA Lessons Gleaned from My Bullet Journaling Experiment

courtesy of bulletjournalcollection.com Just over a year ago, I returned from my second solo writing retreat. I felt refreshed, rejuvenated and recommitted to my journaling practice. But I had a nagging question I couldn’t answer for the life of me, how can I take my journal to the next level? Also nagging me was my good friend, Kristen. “Why don’t you try Bullet Journaling already!” She asked me for the n-tenth time. I had to admit, it was because my ego was in the way. I wa

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Try This One Simple Trick for Reframing Fear

Ariana Friedlander

Jul 25, 2017
2 min

Try This One Simple Trick for Reframing Fear

Do you ever have those weeks where the same conversation keeps coming up with a bunch of different people? That’s been happening to me lately. It’s like there’s this collective struggle we are all dealing with and it’s nice to know you’re not alone. One moment of profound awakening I had years back was when I realized that the entire notion of being fearless is BS. Fear is always there. It’s hardwired into our DNA and for very good reason. The problem is that all too often we

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Three Simple Steps to Use Your Journal for Tracking and Logging Things

Ariana Friedlander

Jul 11, 2017
3 min

Three Simple Steps to Use Your Journal for Tracking and Logging Things

I focus a lot of my blog posts on reflection questions for writing in your journal. But in order to turn your journal into the ultimate momentum making machine, you need to do more than just write your reflections. One of the tools I use my journal for is tracking and logging things. Tracking and logging is a great way to benchmark a number of different elements of your life. Some of the items you may consider tracking and logging include, habits, triggers, time, focus, energ

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Reflection Questions to Help Your Draw Better Boundaries

Ariana Friedlander

Jul 4, 2017
3 min

Reflection Questions to Help Your Draw Better Boundaries

Lately I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people about feeling overwhelmed and stressed. The pervasive sense is that there’s too much that has to get done and not enough time to do it all. With our penchant for keeping busy as a society and the possibility to always do more, these feelings can persist. Compound all that with the desire to be a good person by helping others out, and saying no comes with a heap of guilt that is easiest to avoid by just agreeing. The r

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4 Reflection Questions to Help You Prepare for Difficult Conversations

Ariana Friedlander

Jun 20, 2017
2 min

4 Reflection Questions to Help You Prepare for Difficult Conversations

Have you ever procrastinated on having a difficult conversation with your boss or colleague or a loved one? I know I have! It’s a common scenario really. The anticipation of the conversation weighs you down. Some of us fear what the other person will say. While other’s fear how we might show up in the conversation. Either way, the fear creates dread, the anticipation creates anxiety and we experience cortisol pumping through our bodies that tells us this conversation posses a

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Ariana Friedlander

Jun 13, 2017
2 min

Tired of SMART Goals? Try WOOP!

Who doesn’t want to do the smart thing? The opposite would be to do the dumb thing, so of course we all aspire to do the smart thing. Like setting SMART goals. SMART is an acronym and stands for: Specific Measurable Attainable (or Achievable) Relevant (or Realistic) Timely The idea is that when you set a goal, you want it to have all of these characteristics to be a SMART Goal. Otherwise, it is said, that you will probably never achieve it. But here’s the thing. Setting SMART

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We All Feel Lonely Sometimes, Here are Four Reflection Questions to Help You Deal

Ariana Friedlander

May 22, 2017
3 min

We All Feel Lonely Sometimes, Here are Four Reflection Questions to Help You Deal

Today I want to explore a topic nobody ever talks about, but all of us feel…loneliness. A few months ago at church there was a sermon where we explored reconciling. During the service we were instructed to text (I know how very 21st century) the things we felt ashamed about in our lives. Then our stories were anonymously woven into the sermon. There were a lot of really heavy and traumatic things shared. But one thing that a number of people wrote stood out to me, they were a

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The Single Most Important Question Everyone Must Answer

Ariana Friedlander

May 10, 2017
2 min

The Single Most Important Question Everyone Must Answer

Last summer I was scheduled to go on my second writing retreat to finish editing the manuscript of my book when our world turned upside down…instead of escaping to the serenity of a cabin in Peaceful Valley I was sitting in a sterile hospital room fighting back tears while I felt like my heart was breaking. Wondering what was going to happen next and how long we would have together. A cancer diagnosis never gave me hope before, but this time it did. Because this time it meant

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Four Steps for Redirecting Negative Self-Talk

Ariana Friedlander

Apr 18, 2017
2 min

Four Steps for Redirecting Negative Self-Talk

I learned the hard way that even after you experience success, you still have to deal with rejection and feelings of self-doubt. It doesn’t matter how successful you are, rejection hurts. Even very accomplished individuals experience imposter syndrome. The only difference is, the truly successful professional has routines and rituals for rebounding! Here are four steps for redirecting your negative self-talk so you can maintain forward momentum on your efforts. Step 1: What T

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My Journaling Habit Turned 21 Last Week! Here’s What I Learned Looking at My First Journal

Ariana Friedlander

Apr 3, 2017
2 min

My Journaling Habit Turned 21 Last Week! Here’s What I Learned Looking at My First Journal

Last week my journaling habit turned 21 years old…its hard to believe that this habit has persisted for the vast majority of my life. There were many times over those 21 years where I didn’t write for months. And yet here I am, journaling up a storm – writing regularly, using my journal to keep myself organized, well planned and sane. It’s not perfect, my journal doesn’t resemble the meticulously groomed images of bullet journals adorning many Pinterest boards! My handwriting

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Four Reflection Questions for Getting and Giving Better Feedback

Ariana Friedlander

Mar 20, 2017
3 min

Four Reflection Questions for Getting and Giving Better Feedback

As I reach out to you for feedback about these blog posts, I also want to share a bit of my process…specifically how I used my journal! So, here it is, a picture of my journal where I wrote some questions for me to reflect on in preparation for asking for feedback…these are coincidentally the basis of the four reflection questions I am sharing with you today (you’ll notice they’ve been edited to have a more general application)! Your journal = the ultimate momentum making mac

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