life lessons | Girl Meets Life | a lifestyle blog by Gracie Gordon

inspire: how to stay on course.

10 November, 2014 by Gracie 12 Comments

A lot of people struggle with not knowing what they want. I’m not one of those people – I know quite surely what I want my life to look like.

My problem, though, is that I so often find myself doing the exact opposite of what I actually want. Sometimes I wonder if it’s a matter of self sabotage or just a basic characteristic of being human. I’m thinking it’s most likely the latter.

I recently heard a great message from Maria Durso where she talked about the most difficult journey we can take being the 18 inches from our head to our heart. She went on to say how part of having a relationship with God is growing to the point of having your mind (thoughts) in alignment with your heart (feelings).

Unfortunately, though, it’s not always that easy. Sometimes – at least for me – there are circumstances where I have to trust my mind over my heart, or vice versa.

I think my problem is not so much overthinking – it’s overfeeling. While I definitely think it’s important to know how to listen to your heart, I can often let my feelings/emotions override certain truths.

I want to be in better shape, but I also want to eat whatever I want.
I want a chill night out, but end up at a club until 4am.
I want to take certain steps professionally, but I let fear stop me.

…the list goes on.

I’m assuming at least some of you can relate, so here are some things I’ve been working on that I think really help when it comes to staying on course.

1) write down your truths.

If you’re anything like me (very much a heart person), your emotions can very easily override what you know to be true. So I think it really helps to write down your truths - the things you know for sure - and refer back to them when your feelings might be telling you otherwise. Have yourself answer questions like:

What do I really want my life to look like?
What makes me the happiest?
What is my bigger purpose in life?
Specifically, I want relationships like ____
I want my career to look like ____
I want to look/feel ____

2) keep yourself out of tempting situations.

If there are particular areas in your life that you know you struggle with, try to avoid them! I’ve learned from personal experience that no matter how strong I think I am in a certain area…I’m not. So whether you need to avoid going to bars, or stop buying the boxes of cereal you binge on late at night, or decide not to see that guy/girl anymore, find as many ways as possible to stop the unhealthy situation before it even happens.

3) surround yourself with supportive people.

This is key. Whatever goal(s) you have, it is SO important to have people in your life that are on the same page! Or at least people that understand and want to encourage/support you in the right direction.

4) keep your eye on the prize.

I must admit that I can all-too-often fall for instant gratification. Don’t get me wrong – not ALL instant gratification is a bad thing. The problem is when it overrides and contradicts your ultimate goal.

They say the best way to reach a goal is to visualize it, so try to genuinely imagine your life the way you want it to look. It’s kind of that whole “fake it ‘til ya make it” mentality, which I really do believe works.

Can you relate? Which of these tips do you agree/disagree with most?

life: you know you’re a heart person if…

4 November, 2014 by Gracie 14 Comments

There once was a time that I was fairly certain I was more of a “head person” – someone who thought things through, made rational decisions, and didn’t allow myself to be too swayed by my emotions.

But over the past couple of years – especially since moving to New York – I realized that I was totally fooling myself. I’m a heart person through and through.

Basically, feeling > thinking.

Don’t get me wrong – I definitely think it’s important to be both a head AND a heart person. God equipped us with both a mind and a heart, and I think that most decisions in life should be made using both (also intuition, but we’ll save that for another post).

But for the sake for a fun post that my fellow heart people will probably relate to, here are…

13 ways you know you’re a heart person.

You’re one of those “cry out of joy” people.

You keep a journal.

You have to verbally process everything, preferably with another heart person.

PDA is your thing.

You’re a hopeless (hopeful?) romantic. Don’t even try to fight it.

You’re highly sympathetic and empathetic.

You desperately seek out those songs that make your heart explode (which typically occur two, maybe three times a year).

You’re bad at pretending you’re interested in something when you’re not.

Sometimes your life feels like a movie.

You’re probably into writing, music, dance, or art of some sort.

If you really like something, you have to share it with everyone. Everyone.

You’re observant and discerning of the aura/emotions of people around you.

You sometimes wish you weren’t a heart person, but most of the time you wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Would you say you’re more of a head or a heart person?

faith: life is not diy.

23 October, 2014 by Gracie 11 Comments

For a long time I thought of myself as being anti-DIY. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, DIY = “Do It Yourself.”

Scrapbooks, refurbishing, and hand-making just aren’t my thing. I don’t mind arts and crafts for fun from time to time, but I’d much rather BUY party favors, or a face scrub, or cut out sweaters than make them myself. I would think, whose got time for that?

But you know what I’ve realized lately? I’m into more serious DIY than all of those tutorials I see on Pinterest.

I’m far too often DIYing all day, every day. You see, for as long as I can remember, my natural tendency is to DIY my life.

I’m naturally a problem solver. I’m miss fix-it. I’d rather do it myself than risk anyone else taking control of MY job. MY relationships. MY thoughts. MY life.

Don’t get me wrong - I think that self improvement and independence are incredible qualities for someone to have. But as with most strengths, when used incorrectly or to extremes - this self sufficiency can easily become a greatest weakness.

Trying to DIY life can work for a time, and it can even make you feel on top of the world (control has a tendency to do that). But eventually it becomes counterproductive and backfires. While DIY is typically supposed to save you on the normal cost of things, when you DIY your life it ends up costing you so much more.

For me, it leads to becoming mentally and emotionally drained, feeling hopeless, frustrated, and alone (to name a few).

Talk about being a debbie downer, right?

Well, thankfully there’s good news, and it makes life a whole lot easier and more enjoyable than the solitude of DIY. It’s called doing life with others.

While there are certainly times to embrace being alone and doing things by ourselves, we’re not meant to DIY through and through. We’re not created to live DIY lives – we’re created to have community with OTHERS. That’s where the magic happens, people.

In addition to being created to have connection and unity with other people, we’re also meant to have a relationship with God. Whether you believe in that or not, the fact that there is a God who wants a personal relationship with each and every one of us is the thing I’m most sure about in life.

God actually wants to do things with us. Oftentimes He actually just wants to do them completely for us – only requiring that we surrender our self-sufficiency to Him. It’s difficult to believe that it’s that simple, but it is.

The irony is that surrendering and partnering with God on all of those DIY “projects” not only gets the job done, but it results in a peace that we’d never be able to get by doing things on our own.

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Anyone else a life DIYer? In what ways do you try to connect with others and/or God?