Happy New Year! - Right Livelihood

Welcome to 2012 readers!  I pray that your new year is off to an encouraging and fruitful beginning. I also hope that you are actively seeking and working towards what you want your career to look like this year.

I pretty much start off each new year the same as the last. In prayer and reflection.  Thankful for the years past and expectant of the year ahead.  Even moreso in this current economic climate I am grateful for every photoshoot, every call back and every new client or opportunity.

I will be the first to tell you everything has not been perfect over the past ten years.  I have had my ups and downs in this industry and there were times I questioned my sanity and considered going back to the safe and familiar comforts of a bi-weekly paycheck.  However I knew deep down inside that a tough day doing what I absolutely loved was a thousand times better than a good day doing what I disliked.

I have no idea who I am speaking to, but whether you are on the fence about taking the leap and following your talents and passion into this industry or are feeling down and defeated and considering giving up, I would like to share with you something that was sent to me by a co-worker in 2001 just before I literally plunged head first into the world of beauty. I hope that it will not only inspire and encourage you, but ignite a hunger in you so fierce that the only way to calm it is to make a 'shift' and move towards what brings you true joy, happiness and fulfillment as it did me over a decade ago.


          An excerpt from "Sisters of the Yam" - bell hooks

Right Livelihood, both it's ancient and its contemporary sense, embodies self-expression, commitment, and mindfulness and conscious choice. Finding and doing work of this sort is predicated upon high self-esteem and self-trust, since only those who like themselves, who subjectively feel they are trustworthy and deserving dare to choose on behalf of what's right and true for them. When we consciously choose to do work we enjoy, not only can we get things done, we can get them done well and be intrinsically rewarded for our effort. 

Once again Happy New Year and keep the faith!

Is this year THE year for you?

Happy New Year! I'd like to take this time to thank each and everyone of you who've followed this blog and recommended it to your friends.

The new year generally kicks off with most people setting goals and making resolutions. There's something about a new year that screams new beginnings. A lot of us probably wanted to start over back in October or even as early as May last year. Maybe you didn't know where or how to start or begin again...

Each year I pull out my favorite excerpts and inspirational quotes... and thumb through them but I have two that I visit more frequently than all the rest in fact they're both on my board where I can see them... one I've posted before {Right Livelihood}

This one I've never posted before but reading it today I wanted to share it with you... I have a feeling someone needs to read this today...

Thanks again for reading and lets make 2010 THE year! xoxo

Rashida B.


"So often we let life bump us off course. We set out on a path, and almost instantly our emotions distract us, or something happens and we drift off course. If you want things out of life, you will have to go for what you want regardless of your current situation. If you concentrate on your goal and do not get distracted, you place an additional force at your disposal. For the power of will allows you to be moved into the right place at the right time. If you do not know what you want in life, you express that uncertainty into the universal law. And it --- being impartial --- expresses back to you the same feeling. The result is that nothing flows, and all your attempts to materialize your dreams fade or break up.

If you do not know what you truly want then the best move is to begin to clear out all those things that you defintiely no longer want --- debilitating relationships, unhelpful habits, lack of action, and become clear, and then you can head toward it. The path of power calls for certain aggression, as does nature. The animal in the forest goes for what it wants and in doing so it expends energy in getting its needs met. You should adopt the same style. Lock on to what you want, go for it no matter how long it takes, and you will have added concentration to your battery of techniques for self-improvement."

Stuart Wilde