Happy Friday Series Archives - Page 2 of 5

The Happy Friday Series: Suddenly Delightful Jamie

11/29/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Think about your online friends and how long you’ve known them. In 2009, when I was a Twitter noob, this woman with my same name and different spelling asked for people to vote her to the top of some contest. What did I know? I stepped up to help without a clue what I was doing, but I lent her support because she asked and it seemed to be a good cause.

Since then, Jamie Wallace and I have uncovered more similarities betwixt and between. She’s a good egg and one who shows her smarts in a variety of places. As communities go, she’s one to invite, befriend and love for life.

As Suddenly Jamie on Twitter (I never knew why she suddenly became Jamie – maybe she changed her name suddenly?) and via her blog, Suddenly Marketing https://suddenlymarketing.com, Jamie writes about stuff like this:

I help my clients craft standout brands, transform ideas and visions into profitable content, and create rave-worthy brand experiences. Part strategist, part writer, and part cheerleader, I love making marketing fun. I’m also a mom, an aspiring fiction writer, a prolific blogger, and a student of voice, trapeze, and horseback riding (not at the same time … though, that would be interesting …).

When she was invited to write for The Happy Friday Series, she did that with aplomb; her obvious life zest is apparent in the story when she asked whether life should be serious.

Here’s what’s cool about Jamie…she approaches life with appreciation, asking why all the way.

Look at this post she wrote about “delight.” It’s a word she says we don’t use often…see here:

Delightful is not a word we use very often. It seems, perhaps, slightly antiquated for our times – a little too naive, a little too simple.
Such a shame.
To me, delight is more than just pleasure or even joy. Delight embodies a more complex feeling that is layered with the sense of having been given a gift (as in when we say, “Delighted to meet you”) and a sense of surprise – of happily coming upon some unexpected goodness, beauty, or kindness.

But what is really delightful is this sentence Jamie wrote and today’s gift Jayme gave:

So, to be delighted is to be gently jolted out of your everyday existence by someone or something presenting you with an unexpected gift.

Thank you for writing for The Happy Friday Series, Jamie.

Love, Jayme.

The Happy Friday Series: Alaska Chick

11/22/2013 By Jayme Soulati

She’s just about the most #RockHot person to write about because she’s so darn easy to tease; yet, she is always right there to volunteer, say yes, support you, send a hug, be happy, and share a good yarn or three from all the way up in the darn middle of Nowheresville, Alaska.

I kid you not; this single mom, I call AL because her name is too long to tweet, has a herd of kids (well, maybe three). She’s the face of Pioneer Outfitters in the heart of Alaska where there’s no road or airport. They have to fly their own little planes, until they blow up (not kidding). They have horse trails, and the mail gets dropped from a bi-plane like every two weeks (kidding)

Have you met Amber-Lee Dibble?

You may know her as Alaska Chick, Pioneer Outfitters’ blogger extraordinaire, or Girly Grizzly; I think she answers to all three with a guffaw every time. Ask her why she has so many brands, and she’ll tell you to ask me.

Well, all kidding aside, AL has written for The Happy Friday series none other than three times! Apparently, she’s really happy, or she keeps writing about it to tell herself she is!

Should I put all kidding aside for a sec? (Hard to do; that’s why I said a sec.)

Amber-Lee Dibble

She’s the most loyal friend you’ll ever meet. She will always help someone down and out. She will write a guest post for you whenever one is needed, and she never puts on airs suggesting she knows something when she doesn’t. She is so transparent and vulnerable which both make her the sweetest candy on Earth (because she lives in another part of the Milky Way, uhmm, maybe she’s a bit salty up and over there).

Why I love AL is because of all this and more.

The more is so astonishing because she’s a woman of the wilderness with a hot temper who wears pink all day long. Pink riding gear on horseback, pink galoshes and boots, probably pink panties, too. She sticks out like a sore thumb with all that snow up there, and I’m sure the grizzly bears are afraid of her, too.

No, seriously, she is kick ass in the wilderness communing with Mother Nature and the 30 below temperatures. She is a trainer of wilderness guides, a big game guide and a survivalist (I just made that up; AL, are you one of those, too?)

The really funny thing that makes me happy about this post today is that AL is like six hours behind me; so she’ll be in the middle of R.E.M. when we go live without her. So, anyone want to banter a bit in comments about AL before she wakes up and grabs some Joe?

Thanks, Amber-Lee Dibble, for being part of this #RockHot community and contributing so many times to this series. I certainly would not have gotten this off the ground without your help. Much love and warmth to you and your Alaska family.

Happy Thanksgiving; we have much to be thankful for. I am thankful I have such a good sport friend who allows me to poke a little at her; but who’s to know if that’s really true? We’ll see in about six hours!

The Happy Friday Series: She Writes Right

11/15/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Erin Feldman of Write Right Words

Have you ever met Erin Feldman? Perhaps you’ll remember her Happy Friday Series in February about the joy she finds in Latin dancing, and I turned green with envy. I’m one of those people who won’t try something unless I can do it; which means I get hung up trying to be perfect at something I don’t even know how to do; sigh.

Erin is a blogger at Write Right, and she illustrates stories and badges with the cutest little cupie doll characters (and I know she has a name for them, but I have to go find it). At Write Right, Erin is the go to for all things grammar, punctuation and word choice.

I’m going to do something I should not, for Erin’s drawings are COPYRIGHTED. This is a copyrighted work, which means I do not have permission to use it; Erin, would you mind terribly if I put your gorgeously intricate drawing here so people can see your creativity? (P.S. I’m also trying to get you hired!)

I’ve enjoyed her renditions of corrections over the years, and you know what? She’s right. There isn’t a blog named as appropriately as hers, and you should check it out here and here.

When you dive in a bit deeper about Erin right here you’ll see she has the credentials to back up what the heck she’s talking about. I mean she went and got a Masters degree, too, not to mention she does graphic design.

In fact, I believe she’s for hire. Who wouldn’t want an excellent writer who can also design for your business?

Oh, and one last thing…Erin, thanks for all you do and how you contribute. There isn’t a community around the ‘sphere that hasn’t benefited from Erin’s ‘raderie and smarts, especially mine.

The Happy Friday Series: The Happiness Crusade

11/01/2013 By Jayme Soulati

On the AllArminda blog, Arminda Lindsay wrote a post Oct. 23, 2013 sharing this story below about launching her happiness crusade. I extrapolate that blog post right her and make Arminda the subject of this Happy Friday Series. P.S. You can also find her writings at YumVeg.com where vegan food and cooking are her delight.

I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Arminda IRL at ConvergeSouth where I had the opportunity to keynote the content marketing track of that conference. During that time, she permitted me the opportunity to corral her into doing a Soulati Media On The Street (below).

(What I love about this post is that I get to combine my two faves into one — The Happy Friday Series and Soulati Media On The Street!)

Since our face-to-face, we’ve had a session during which we spoke about the journey from personal to professional blogger, and she’s received some homework to rocket launch her goals. I love this woman’s heart and spirit, watch and listen:

Arminda Lindsay Says:

On February 13, 2012, I started a 21-day “dopamine challenge” titled Creating Positive. Many of you joined me in that initiative (and it’s not too late to get started) because happiness is year-round and a lifetime journey. While there have been many changes in my life since I first penned that post, one thing is for sure: my heart is still full of gratitude. It’s so full that I keep writing out more and more.

My list is growing and I’m filling up notebooks. Pages and pages of things for which I’m grateful and/or that make me smile and bring me happiness. My list is very personal and unique to my life, as is your list. This is the reason I can pick up one of my notebooks and open to any page and start reading through my list and immediately begin to smile as I am instantly transported to another day, place, and moment in time that ignited a spark of joy in my heart.

Shawn Achor (whose TED Talk inspired me to start my own challenge) writes in his book The Happiness Advantage that

“. . . our attitudes and behaviors don’t only infect the people we interact with directly — like our colleagues, friends, and families — but that each individual’s influence actually appears to extend to people within three degrees. So when you. . . make positive changes in your own life, you are unconsciously shaping the behavior of an incredible number of people. . . . [T]here are nearly 1,000 people within three degrees of most of us. This is a true ripple effect — by trying to make ourselves happier and more successful, we actually have the ability to improve the lives of 1,000 people around us” (p201).

That’s empowering. To me, at least. And I love that by embracing the life I live I have the potential within me to positively impact the lives of thousands of other people. Thousands.

I can’t wait for happiness to find me like some elusive carrot forever dangling at the end of its proverbial stick. You will never reach it if that’s your aim. Your “I’ll be happy when _________ ” will forever evade you.

“Waiting to be happy limits our brain’s potential for success, whereas cultivating positive brains makes us more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, and productive, which drives performance upward” (Achor 4).

Motivation? Efficiency? Resilience? Creativity? Productivity? Yes, please!

Happiness is now. Happiness is your choice. Happiness is within you.

Come on my happiness crusade and create positive in your life today, tomorrow and always! Will you join me?

The Happy Friday Series: Recipe For Happiness

10/25/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Do you know that feeling you get when a realization hits you? When the solution to a question that’s haunted you for days, weeks – maybe even years – bubbles up from the deep and floats right in front of you, ripe for the picking? Well, the other day I finally got a moment like that, and it was around the issue of what truly makes me happy. The realization was a relief, too, because Jayme Soulati invited me quite a long time ago to write about happiness for her Happy Friday Series … and I didn’t know what to say until now.

But, it happened! I think I figured out my recipe for happiness.

I was talking on the phone with a friend about my summer. It was a lovely evening outside, but I was in my room on my bed and staring at the ceiling while chatting. I could have been talking on the phone while enjoying the weather from a park or the beach, but I wasn’t.
And all of a sudden I realized I was hiding inside, just waiting for tomorrow to start. I wasn’t really living.

I had recently started a phenomenal full-time internship (which I’m still enjoying) after transitioning from working a part time job as a concierge in a residential building on weekends and going to school full-time during the week. My new schedule blasted me into seventh heaven – I had weekends free again after two years! Hurrah! I expected feelings of freedom and a burgeoning new social life and boundless joy!

But I began to notice that I didn’t feel very different.

Now, I’m the kind of guy who likes to be active and do things out-and-about. I love hiking, biking, beaching, seeing shows, going to museums, and more. That’s one of the reasons I moved to San Francisco 10 years ago.

Introvert & Shy

But at my center, I am also an introvert – and yes, even shy. Extensive and prolonged interaction with people, especially new people, requires me to expend a lot of energy, and I have to recharge afterward.

So you can imagine that three eight-hour shifts of contractual obligation to smile, greet and be bubbly at my part-time job every weekend really wore me out. I left work every Saturday, Sunday and Monday and came directly home, made dinner and stared at some sort of mindless entertainment before passing out way too early so I could wake up equally as early to smile and be present for people all the next day.

Rinse and repeat, then school all week. Weekdays were spent attending lectures and doing homework. It was very much a routine, and there wasn’t really any time for doing the things I loved like getting out and enjoying the city I pay so much to live in. I was blessed with great opportunities to make it through school, but I wasn’t very happy.

I began to notice that even with evenings and weekends free on my new internship schedule, I was still operating as if I was
overextended – hoarding quiet time like it was the scarcest resource in the universe. I was hiding from the world to recharge. And the flip side of introverted self-care for me is that too much time alone leaves me feeling bored — and maybe even a little lonely.

So I found myself under-stimulated, bored and still unhappy.

Happiness Is A Balance

And that’s when it hit me – I realized that my happiness arises out of a balance of routine and adventure.

Doing the same old thing day in and day out makes me long for freedom or unstructured down-time. But then again, after too much time being totally free, I find myself mired in decision paralysis and unable to figure out anything to do other than vegetate in bed staring at the ceiling. And mind you I live in San Francisco – there is never a shortage of things to do here.

So this is what I think — happiness comes from a balance of the old and the new. The ratio of adventure-to-routine differs for everyone, but I definitely think that too much of either is a recipe for unhappiness.

I have made a pact with myself to do something new at least once a week, and it’s working out nicely! I’ve gone to the beach, the movies, and networking events. I know that I can embrace routine, and as an introvert part of that routine must include hiding and recharging sometimes, but if I want to be truly happy, I have to come out of my shell and explore the world, too.

How do you find a balance between routine and adventure? Do you find they might be factors in your happiness?

About The Author

Dwayne Alicie lives in San Francisco and is wrapping up his undergraduate degree in marketing from San Francisco State University at the end of 2013. He tweets and blogs when he’s not studying, interning at Concur Technologies or hiding in his room imagining he is a pop star.

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