Each year, our birthday’s roll around and it seems as we get older, the less and less we want to celebrate them. I’m not sure if this is a societal or a personal thing but I’ve noticed that a lot of people don’t want to celebrate their birthdays. I am very guilty of this too. Since my oldest daughter was born on my 30th birthday, I’ve given up my day so that she would get most of the attention. Birthdays are a marker in our lives and a great time to assess and reevaluate where we are and where we want to be.
But we don’t need to wait for birthdays to celebrate our lives. It seems like we’ve gotten so busy in life, we’ve forgotten to pause and acknowledge our progress and our accomplishments. Why is it so hard to remember to celebrate the little things in life too? I think because we are not conditioned to do this, it simply never becomes a part of our daily lives.
This leads us to think about how we can raise our personal level of awareness of how we are living and how we can make changes. It takes 21 days to form a habit. That’s nothing in the scope of our lifetimes. When we choose to live consciously, we can add celebrations to our life very easily. Celebration and appreciation are closely linked because they both increase our energy levels quickly by making us feel good.
When you condition your mind to look for the things to celebrate in life, guess what happens? MORE great things! I truly admire the company, Mind Valley, because they live each day by searching for what is awesome and they celebrate joy with each other. It’s great to see such a great example of how you can celebrate and find joy in the workplace too. It’s a business model that needs to spread like wildfire.
The world definitely needs more joy and celebration in it…and it’s up to each and every one of us to find it and nurture it in our own lives. Because when we do, we’ll be sharing the joy and awesomeness that is an intrinsic part of who we really are! How can you celebrate your life today?





Do you remember that movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back with Angela Bassett and Whoopi Goldberg? Stella’s life seemed perfect but inside she had lost herself and wasn’t happy. She goes to Jamaica and falls for a much younger man. The movie was about finding her way back. Now, I’m not suggesting we go out and get ourselves a young hot tottie as a way of finding ourselves—although that might work for some! But often times, we just need some sort of catalyst to get us out of the slump and back into action to moving forward.
Karin Volo is an expert in personal development and is known as a Dream Life Mentor. She is also the transformational author of the Bringing Joy series. Karin’s passion is helping people better their lives by inspiring and teaching others to thrive through tough times and create their dream lives. You can get inspired with Karin’s bi-weekly newsletter, Inspired Lives, by going to
Just as we go through cycles of change in nature, know that change is constant. Whatever difficult times you might be facing now is only a phase and will pass. Growth is optional. You have a choice of how you will react to any situation. If you can understand that there must be some higher reason as to why you are going through certain challenges, then it will make it easier to get through. This is why I always say, look for the lesson. It can give you a clue to the purpose of the situation.
This is why visualization is such a powerful tool for us. Seeing things in our minds helps us to believe it is possible and it is proven that the brain cannot tell the difference between imagination and reality. Then we must take the next step and truly believe that it will come to pass (faith). After that, we must release it and trust that it will come to us in the right time (acceptance and allowing).
I was put into a horrific situation where my life changed 180 degrees in a matter of seconds—from a dedicated mom of two beautiful young girls a nd a successful business woman with a concrete plan to expand her company internationally…to sitting in a 10×12 cell in a high security jail with total uncertainty and fear, completely isolated from her family while my daughters were growing up with me. This situation lasted almost FOUR years! I would never wish this on anyone!
I was recently on a call with a powerful leadership mentor and she explained how it really is essential to bring in light into any situation and not focus on clearing out the negative stuff, because if you bring in enough positive energy and enthusiasm, the problems and negativity will dissipate naturally. It helped me to realize just how powerful we really are and that we have the ability to determine the quality of our lives by the choices we make and by questions we ask.


