With spring quickly approaching, I've been very vigilant for inspiration to update my wardrobe.  It gets pretty hot where I live so I'm always thinking about how to stay cool in nearly 90-degree weather.  I pretty much live in tank tops.  But, if I were being completely honest, I admit that my tanks aren't really that stylish.

A couple of years ago, I developed the intention of increasing how much money I made by reducing my monthly expenses. For a long while, I mainly followed the principle of raising your income instead of budgeting.  While focusing on raising my income was great, I eventually became weary of how much money I was spending monthly.  I wasn't really buying a bunch of lavish things.  The expenses mainly consisted of stuff like updating our house, helping family members and, and other expenses that were deemed to be necessary. 

One day, I did the math and figured that I could save a nice chunk of change if I paid off my student loan and eliminated a few other recurring expenses. With laser-focused intensity, I got rid of my student loan, refinanced my home (twice) and got rid of a bunch of other on-going expenses.  In the end, I was certain that I'd have a lot of money left over for discretionary spending.  In actually, the opposite happened.

Instead of having a lot of money left over to play around with, it seemed like the money was nowhere to be found.  Perhaps it was absorbed by unexpected expenses that showed up out of nowhere.  But I have another theory about what exactly happened....

Although spring isn't here yet, I've already had the pleasure of experiencing some pretty warm days.  The moment I'm exposed to warmer temperatures, I automatically start thinking about prepping for summer.  More specifically, I like to focus on detoxing before summer hits.  Why? Because I have this theory that everything sort of slows down during the winter months. Our metabolism slows, circulation slows, cell turnover slows and so forth.

When warm weather finally arrives, we start to sweat again, oil production peaks causing us to suffer some unwanted side effects like acne, unflattering body odor, and congestion.  This year, I plan on adding a new ritual to my summer hygiene routine that I think will have some amazing benefits.

I've made a conscious effort to temper my desire to want to buy every beauty product available.  Lately, I've tried to make purchases of items that I believe will be sure bets. More importantly, products likely to become long-term staples.  One such product, I've never spoken about until today. But I've longed to get my hands on this cult favorite for a while.

Last year, I wrote an article about how I was all about balms.  The older I get, the drier my skin becomes and balms really add that extra bit of oomph when it comes to sealing in moisture.  All the balms I purchased were great.....I hadn't found the one.

Thankfully, fate awaited me at a local Marshall's as I was introduced to the beauty balm of my dreams.

The closer we get to summer, the more we begin to think about how to shed those extra pounds from the holidays.  Losing weight can be frustrating sometimes, even when you feel like you're doing everything right, sometimes the weight just seems to stay put.   Well, today I bring you some encouraging news.

I recently learned of a weight-loss theory that could help us stay motivated through our journey to a leaner body.

I have a love-hate relationship with my lips.  They're full, prominent, and should be a highlight of my face.  Instead, I've neglected them.   Barely doing anything other than wearing lip balm in response to excessive dryness or covering them with bold lip color on date nights.

My neglect actually produced the aspects of my lips that I disliked the most. I hated the dryness and mild discoloration. I just wanted soft, flesh-toned lips that looked amazing with our without lipstick.

And now I have the routine that gives me exactly what I want.

It's been said that we only utilize 10% of our mental potential.  One of the reasons why I loved Limitless so much is because it explored the idea of what happens when we access the remaining 90%.  Personal development books are focused on helping us to unlock our "unlimited potential." 

I'm all for the idea of opening the doorway that unleashes our infinite potential, but I find it sometimes hard to sustain operating at max output for long periods of time.  Instead, I'd like to play with the idea of tapping into our potential instead.   Think of your unlimited potential as an extremely large sum of money.  Instead of trying to blow it all at once, maybe we find a way to access large portions of it on a daily basis. 

Wouldn't that be awesome?