*Note– There’s a contest going on at my photography blog!  If you are located in Western Washington (or somewhere else– see the rules), I’m giving away an EPIC portrait session!  Click here for more details.  Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

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I’m a bit of a self-improvement junkie.  The whole subject just fascinates me.  I’ve always been interested in it on some level, but over the course of the last six months in particular, I’ve felt a fire inside to work to be the best possible person I can be: in my life, my career, and in my relationships with others.  There’s something about losing almost everything (ie: relationship, some friendships, most possessions) that will just do that to a girl.

It sets your self-improvement meter to turbo.

But it all takes time.  And it’s hard.  It’s so hard.  Because every day you’re pushing, pushing, pushing.  There are a lot of times that you feel alone in what you’re going through.

The good news, is, though, you’re not.

There are billions of people on this earth, and many of them are doing awesome things.  They push forward, pave the way, and encourage all of us to do the same.

They are some of the people I wanted to share with you today.  These three people are all connected directly, and that’s what especially excites me: that we aren’t islands, we’re all connected to each other in some way.  We can help each other grow.

Recently, my friend Smita started a site called Spirit Miner, where she posts about matters relating to the human mind and spirit.  It’s about how so often we look outward  for answers, but tend to neglect nurturing and developing a deeper understanding inside.  She posts about the human condition– including topics on jealousy, forgiveness, and how to be more mindful.  Smita also provides a platform for great guest bloggers come and share their thoughts, too.

Smita’s blog led me to Daddy Doin’ Work, who actually did a guest post on Spirit Miner the other day (he’s in the screen grab of the Spirit Miner site above).  Clicking over to his blog, I found that Doyin is a) hilarous b) married to a half Japanese woman (represent!) and c) has the cutest little daughter, who he does his best to be a great father to.  I don’t have kids, but reading about parenting from a dad’s first-time ever experience with kids is not only entertaining, but informative too.  DDW has great insight, and a couple of his posts in particular, actually, really made me think:

1. Achieving Happy – DDW’s take on achieving happy.  The story of how he changed his life from being an arrogant, depressed guy who hated on others to raising expectations for himself being better and “achieving happy” is incredible.

2. Life After Death - this post about Doyin’s close friend Wade had me sobbing at my computer.  Get your kleenex, because you won’t have any tears left after this one.  So much we can all learn from Wade.

After I stopped crying, I navigated over to DDW’s twin brother Shola’s site who writes a career blog called Cubepiphany, which is all about motivating and kicking your butt into doing better work, at work while experiencing a higher level of happy.  I really liked his most recent post about how much you really want something and what you’d do and what lengths you would go to actually get it.  He uses a brick wall as an analogy to what you think you can’t get through, and what you would do if you had to bust one down.  You can read that post here.

The reason I really like all of these blogs is that they spread positivity and motivation.  What’s so cool is that the positivity on one site is linked to another which is linked to another and then another.  I’m so inspired by people who push forward, even when things get hard or when it can be so easy to just quit.  Life, as we all know, can be hard sometimes, and it’s great to hear advice from people who’ve been there.

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Have you found any sites recently that inspire you?  Where do you go for inspiration?