Happy Monday everyone! Yesterday, Kobe Bryant and one of his daughters, Gianna, passed away in a helicopter crash with John Altobelli, Keri Altobelli, Alyssa Altobelli, Christina Mauser, Sarah Chester, Payton Chester and Ara Zobayan. News of their death shocked the world. The “Black Mamba” as he nicknamed himself is a basketball champion and legend who many were excited to continue to follow after his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers.

Recently, I’ve taken up the new hobby of trying to be a “plant mom”. I really want a dog, but am not ready for that big of a commitment, so I’m starting with plants because typically they are less needy. I reached out to my linesisters with green thumbs and they suggested the best plants to start out with like Sansiveria, ZZ, bamboo, Pothos, Hoyas, Succulents because they are all low maintenance easy starter plants. My mom offered me a peace lily. I took it because it was free and seemed appropriate because I want my home to be a place of peace. I “creatively” named my new plant, Lily. She had a few little yellow leaves, but I pruned her ready to start our new life together, lol. See pic of her, before I adopted her.

For those of you who follow the RianeInspires Instagram account you are familiar with the Monday Motivation Message videos. They are short 30-45 second videos posted to help get your week started off right. If you’ve never seen them before start following @rianeinspires on Instagram and catch up. As noted in the New Year’s Eve video, I will not be posting on Instagram in January, but am still dedicated to bringing you all Monday Motivational Messages.

I recently moved into a new place and I’ve been noticing random things that need to be fixed. I’m the first person to live here and I had this preconceived notion that everything would be perfect. I mean no one else was here to mess it up before me, so the builder would just deliver me a perfect place, right? But what is perfect? A quick Google search yields this definition “the condition, state, or quality of being free or as free as possible from all flaws or defects.”

For those of you who follow the RianeInspires Instagram account you are familiar with the Monday Motivation Message videos. They are short 30-45 second videos posted to help get your week started off right. If you’ve never seen them before start following @rianeinspires on Instagram and catch up. As noted in the New Year’s Eve video, I will not be posting on Instagram in January, but am still dedicated to bringing you all Monday Motivational Messages.

It’s officially Fall and the clocks have been set back shortening our daylight hours. It gets darker earlier and stays darker longer. It’s easy to feel sluggish and unmotivated to do the things that not only need to be done, but even the things you simply want to do.

One of the hardest things for us to conceptualize sometimes, is that we can still have joy while we experience negative emotions. When people typically think of joy they tend to think of the bubbling, enthusiastic joy, but joy comes in many forms. Ruth King, a meditation instructor, describes many types of Joy including: 

Entering Corporate America is like being a freshman in high school or college or back in kindergarten again. You are the tiniest fish in the biggest pond.

I chose one of my most impactful mentors after approximately three days of knowing her. Crazy, right? There was just something about her that caused me to want to learn from her.

God will block things that don't need to be in your life and usher in things that do, if you let Him.