Kindness Begins With Me

One of my favorite things to do is to give service to others. I love helping other people. When I was in high school, I came up with a goal to help someone or compliment someone at least three times a day. Something that started out as a simple goal turned into a daily habit and I just do it to random people despite the odd looks I get sometimes. It just feels so good and satisfying to help someone else out or to make them smile.

Are you all ready for a confession from yours truly? Well here it is...

Even though I love giving service to others and being kind, I often fall into the trap of not being kind to myself. I am a huge perfectionist and can be very hard on myself at times. I find myself critiquing things I do wrong even if they are small until they become huge things. I literally freeze up because I am so critical of my mistakes or my short comings.

I Rachel Ann Fischer, am my biggest critic. But why is this? It's not as if I am a horrible person because I'm really not. I am actually pretty cool and am a good kind person. I often look over what I have done well and focus just on the things I don't do well. 

I have come to the realization that my perfectionistic attitude is a good thing in certain situations, but it can often turn into a hinderance and doesn't allow me to progress or move. I am literally robbing myself of happiness. Happiness that Heavenly Father wants me to have. 

Lately I have been challenging myself to find the good in me and to be kind to myself. It has been difficult to break the habit of being hard on myself, but as I've been making an effort to like and be kind to myself, I have been starting to see small differences in how I act and think. It really is quite marvelous. 

I need to remember and remind myself daily that God loves me and likes me too. He is infinitely kind to me. Why in the world would I ever be unkind to one of his children? I often get caught up in thinking that I am being kind to his children, but I need to remember that I am one of his children too. I need to be kind to myself.

I made it a habit to be kind to others, but I need to make it a habit to be kind to myself as well. It may be hard sometimes, but with God's help I will be able to turn it into a lifelong habit that will bless my life and others as well. I will be able to be happy with myself and be able to progress and like myself.

So here is a toast to a new beginning and trying my best to like myself and to be kind to myself as well.

*All photos have come to a blog near you via Pinterest.

Resolution

New Years Resolutions. We make them, we break them, we resolve to do better. We either succeed, fail or fall somewhere in between. I think the important part is to remember that even if we don't fully reach our yearly goal, we should not despair. The important thing is that you are striving to do something to better your life or to accomplish something. If you fall short, that doesn't mean you have failed. You are further than you were when you started. 

Another thing I feel that is important to remember is to not compare ourselves with others. Life is not a race, we should take time to enjoy what is around us and constantly strive to be better than we were. If we are comparing our goals and lives to others, we are already setting ourselves up for disappointment. We need to enjoy the journey that helps create who we are to become. 

Photo: Courtesy of Pinterest

res·o·lu·tion/ rez-uh-loo-shun

1. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.

2. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action

3. having a firmness of purpose.

Upon reading the definition of what a resolution is, I discovered that courage has a lot to do with the action of accomplishing a resolution. According to my trusty Mac's dictionary it says:

"Resolution also implies firmness of mind rather than fearlessness, but the emphasis is in the determination to achieve a goal in spite of opposition or interference."

This is the most important part of a resolution for me. I need to have courage to do the things I want to do and have resolved to do. Even if some of the things are scary, I need to have faith and courage that things will work out in their own time. I cannot be afraid of failing. Fear is the enemy to faith and to succeed in my progression, I need to rely on the Lord when it gets hard. 

Photo: Courtesy of Pinterest

So my goals this year are simple:

-Above all, I want to continue in my progression to become the person Heavenly Father wants me to be. 

-I want to become the confident courageous person that I know I can be. 

-I want to be the happiest person in the world. Literally. I will find someone to measure it.

-Become confident and comfortable in my body.

-Get a 4.0 or as close to it as possible.

-Serve someone every single day.

-Mark every page of the Book of Mormon with a color coded system.

These are just some of the goals I have this year, and the others I will keep in my heart. So here is to a new year of bettering one's self. I look forward to the glorious opportunities that are in store for me. I know that as I lean on Heavenly Father for help in my daily resolutions and enjoy all that He has given to me, I will be blessed and be able to succeed. 

Good luck in all your daily resolution's peeps!  I know you can do it!
"Never give up! Never Surrender!"
-Galaxy Quest

Happy Old Year!

Another year has come and gone, and I am still trucking along up in Ice Rexburg Ideeho. Now, some people may think, "Wow, how long have you been there?" A kind and vague response would be, "Oh not long, I've lost track of the semesters..." But me being the honest person I am responds with a response that goes like this: "Weeeelll... This is my fifth year." In that moment the inquiring persons face drops and turns a little green. At that I just chuckle and think, "Oh you young thing, carry on. Maybe someday you can be as cool as me."

How inconceivable is it that this last year I finished my eighth and ninth semester of college and am now on my tenth semester. The big one oh. Sometimes it feels like I just started yesterday. I think it is an accomplishment and am so excited to get another two semesters under my belt. One day I'll graduate.. At least that's the hope. Something amazing about BYU-Idaho is that I get to meet a lot of amazing people from all over the country and world. I was blessed to meet a lot of great friends and develop wonderful relationships with them.

In addition to knocking out another two semesters of school, I was able to do a lot of fun things this last year. I got to work immediately from getting home from school and received a scholarship from the American Cancer Society. These combined equaled me being able to pay for fall semester and this winter semester all by myself until I start work again in the summer. I feel like such a grown up. Woot!

I got to visit my sister and her family in New York before she had her little girl and got to spend a lot of time with my family at home in Utah. One really cool thing was that we were all home for Christmas. It was really great to have all of us there. I got to meet my one-year-old nephew and my niece. I may or many not have been obsessively taking pictures of them. As well as holding, loving, and playing with them like crazy. It was so great. I love my family. My siblings and I are pretty spaced out in age and in geographical distance, so it's good to develop a relationship with them even though we are far away.

Mrs. Preggers and I at Niagra Falls.

Celebrating New Years Eve Fischer style, minus my beautiful Mama.

 

My lovely Grandma Fischer holding the most adorable baby in the entire world.
This is a proven fact and non-debatable.

Another cool thing that happened this last year was that Rachelle got married! She is now a Mrs. and is doing so well. It was really neat to see her and Dillon tie the knot and see her so peaceful and happy.

One of the coolest things that happened to me was that I got called to be a Sunday-School teacher! It was so great to be able to share my testimony and discover more about the gospel. At first it was really scary, but as I got into it more I became really good at it!

So my 2012 was pretty darn good if I do say so myself. Above all, I really came to realize that I am beginning to become more confident in myself and growing and developing in the way that I want to. I lost a lot of time when I got sick, so now that I am doing well in my recovery I am becoming normal once more.

Stop and smell the flowers peeps. It's worth a sniff to count your blessings and name them one by one.

PS: These flowers may or may not have been taken from the gardens up on campus.
I promise I'm not a felon. We were simply just helping with the pruning process.
Read about it here.