Carlos Valenzuela
Carlos Valenzuela

Aside from online spam, I get tons of junk mail. Why I regularly get Popular Mechanics, Car and Driver, Field and Stream and Working Mothers is beyond me. I know you are laughing right about now. Don’t write and tell me to contact the marketing service that stops junk mail. I did, and it doesn’t.

 A title from a pamphlet read, “How to Wake Up Pretty,” and recommended sleeping on your back, a satin pillow case, no alcohol for four hours prior, a face/eye cream, eight hours of sleep, no snacking, sugar or carb overloads before bedtime. This is the reason I wake up looking like the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood?

 I began checking for those who might wake up pretty at my neighborhood Starbucks. I spotted someone I knew, who said, “This is the result of lots of preparation, planning and work,” and listed fifty splashes to rinse off whatever, sleeping with a neck/throat sling to prevent double chin, doing facial exercises (these apparently work and are hilarious) and, of course, the magic serums and creams. Genetics aside, there may be hope I can wake up pretty if I get the “stuff.”

My take is that waking up pretty is more about sticking to your goals and not confusing luck with getting to that desirable place in life. That great marriage, job, or body? It all comes from sincere effort. Dig a little deeper and you find that the gifted have worked really hard for what looks to all the non-believers like luck.

 The people who wake up pretty understand that life has ups and downs, and that they were not the only ones thrown off the horse, everyone was, but they were one of the few that got back on. Ah, that’s the secret.

Getting to be a color expert or great cutter is challenging. A roadblock is life asking, “How badly do you want this?” On that slump day, you could be tempted to give up. Don’t do it, keep going. Any great journey will test your resolve, and make you stronger. The biggest challenge is overcoming the desireto do nothing about something. The road to success is littered with abandoned good intentions.

Stay the course, and you too can wake up pretty.
 

Carlos Valenzuela is President of Carlos Valenzuela Resources, LLC, is a consultant, speaker, licensed beauty instructor and author of i-Fabulous Life Skills
For additional insights visit
www.i-fabulous.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/IFabulousLifeSkills.
Twitter: @getcarlos01

 

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