Five Smart Ideas For Your Friday

I spend a lot of time falling down rabbit holes on the internet, so you don't have to. The upside, of course, is all the cool stuff I find. So I've invented The Firegirl Five to share them with you. Here are five from last week. 

Find Number One: Graphic Design.

People often ask me how I create the graphics on Girl Catch Fire. My favorite tool is Canva.com. Not only can you create a beautiful graphics sized for any platform, (Instagram, blog banners, Twitter etc) the site also offers spiffy, free, hands-on, five-minute or less graphic design tutorials. If you don't have the time for Canva, and just want a quickie do-it-for me post from your phone, check out Typorama or WordSwag in the app store. Typorama is free, Wordswag costs a few bucks. Both do 90% of the work for you in making beautiful image quotes on line. 

Find Number Two: Positive Intelligence.

My life coach Benton turned me on to Shirzad Chamine's bestseller Positive Intelligence. In it, the Stanford University lecturer explains how your mind can be your best friend and your worst enemy. For example, it can remind you of an important upcoming meeting, which is helpful. It can also wake you up at 3am every night to remind you of an important upcoming meeting. Not so great. He designed a test to expose how your mind prefers to sabotage you, and he lays out strategy for beating it. Take the test and pick up the book here. 

Find Number Three: My Friend Rachel's New Puppy. 

I'm sure I don't need to explain why a puppy chasing himself in the mirror is worth 20 seconds of your time. You already know it is. His name is Fedir and you can find him lying like a frog and barking at the camera on Instagram. If you've had a rough day, you can loop the videos as many times as you wish. Like I did. 

Find Number Four: Next Vacay

For you you travel freaks out there, I may have stumbled on the world's best, save-money-while-impulse-traveling site in history. Started by a couple of programmers, Next Vacay scours the internet for short-term awesome flight deals. For $20 a year (there are upgrades too if you want) you can get this information delivered to your inbox. All week I've seen Dallas to Edinburgh $500 r/t. Houston to Malaga $450 r/t. Dallas to Quito $350 r/t. You have to act fast of course, and the fares are only good at certain times, but Spain in December? Why not? 

Find Number Five: Burn Calories in the Tub

Travel and Leisure says a hot bath burns as many calories as a 30-minute walk. How's that for good news. So next time you're feeling guilty about skipping the gym, pour a glass of wine, hop in the tub and pat yourself on the back. 

In upcoming posts, we'll talk about exercising, organizing, optimizing and critical strategies to help you identify and release that world-changing idea burning on the inside of you. Time to get that out don't you think?

Got an idea? Vexing question? Stuck on something? Maybe we can help. Send me an email or comment below.