Jostentaylor's Blog

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes Your Stronger

jostentaylor — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 00:03:10 +0000

You know the bed feels warmer
Sleeping here alone
You know I dream in colour
And do the things I want

You think you got the best of me
Think you had the last laugh
Bet you think that everything good is gone
Think you left me broken down
Think that I’d come running back
Baby you don’t know me, cause you’re dead wrong

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone
What doesn’t kill you makes a fighter
Footsteps even lighter
Doesn’t mean I’m over cause you’re gone

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone

You heard that I was starting over with someone new
They told you I was moving on over you

You didn’t think that I’d come back
I’d come back swinging
You tried to break me, but you see

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone

Thanks to you I got a new thing started
Thanks to you I’m not the broken hearted
Thanks to you I’m finally thinking bout me
You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning
In the end…

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, stronger
Just me, myself and I
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn’t mean I’m lonely when I’m alone

What Doesn’t Kill You Makes You Stronger

Words to Live By

jostentaylor — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:36:51 +0000

Everyday there’s a thousand things that somehow pass us by
Gotta cut through the noise so you can know what love sounds like
I’m gonna tune your frequency to 106.ME
So there’s no distractions

Take a breath, take it in, love has no expiration date
My heart will always beat for you at a constant rate
It will outlast everything you think you set in stone
It goes on and on, and on and on, on and on, and on and on

Buzzing like neon lights, can you feel my love?
Loud and clear, pulls you near, can you feel my love?

We got all the memories, so much more we can’t see
Better than our first kiss, snow falling at Christmas
Like sleeping in on Sunday, laughter we never fake
Bob Marley in summer, ‘One Love’ for each other

Oh, it feels like fireflies, day and night
Can you feel my love?

Everyone is looking for a special connection
But it’s like your compass points a million directions
Do you need me to buy you a telescope so you can see?
How good this could be?

Oh, buzzing like neon lights, can you feel my love?
Loud and clear, pulls you near, can you feel my love?

Oh, we got all the memories, so much more we can’t see
Better than our first kiss, snow falling at Christmas
By like sleeping in on Sunday, laughter we never fake
Bob Marley in summer, ‘One Love’ for each other

Oh, it feels like fireflies, day and night
Can you feel my love? Can you feel it?

And I’ll wait for you as long as it takes
Until I get through and it hits you right in the face
Can you feel my love?
Can you feel my love?

We got all the memories, so much more we can’t see
Better than our first kiss, snow falling at Christmas
By like sleeping in on Sunday, laughter we never fake
Bob Marley in summer, ‘One Love’ for each other

Oh, it feel like ‘One Love’ for each other
Can you feel my love?

Buzzing like fireflies, neon lights, day and night
Can you feel my love?
Fireflies, day and night
Can you feel my love?

Neon Lights – Natasha Bedingfield

It’s All About You!

jostentaylor — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:22:21 +0000

Social Responsibility is the principle that people should actively contribute to the welfare of society to maximize the quality of life. I am a strong supporter of this principle and do my best every day to ensure that I can, in some way – big or small, enhance someone’s day. Whether it be holding a door for someone, smiling at a stranger, or showing up to the office with coffee and muffins in-hand, these acts have the ability to go a long way in making someone’s day, especially your own.

But I also believe in the notion that we need to be responsible to ourselves. Your happiness is just as important as someone else’s, and if it isn’t, then it should be. After all, you are the only person you have to spend the rest of your life with. So be good to yourself! I know it can be a challenge to acknowledge your worth and do things for you; many people feel guilty when they do, myself included. But if you can be good to yourself then you can be so much better to others. I challenge you to dedicate time to yourself! Take some time and make sure It’s All About You!

Here are some ways I take time, just for me!

Hitting the gym in the morning
Reading a book in the evening
Spending a Sunday afternoon at the coffee shop
Taking my pup Bentley for a walk
Blasting my music and cleaning my house (cleaning relaxes me)
Painting
Writing
Playing my acoustic and harmonica
Putting on a chick flick
Baking and decorating cupcakes

All You’re Ever Gonna Be is Mean

jostentaylor — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:56:20 +0000

It’s inevitable. No matter where you are in life there will always be that one person who exists only to make your life a living hell, as they say. Unfortunately for me, I spend the majority of my waking hours with this person. It hasn’t always been this way. When I first started at this job two years ago this person was my ally, my confidant, my friend. She was the only person I trusted because we bonded over a shared understanding of the “office politics”. Suddenly things have taken a turn for the worst. But I thought high school ended after…well, high school. Turns out I was wrong. Suddenly being in with the cool kids has become more important than sticking by the one who had your back when you weren’t so cool. It wouldn’t bother me if she was the social butterfly type, wanting to get along with everyone, but this doesn’t seem to be the case. She’s completely turned her back on me, left me out in the cold, only to come running back when she needs something or when she has found another reason to put me down.

After careful consideration of the changes that have been taking place recently there is only one conclusion I can come to: Jealousy over my recent successes. Don’t take this as me being conceited, (only recently have I found the courage to recognize and accept my success) but over the past few months I have gained a life that many only dream of. I have a successful career in Public Relations that is taking off, I have begun working in Communications for an important political leader, and I have recently launched my own Advertising and Public Relations business; I have been volunteering for a number or organizations very dear to my heart; I have found the love of my life and have never been happier, and; I have given every aspect of my life a happy and healthy overhaul!

Not too bad for a 26 year-old… But in my attempts to share with her anything positive happening in my life, I am quickly cut off. Interrupted. Or just completely ignored. This is not normal behavior. So I have concluded that I am leading a life she once, or still does, long for. And with that acknowledgement, I refuse to allow her actions to continue to cause me pain and anxiety. I have realized that all she’s ever going to be is mean. And I have better things to do.

Mean – Taylor Swift

You, with your words like knives and swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again got me feeling like I’m nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard, calling me out when I’m wounded
You, pickin’ on the weaker man

Well, you can take me down with just one single blow
But you don’t know what you don’t know

Someday I’ll be living in a big old city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean

Why you gotta be so mean?

You, with your switching sides and your walk-by lies and your humiliation
You, have pointed out my flaws again as if I don’t already see them
I’ll walk with my head down trying to block you out ’cause I’ll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again

I’ll bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now ’cause you can’t lead me down that road
And you don’t know what you don’t know

Someday I’ll be living in a big old city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean
Someday I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean

Why you gotta be so mean?

And I can see you years from now in a bar, talking over a football game
With that same big loud opinion but nobody’s listening
Washed up and ranting about the same old bitter things
Drunk and grumbling on about how I can’t sing

But all you are is mean
All you are is mean and a liar and pathetic and alone in life
And mean, and mean, and mean, and mean

But someday I’ll be living in a big old city
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean, yeah
Someday, I’ll be big enough so you can’t hit me
And all you’re ever gonna be is mean

A Year of Great Change

jostentaylor — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:30:16 +0000

2011 has been a year of great change for me. This time last year I never would have imagined that I would be where I am today. In fact, at no point in my life would I ever have imagined that I would be where I am today. I feel so lucky and so blessed for everything I have and every opportunity that has presented itself to me. I am in love with my life, and even through the hardship, I wouldn’t trade my life with anyone. And there are a few things I have learned this year that have gotten me to this point.

Good things come to those who wait
Patience is a virtue
Hard work will get you everywhere
You can have it all
Believe in yourself and your dreams
Dreams can change
Love has a way of finding you
True friends will be by your side no matter what
Balance between your personal and professional life is imperative
It is never too late

Take Me Back To The Start

jostentaylor — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 00:41:52 +0000

Six years ago today, from this very moment I am writing this, I was home alone standing in my hallway outside of my bedroom ironing my clothes. The song The Scientist by Coldplay came on to my cd player. It’s just another song, and I had heard it many times before. But this time it was different. I felt the worst heartbreak that very moment and dropped to my knees. I was consumed with fear, and tears started rolling down my face. I knew that something was very wrong. I could feel it. Only a moment later the phone rang and I received the worst news I had heard up to that point in my life. My dad was on the other end of the phone and all I heard was “She’s gone.” All I could say was “I know.”

On April 27, 2005, my step mom, a lady I was so close with that I called her Mom, lost her battle with cancer. There is no heartbreak like that of losing a parent. And if she were here today I would tell her how much I love her, how much she means to me, how much she has done for me, and all the ways she inspires me everyday. Not a day goes by that I don’t think about her or wish she was here talk to. I miss her so much and would give anything to have her here right now.

The Scientist by Coldplay is the last song we listened to together. We were laying on the couch and she was giving me her final words of wisdom and what she hoped for me in my life. But it wasn’t until the moment of her death that the words in that song made a connection with me. In that moment they meant something. They represented everything I wish I could have said to her, and still say to her. And I think it was her doing, on purpose that that song play at that time. It was her way of connecting with me in a way that was Ours – no one elses.

I cherish every moment i had with her. So this one is for her…

Come up to meet you, tell you I’m sorry
You don’t know how lovely you are
I had to find you, tell you I need you
Tell you I set you apart

Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions
Oh, let’s go back to the start
Running in circles, coming up tails
Heads on a science apart

Nobody said it was easy
It’s such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be this hard
Oh, take me back to the start

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling the puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart

But tell me you love me, come back and haunt me
Oh and I rush to the start
Running in circles, chasing our tails
Coming back as we are

Nobody said it was easy
Oh, it’s such a shame for us to part
Nobody said it was easy
No one ever said it would be so hard
I’m going back to the start

The Scientist – Coldplay

The Rest is Still Unwritten

jostentaylor — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 07:39:36 +0000

This song is a complete representation of my life at the moment; I’m sure that is true for many people. Right now my life plans are up in the air and I’m taking each day as it comes. While this can be somewhat scary for a girl whose always had at least a 5-year plan, I am feeling somewhat comforted in knowing that I have the freedom to make any choice I want and not have to answer to anyone. Being in this place at this time of my life is allowing me to truly discover who I am and what I want out of life. I’m inspired, and something else that inspires me and cushions my fears when I need it is this song. As it says, I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned…

I am unwritten, can’t read my mind, I’m undefined
I’m just beginning, the pen’s in my hand, ending unplanned

Staring at the blank page before you
Open up the dirty window
Let the sun illuminate the words that you can not find
Reaching for something in the distance
So close you can almost taste it
Release your inhibitions

Feel the rain on your skin
No one else can feel it for you
Only you can let it in
No one else, no one else
Can speak the words on your lips
Drench yourself in words unspoken
Live your life with arms wide open
Today is where your book begins
The rest is still unwritten

I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines
We’ve been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can’t live that way

Unwritten

Help Others, Help Yourself

jostentaylor — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 18:11:45 +0000

I’m sure this is not the first time you are hearing that helping others can make you happier. But lately I’ve been making connections between my happiness and how I’m getting it.

Recently I became the PR Chair for the Yellowknife Community Foundation. This organization raises money and disperses it to those in need, throughout communities in the NT. I am only just entering the process but I have been put to work like you would not believe, and I know my contributions are helping families, organizations and those in need. It is the most amazing feeling knowing that someone’s life is is greatly lifted because of a small part you are playing.

I have also become a volunteer for the NWT SPCA. This is another new adventure I have yet to delve into deeply. Animal rights is one of the most important things to me and I can barely contain my excitement for being involved in the efforts this organization is making to ensure happy, healthy, and safe lives for animals. In the NWT, animal cruelty is heart-wrenching! You can’t open a newspaper without reading about the horrible ways animals are suffering because of reckless owners. It needs to come to and end and I want to be a part of that. Nothing makes me happier than knowing I can be a voice for these helpless beings and can give them life.

And this is only the beginning! I have many projects in the works that will contribute to homelessness, abuse, and education. Helping these people and these causes helps me and makes me happier than any material possession ever could. These projects bring me to life and give others a better one and I couldn’t ask for more. I suspect doing things for others will make you happier too!

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends!

Love, Actually is All Around

jostentaylor — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 00:28:01 +0000

Is it weird to love airports? Because I do! I’m hanging out in Edmonton right now, in the middle of my seven hour layover between Yellowknife NT, and Grande Prairie, AB. I’m on my way home for Christmas and I couldn’t be more excited. But I’m more than happy to have an extended layover at #YEG. I find something relaxing and serene about airports amidst the rush of travelers. I’m feeling calm, excited, and comforted and I’m surrounded by people yet in my own little world. It’s a great feeling and at this very moment I’m reminded of one of my favourite Christmas movies – Love Actually.

One of my favourite scenes in that film is the first one. Hugh Grant is talking about the beauty of airports. What he says is exactly how I am feeling at this very moment.

Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow airport. General opinion makes out that we live in a world of hatred and greed. I don’t see that. Seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it’s not particularly dignified or newsworthy but it’s always there. Fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, none of the phone calls from people on board were messages of hate or revenge, they were all messages of love. lf you look for it, I’ve got a sneaky feeling you’ll find that love actually is all around.

I just wanted to share that, and my excitement for the holiday season. It is my prelude to a wonderful Christmas. To all of you, have safe and happy holidays. I wish for nothing but great things for all of you, and to be surrounded by love and happiness!

Christmas is All Around Us

This is not your Year – This is your Life!

jostentaylor — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 18:46:21 +0000

I’m not really one for New Year’s Resolutions. In my past attempts I’ve learned that setting these specific goals has never really gotten me anywhere. After giving it my all in the beginning, the excitement quickly wears off within a few weeks and I’m back to my old habits. But I have a feeling this year will be much different

Last night I spoke with two of my best girlfriends and we got onto the topic of 2011 being our year! The year we are going to take more initiative and make things happen. A few minutes into the conversation I realized that many of the things I want for myself in 2011 are already happening. Because I’m making them happen. And I’m making them happen because I am ready for them, not because 2011 is just around the corner.

Together, we decided to create a list of what we want in our life. Not specific to 2011, but specific to our lives in general. What is lacking in your life? What do you want to achieve, accomplish, gain, or even lose? I challenge you to create a life list! And I challenge you to do it when you are ready, not when January 1 rolls around.

My list:

Work toward being a more genuinely happy person
Continue to be successful in my volunteer work with the Yellowknife Community Foundation and the SPCA
Introduce more volunteer opportunities to my life
Obtain my business license (the process has begun!)
Spend more time writing and posting to my blog
Finalize my original screenplay and direct and produce it
Attend film festivals
Do more networking in and out of town
Spend a week in LA on my own relaxing, writing, reading, enjoying coffee, discovering
Take my mom to New York! Spend an afternoon lounging on the grass in Central Park with a coffee and a good book!
Go to New York with my girlfriends to watch the tree light up, drink hot chocolate and go skating
Enter a contest to win a Bravo Award for my work in Public Relations
Pick up my acoustic and brave the public
Start painting again and showing my work in shows
Lead a healthier and more mindful lifestyle

And the list goes on! It will change and it will grow, as does life. But it is my life and I am going to make it what I want it to be. And you should too. 2011 doesn’t need to be the year for change. When you are ready, the changes will naturally come, as they have for me. This is not your Year – this is your Life. Make it what you want it to be.

And for those who need some musical inspiration…get ready to be Extraordinary!