Jess Lively

Good morning! I have been waiting for this day to come for a looong time! I’m so excited to announce that my first ebook, Wish I Knew, is launching in just a few short weeks! To explain it in more detail, I thought I’d do what other authors do: go on The Today Show and [...]

Over the past few weeks Mr. Lively and I have been reading The 5 Love Languages aloud together and it has been pretty enlightening. Though I reminded Mr. Lively on several occasions before we started reading, that I am fluent in all 5 love languages and therefore require every love language in very high and equal levels… this [...]

  Since moving to the new apartment, I have grown bored of the floral painting I made for my old bedroom, which is now housed in our guest room. Though it looked great in my last apartment (bel0w), it felt a bit too literal in its new home.   taken by   So I did [...]

Throughout our lives we encounter difficult situations. In order to survive those challenging times, we often create a defense mechanism to help us cope, thrive, or survive – depending on the intensity of the circumstances. If our siblings got into a lot of trouble growing up, we might have decided to “do everything on our own” and [...]

Lately I’ve found myself getting a bit wrapped up in a lot of different projects that have resulted in some bouts of overwhelm. This is nothing new. I’ve actually found myself in this position many, many times before. Two of my greatest strengths: ideation and activation, are constantly cooking up new ideas and then putting [...]

{Heads up! Tonight we have a Chicago Business in the City meet-up! If you are in the Windy City and have a business (or biz idea) I hope you join us!}   For this month’s Living Well column on The Everygirl, I’ve shared ways to say yes to the unknown. From the moment that I [...]

This is a glimpse of what last Friday looked like. Pinch me. This has been one of the most fun and unique undertakings of my career. Though I had a healthy dose of nervous energy the night before, I am thankful that things went well. Our team had fun and did a great job working together for [...]

  I haven’t been sharing much on the intentional style or exfoliating front lately because there hasn’t been too much to share that has been super exciting. However, I have a new favorite bag that has quickly stolen my heart – and is fulfilling a few of my intentions (to purchase high quality items when possible, and [...]

Over the past several years, as I’ve designed my life with intention, I have become clearer and clearer about what that phrase truly means to me. I believe that the intentions we have for our lives are largely unchanging. They form a “constitution” of sorts about what we believe and want for our lives. Though [...]

Lately I’ve been sharing a little bit about my journey to devote 2013 to service. And as a quick recap, I’ll quickly share that I started the year off by tracking the number of people that I served each day, rather than income as an indicator of success. Though the tracking system was inevitably flawed [...]

Today I want to share a few favorite videos as a new take on the term “power hour” (far from traditional college pre-game game). This power hour consists of inspiring videos that would take roughly sixty minutes to watch (I think the actual total is about 50-ish minutes). The first video is a favorite that [...]

As long as I’ve known Mr. Lively, I have known that he dreams of having a garden. His mom is a prolific gardener, and while living as a bachelor before moving to Chicago, Mr. Lively had his own vegetable garden as well. And though we one day hope to have a home with yard or [...]