Author: jcladyluv

http://spokenlikeaqueen.wordpress.com/

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Idea Overload

May 25, 2011 jcladyluv

So every now and then I get the dreaded writer’s block where I can’t think of a single thing to write and I get more and more frustrated which just makes me more blocked. People tend to think that that’s the worst thing that can happen to a writer and for some it may be. However, for me the worst thing is when I have so many ideas rattling around in my head that I can not focus on just one of them at a time. Even when I try to section off projects and work on one at a certain designated time, and another at a different time, then three more ideas pop into my head that I can’t stop thinking about.

Now I know some might say that having an array of ideas to choose from is not a bad thing but that all depends on who you are as a writer. I suppose if I was good at jotting down some notes or recording notes for one project and then setting it aside until I am finished my current project then it would be okay. Unfortunately, I am not one of those writers who could set aside any one idea. I have a list of projects that I am supposed to be working on right now but I find myself constantly adding to that list, which causes me to procrastinate trying to figure out how to cram all 20 something ideas into a realistic time frame.

Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not as if I would rather have writer’s block instead because that wouldn’t be any fun either. I just wish all of these characters would stop popping up into my subconscious out of nowhere, pushing the already developing characters that I am currently interacting with aside and fighting for my attention. Well I guess I’m done rambling for now, I’ve got to go deal with the characters that need to be heard.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

A Bad Case of How Did I Get Here

May 24, 2011 jcladyluv

“Many of life’s failures are people who had not realized how close they were to success when they gave up.”

~Thomas Edison

So I was reading Ms. L’s blog post yesterday, “Bucket List”, and started thinking about all of the things that I might include on my own personal bucket list and if I was so courageous enough to make a list, just how many of those things would I actually be able to cross off.

For the past few weeks I have been trying to not to be depressed over the state of my current circumstances, and I must say I have been losing that battle because it just seems like things keep getting worse. I’ve been waking up day after day wondering how I got here at the age of 30 (almost 31) and still so far behind in my list of goals and accomplishments. It’s like every time something goes right there are three more things that go wrong to completely demolish the one right thing that happened.

I guess you could say that for a little while I lost my motivation for even trying to make things go my way. I figured that if it was meant to happen for me it would’ve happened by now, right? Well I have come back to my senses now and I am ready to get right back in the ring of life and fight for where I want my life to be. I have had my share of what some might call luck and I have definitely had some miracles along the way and that has to count for something.

So maybe I wouldn’t be able to check off even half of my list yet. Maybe I am not quite there yet in succeeding in all of the aspects of life that I want to but I am not at square one either. Even being in the middle of my journey means that I have accomplished something worth being proud of. I may have quite a ways to go but stopping now is not an option that I am willing to explore.

When I stop to think about how I got here, I have to think about where here actually is. I am relatively healthy, I have a beautiful and healthy vibrant and incredibly smart daughter, I have the talent and ability to write which is what I’ve wanted to do since I was six years old, and I have the drive and determination to make it happen no matter what or how long it takes. I guess when I sit back and think about it, being “here” isn’t really so bad.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

On the Days I don’t feel like Smiling

April 26, 2011 jcladyluv

“Too often we jump to the conclusion that something is impossible simply because we cannot see the solution. No one knows enough to be a pessimist.”
~Wayne W Dyer

I try to be optimistic in life because deep down I know that focusing on the negative is not going to help make any situation better. Recently I’ve been having such a hard time with a lot of different things that I won’t burden any of you with, but nevertheless, I haven’t exactly been feeling positive about things. I had a conversation last night with a friend that I haven’t talked to in a long time and every time that she would ask me about some aspect of my life it would happen to be one of the one’s in which things weren’t going so well and I just didn’t feel like faking optimism yesterday.

She got on me about staying positive and stating that she believed that everything was going to turn out good for me and that there are great things in store. My only response was that I wished that I could believe that right now. She didn’t like to hear the negativity because frankly she was used to me always being the positive one and pumping her up but I had to just simply tell her that most days I believe that it’s going to be okay but today (yesterday really) I just don’t feel like putting on the act.

They say you are supposed to fake it until you make it and most of the times I absolutely believe that statement to be true but what do you do on those days where you just don’t feel like smiling. There are days when you just can’t fake it, and you can’t hide your frustration or your doubt and really you shouldn’t have to. I am going to have those days when I can’t pretend that I believe everything is going to be okay. There are going to be days when I won’t be able to smile as if I don’t feel like the walls are crashing down on me.

On those days, where I feel completely defeated, and I feel like there isn’t any light at the end of the tunnel, I think about my daughter. I think about all of the things that I want for her life and what examples I want to set for her. I think about how much I love her and about how much of a blessing she is to me and that things have to come out okay because I have to make things okay for her. I think about the determination that I know I have within me that I want her to gain and learn from. I think about all of the times that I tell her it’s going to be okay when there’s something she gets discouraged about and how just as I tell her to never give up and always keep trying her best, the example I set for her can’t be anything less then that.

On those days that I don’t feel like smiling, I think about how good God has been to me and how he will never let me down as long as I have faith in him and let him do his work. I forget sometimes that not only do I have to put the work in, and put my faith in him, and hand over all of my burdens to him, but I have to remember to step aside and get out of his way and let God do his work. On those days that I really don’t feel like putting on a smile, I have to remember to stop getting in God’s way and just let him work. I remembered that today, and today I am smiling and there is nothing fake about it!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Those Who Can, DO….

April 5, 2011 jcladyluv

“The word “can’t” makes strong people weak, blinds people who can see, saddens happy people, turns brave people into cowards, robs a genius of their brilliance, causes rich people to think poorly, and limits the achievements of that great person living inside us all.”

~ Robert T. Kiyosaki

It is funny what a person will say can’t happen and what they can’t accomplish without having ever tried any of the things they swear they can’t do. We always tell ourselves we can’t do this because we don’t have this or that but our resources are only limited because we keep them that way. We all know how powerful words can be and you tend to believe what it is that you speak. If we know this, then why is it that at the beginning of almost every challenge and obstacle in our lives is that word can’t?

We can’t start that business that we want because we don’t have enough money. We can’t get that job that we want because we don’t have a degree. We can’t move to the area that we know we will thrive in because we, once again, don’t have the money. We can’t start an exercise regimen to lose the weight we know we need to because we just don’t have enough time. So when exactly are we going to start taking the word can’t out of our vocabulary?

If you spend your whole life thinking about what it is you can’t do because what it is that you don’t have then how will you ever get to the other side of your wish list. That list of things in life we promise ourselves to accomplish by a certain age. Some of the most successful people in this world started with nothing and turned it into a whole world of opportunities that they not only opened up for themselves but that they opened up for the people following in their footsteps as well. What would have happened if all Oprah had ever said to herself was that she can’t do it? What would have happened if Donald Trump had said that he can’t create an empire?

A large part of the reason that some people never see their goals become reality is because they keep telling themselves they can’t. Instead of focusing on the negatives, the things we can not change, we need to gravitate towards the things that we can do something about. So you don’t have enough money at this exact moment, so start putting aside a little at a time. Eventually a little turns into a lot and will be exactly what you need. Instead of always focusing on what it is you can’t do, start making a list of the things that you can do. Imagine what would happen if we just start telling ourselves that we can.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

If Your Spirit is Willing

April 5, 2011 jcladyluv

“The art of life is a constant readjustment to our surroundings.”
~ K. Okakaura

One of the major things that tend to hold us back in our lives is resistance. We tend to over analyze situations so much that we end up only seeing what the negative would be and totally ignoring the positive. We, in a sense, resist living freely and choose to move more cautiously through life which only hinders us. Now while caution is, at times, a good thing, it closes the door to countless opportunities that may come your way in life that require you to throw caution to the wind. Sometimes we just need to step out on faith and say yes instead of no because if all we ever do is say no when opportunity knocks at our door then eventually opportunity will stop knocking.

Our spirits are always willing participants to new adventures and to opening new doors but sometimes we have to actually listen with our hearts instead of always letting our mind control everything. We can’t over think things and talk ourselves out of going for everything we can grab in life or else we’ll keep coming up with nothing. We have to sometimes do the things that we never thought we would do and go the places that we always said we would never go because somewhere in those things that we never do lies a possible opportunity that can take us to another level in life. We strive to move forward in life but moving forward involves allowing the move to happen and not resisting so much that you have to be dragged kicking and screaming.

We grow through our experiences in our lives but if we never say yes and allow ourselves to actually experience life then we don’t grow, we remain stunted. When I think about how many opportunities for growth that I have missed out on by being so resistant and unwilling to say yes and experience something foreign to me I start to have so many regrets about what could be and about where I could be in my life. But what’s done is done and I can’t change that but I can be more willing now. I have promised myself that for every time that I say no to something I will find three other times where I will say yes. I don’t want to miss out on my blessings because I was too afraid to say anything else but no. Life is too short for me to have to look back on what I’ve done in life and have to think I could’ve done so much more if I had just been more willing. After all what’s the worst that could happen?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

The Mark You Leave Behind

March 31, 2011 jcladyluv

“The purpose of life is not to be happy – but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.”

~Leo Rosten

I didn’t know what I would write about today and then I checked my email inbox and noticed a new (long awaited) blog post from my best friend Ms. L, Blessed to be a Blessing, and suddenly it got me thinking about the marks that people leave on this world. In our conversation the other night in which we pondered the actions of a man that I saw on the show “Secret Millionaire” who literally took the shoes off his own feet and gave them to an elderly man on skid row in L.A. who desperately needed them. We wondered and questioned ourselves as to whether we would actually be so selfless. As much as we would like to think that we are and that we would do something that generous and that kind hearted without so much as a second thought, we could not say with absolute certainty that we would. Given the fact that both of us have discussed many endeavors that we want to delve into in order for us to be in the position to help someone in such a grand way it was pretty shocking for both of us to have come to that reality.

The mark we leave behind in this world should not be notebooks and pads of paper filled with the good intentions that we had planned on doing when we got to the point where we could do them. Ms. L says it best in her post today when she talks about how even the small things that you can see fit to do is still a big thing because it’s the best that we are doing with what we have right now. Frankly, someone giving $10.00 is just as valuable as the person giving $10,000 if the person giving the $10.00 is giving what might be their last little bit they have to give. The value should not be placed in the dollar amount that a person gives but rather in the manner in which they give it and how open their heart is when they are giving it.

Sometimes we are so focused on the fact that we are not able to give all of what we would like to give to help those less fortunate that we end up not giving anything because we think it’s not enough. Every little bit counts and lord knows when I have been down on my luck I never cared whether someone was able to help me with a little or a lot because I looked at as something is better than nothing. Maybe we should think about the marks that we leave behind as just that. Not the grand gestures that we would love for them to be but the very best of ourselves that we have in us to give. Come the day that we are all judged I don’t think that God will be looking at one person who gave just $10.00 as not giving enough if he knew that was all that they had to give. You have to start somewhere or else the mark you leave behind will be no mark at all.

“Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.”

~Edmund Burke

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Defining Moments

March 30, 2011 jcladyluv

“Our lives are a series of defining moments, strung together by passing time. Surrender fully to this moment, because it is not the moment itself that defines us, but how we choose to live in it.”

~Jill Pendley

Imagine having to make a decision today or tomorrow that can potentially define the direction your life takes in the future. In every person’s life there are choices to be made and more often than not the choices get harder to make the closer you get to where it is that you want to be in your life. We all have those moments, whether big or small, that will reshape our lives and define not only who we are and what direction we will take but also what we stand for. Your defining moments, whether positive or negative, will inevitably be the outline for your life and will help you to get some clarity about your life’s purpose and values. It is the way you choose to perceive those moments that will help guide you in one direction or another. The choice is always up to you.

There are times when you may find yourself standing still trying to figure out exactly what moment it was that changed the course of your life? What moment was it that made you the person you are today and would you change things if you could? Apart of being able to make good choices for ourselves is to be able to reflect on the bad decisions that we have made and to use those hard lessons to get it right the next time. There is a lesson to be learned in every experience but that’s not to say that we don’t sometimes need to make those bad choices in order for us to appreciate the times that we do get it right. The difference between a mediocre life and a great one is all in the way a person handles a handful of moments. How they choose to act and react to them. All of our greatest successes and our greatest failures are merely two sides of the same coin and it is all in the function of choice.

All of the moments that helped shape our lives are not going to be positive ones but it is in the challenges that are presented to us that we strive and persevere. Understanding the decisions you’ve made and where those choices have gotten you can make life a little less unpredictable and a lot less confusing and help you realize just where you veered off the course you thought you were on. In order to figure out where your life is headed sometimes you have to realize where your life has been. It provides great comfort knowing whether those decisions you’ve made along the way, good or bad, have helped make you who you are and knowing exactly what impact they have made in your life.

In everyday life you will find that someone is always making you doubt your choices and that life is somehow always trying to knock you down and it may even succeed at keeping you down for a while. It is you who have to take that particular moment in your life and figure out whether you are going to stay knocked down or if you are going to pick yourself back up off the ground and use that moment to empower you to move forward. At each and every crossroads you are free to choose between the high road and the low road. That defining moment is going to be in the decision that you make and that decision that you make could very well affect the course that your life ends up taking. Have you done everything you could’ve done in those moments that life has given you? What do your defining moments say about you and your life and?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jimmetta-Carpenter/1069480310

Are Your Levels Of Optimism Down?

March 23, 2011March 23, 2011 jcladyluv

Believing in yourself is only half the battle of becoming successful in life, because if you don’t believe in you how can you expect anyone else to.

Few Tips on being more optimistic

Make a habit of thinking big. When you think you can, it is much more likely you will! The most successful people didn’t get where they are by thinking they couldn’t do it.

There is always a good side – make a point of finding it in everything you do and in each circumstance that comes your way.

Hold on to your dreams and don’t let go. Adopting an optimistic attitude will make it much easier to persevere.

Thinking positive can be disappointing when things don’t go as planned – Remember that the biggest winners suffered dozens of losses along the way.

Be the Best that you can be. Continually see yourself in an evolving way. Remember that your beliefs impact the way you feel and act

Am I All Out Of Miracles?

March 22, 2011 jcladyluv

Faith isn’t the ability to believe long and far into the misty future. It’s simply taking God at his word and taking the next step.

~Joni Erickson Tada

There comes a point when you decide to make the decision that you want to be an artists full time, but you don’t entirely have the means and resources to make that work, in which you realize that there are going to be an insurmountable amount of stumbles and falls along the way. You might have even romanticized the whole starving artists’ concept and thought it might be cool to rise up from the ashes of despair and make it big proving all of the naysayers wrong. You have probably had more than your fair share of tiny miracles along the way that you didn’t expect but were lifesavers when they presented themselves. Well lately I’ve been feeling defeated and like I might actually be all out of my share of miracles.

In the creative world, we rely a lot on the favor of others and more importantly on the miracles that God provides us with. It’s not like other fields and industries where things are more certain and definitive. For us creative types it is more of a, go where the wind blows, kind of thing. I have went for quite some time now, not really knowing how things were going to work themselves out, just knowing that they would. I have had many moments where I didn’t know what was on the other side but I could see the bright, or sometimes dim, light at the end of a very long tunnel. So what do you do when you can’t see that light anymore and the length of the tunnel has become indefinite?

There are moments when I’ve looked at those bills that come in the mail, and the activities my child can’t do, or the clothes that she needs but I sometimes can’t buy, and I’ve wondered, is God going to leave me hanging this time? Of course I already know that the answer to that question is no but every now and then I feel like maybe I have asked for one too many miracles and one of these days God’s going to get tired of me burdening him. I feel like I should have all of this stuff figured out by now and I should be able to go a long period of time without begging him for his favor.

Logically I do know that through God all things are possible and I realize that God’s love and his favor is limitless and that the miracles that he provides us with are endless. . If people are going to make anything happen in this life the best thing that they could do is to have faith. Faith that things are going to be okay and that God is not going to put you through anything more than what you can handle. Faith in yourself and in the talents and gifts that God has given you and the purpose that he has given your life. Faith that you are not going to really ever run out of miracles so long as you keep reaching out your hands to receive them. From one starving artists’ to all the others, treasure all of your miracles and even when you are doubtful of yourself and your talent, step out on faith and let God do all the rest.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”