Author: jcladyluv

Jimmetta Carpenter was born and raised in the Prince George’s County Maryland and has had a very big imagination since a very early age. Her love of words has allowed her to express herself in ways in which verbally she can not. She is a freelance writer, blogger, and the author of a collection of poetry, The Art of Love under the Pseudonym Gemini and is currently working on several novels.

Are you too afraid to take a chance?

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No one ever gets anywhere in life by resolving to never step out of their comfort zone.  So today think of all of the risks that you are afraid to take and all of the opportunities that you are afraid to make the changes for and take a leap of faith.  Nothing can ever change unless you change it. 

 

Tips on becoming less resistant to change 

  • Learn the power of saying YES!– anytime someone ask you to do something instead of being so quick to say no try saying yes every time (unless it’s illegal or something) 
  • Try one new thing each week – make it something that ordinarily you would never do 
  • Ask yourself “What is the worst that could Happen” – remember that nothing beats a failure but a try 
  • Exercise Mindfulness– When there’s something that you are scared to try or in fear of identify with it and acknowledge that it’s there.  Face it head on. 
  • Realize that you are not perfect– If you try something new and it doesn’t work out just the way you wanted it to don’t get discouraged from trying other things that might work.  Mistakes happen.

Are your regrets holding you back?

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Tips on how to live without regrets 

  • Make a list of your aspirations- This makes your goals more real and tangible.  Putting it down on paper makes it easier for you to visualize them becoming a reality.
  • Build yourself up- As you begin to check off those goals and aspirations from your list acknowledge to yourself what it is that you’ve accomplished.  Celebrate your completed steps toward success.
  • Keep yourself anchored- Keep little visual reminders around you of what it is you want out of life and what your priorities are.  Use your anchors (visual reminders) to help you continue to aim high in all that you do.
  • Be Grateful- Remember that whatever situation you are in there is someone out there that has it worse and that has to work through more of a battle to get where they’re going then you do.  So be thankful for the life you have.
  • Always Treasure your time- Realize that achieving your goals should be rewarding every step of the way and not just when you get to the end.  Make sure that when you are mapping out your future that you are also relishing in your present.  Nothing causes more regret then letting the good times slip away.
  • Always find a way to learn something- There is a lesson in everything.  Both your accomplishments and your failures hold lessons that you should be able to take something away from.  Pay attention, look around, and learn from what you see.  Also learn from the experience of others around you.

Writing in the Reality of the Moment

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“Reality isn’t the way you wish things to be, nor the way they appear to be, but the way they actually are.”

~Robert J. Ringer

I am a writer of many things.  Fiction of all types, poetry, articles that motivate and uplift, and articles that are meant to inform.  No one who writes, unless they particularly write nothing but children’s fairytales, is going to always produce things that are considered motivating and uplifting.  Some things that people write are just real.  It comes from a place of reality and living in the present moment and in the knowledge of knowing that, as much as we would like it to be true, every moment of people’s lives is not going to always be happy and uplifting and completely void of negative obstacles.  That’s just not the reality of things.  

So when someone tells me that an article that I wrote to be informative and educate people, who may or may not know certain aspects of a health related disease, is stemming from a place of darkness and negativity it makes me want to literally curse them out and throw something, preferably at them.  This particular person would like me to write of nothing but motivating and uplifting things and speak of absolutely nothing that might be negative.  That’s not real for me.  

For one I don’t consider the article that I wrote, “The Rise of Lung Cancer in Non-smoking women”, to be dark and negative.  It simply is meant to inform people on things they may not even know concerning the disease.  I was informed just by researching the subject.  Secondly, I don’t feel like I have to be placed in this box as a writer of only writing and producing motivational articles.  I like to write a little bit of everything but most importantly I like to keep whatever I write (except for fiction) very real. 

The funny thing to me is that someone making that type of comment to me appeared and came off as completely negative.  As if they were someone just trying to get me riled up and trying to plant seeds of doubt or self consciousness in my mind.  It’s almost as if they somehow thought that this would make me just all of a sudden change my style of writing and the things that I put out there for the world to see.  

Truthfully it did make me angry but it didn’t deter me from writing my way and on my terms.  I write from the heart, whatever way I happen to feel, whatever information I want to convey or educate people with.  While I do love when people like what it is that I have written, I write for me first and for the world second.  Now maybe that’s wrong in some people’s eyes but if I wrote to try and please everyone else then I may possibly be the one who is not pleased with what I am writing and then I am no longer writing for the sheer love of writing.  

My words to the world of writers today is to always stay true to who you are in your writing.  Everyone is not going to like what you have to say but the important thing is that you say it, however you want to say it.  Write for the moment you are living in and from the place you are coming from.  Don’t ever let anyone else dictate what your voice as a writer should be. 

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

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/ 

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter

 

The Hand We Were Dealt

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“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.”

~Arthur Golden

“That which doesn’t kill us can only make us stronger.”  It’s a phrase that quite frankly I sometimes get tired of hearing but as cliché as it may sound the statement is very much true.  Often times we get overwhelmed by things that are simply beyond our control and aren’t really able to step away from the situation and discover the value in the hardship.  Difficult times can also be good times in the sense that our struggles not only make us better but they make us stronger as well.  With life there comes adversity and while we don’t exactly expect it nor look for it and we most certainly don’t enjoy experiencing it, it is inevitable but most importantly it is necessary.    

There are many faces of adversity and many lessons that it teaches us.  One of the more important ones that I have come to take to heart is that when one door closes there will be another one to open.  The thing is that you have to stop dwelling on the door that has just closed in order to see the other doors that are opening up for you.  There are many starters in life, however, very few people actually finish what it is they started.  When we want something and experience obstacles on the way to our goals we can’t just give up because it gets too hard.  Everything that is meant for us to have in life is not going to come easily.  Instead of focusing solely on the obstacles that are standing in our way we have to persevere long enough and have enough self-control and discipline in what it is that we want and go that extra mile to obtain it. 

We can’t just get the sweet out of life without getting a little bit of the bitter.  If there were nothing to challenge us how could we truly be able to enjoy our accomplishments and be proud of our successes?  Part of succeeding through any adversity is hanging on even when deep down inside you really want to let go.  It is in the bitter moments that we find our inner strengths and are able to discover what we are really made of.  Adversity is bound to be a part of our lives but how well we come out on the other side of it greatly depends on the way we choose to face it.  I think that with the bitter that we get in life we become even more equipped to appreciate the sweet and not take what it is that we do have for granted. 

“If you live with a problem long enough it could eventually become your blessing.”  Sometimes adversity presents itself in our lives solely for the purpose of change.  Change in our beliefs, change in the way we think and the way we view things.  Even change in the way that we view ourselves.  Despite that little voice inside your head that constantly tells you that you can’t do it, there is a solution to every problem and a way to overcome any and every obstacle.  You just have to change with the situation and keep reminding yourself that you can do anything as long as you have the determination and the will to do it.  It isn’t the hardship in itself that stops us dead in our tracks on the way to our destination.  It is us refusing to change the focus of where we are going and not being willing to accept that an obstacle has come along and we just have to change our course of action and redirect ourselves.  I believe that everything happens in our lives for a reason and that there is a lesson in every mistake that we make and a blessing in every obstacle that we overcome.   But if we don’t somehow embrace the situation and the cards that were dealt to us and stop wasting time dodging all of our roadblocks instead of facing them head on then we may just end up missing the bigger picture. 

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

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/ 

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter

 

It’s Get Organized Monday

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I don’t know about most of you but Monday is the day that I set my goals that I want to achieve for the week (well really, it’s Sunday night but it’s in preparation for Monday).  Putting together a to-do list for the week gives me motivation to really be proactive and achieve the things on that list.  Here are some tips that maybe you could use to jump start your week.

 

  • Set realistic goals for yourself– Your goals must be realistic for you to achieve for long term sustainability. Clarify what has the highest priority and what are the things that absolutely must get accomplished in order to make your goals attainable (and by attainable I mean you know that if you make a two page list of things to do, more than likely everything will not get done).
  • Break it down– Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you expect things to happen overnight then you are setting yourself up for failure. Focus on breaking down your goals and take the small but important steps to achieve them. You’ll be amazed at how much motivation can come from doing such a simple action.
  • Monitor your progress– Be open and aware to what is happening. Always keep your goals in sight and monitor your progress toward them. Regular monitoring provides you with the guideposts to keep you on track.
  • Learn from your experiences– Always approach your goals with the aim of learning and developing. If you can learn from your experiences then your results will be much more rewarding and sustainable. Keep asking yourself what works for you and align your actions with the answer.
  • Reflect and Reward– When you achieve your goals, or even the little milestones on the way, make sure you reflect on your experiences and draw out the positive aspects you learned from them. Plan your rewards when you set your goals and go for it and if by the end of the week you have achieved even just half of your list celebrate the accomplishments instead of dwelling on what tasks didn’t get accomplished.  It doesn’t mean that the goals you set were not attainable, just sometimes life happens and things don’t get done.  Whatever you didn’t get to this week can just be placed on next week’s list.  

Are you living up to your purpose?

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Tips on working to fulfill your purpose 

  • Focus on your potential– Begin by making a complete assessment of yourself.  Take a mental inventory of your talents and the things that you do well. 
  • Find your strengths– Focusing on what your strengths are is important.  There may be things that you are good at and do well but they are not your strong point.  It is important to know the difference in something that you do well and what you are strong at doing. 
  • Setting Goals– Setting goals for yourself must involve you being realistic.  Only set goals that you first, want to actually achieve, and second, that are possible for you to achieve.  Setting the impossible goals only makes you frustrated when you don’t accomplish them. 
  • Powerful Visualization– Get into the habit of visualizing your success.  Don’t just sit around and daydream about getting where you need to be in life, actually get there.  You need to visualize the specifics of exactly what it is that you want and what it will take to get there.  
  • Improve Your Level of Efficiency– To develop your full potential becoming a more efficient person and getting more done in less time so that you can take advantage of the opportunities that you make for yourself is key.   
  • You have to beat procrastination– The first step in beating procrastination is to admit to yourself how often you do it and assess your methods of doing it.  Also planning ahead and becoming more organized also helps with procrastination.

Visualizing Your Destiny

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“Destiny is no matter of chance. It is a matter of choice: It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.”

~ William Jennings Bryan 

No one ever said that having a vision would be easy.  When you’re in middle school and you’re asked what it is you want to be when you grow up, you never imagine just how much work goes into accomplishing what that goal is.  When we were kids we used to see a doctor or a lawyer on television and think, oh I can do that, not putting any thought into what kind of determination that it takes to get there.  Being older we can put into perspective what it truly takes to accomplish what it is that you feel is your destiny.  

Sitting around and waiting for your dreams to suddenly become a reality is a habit that a lot of people, especially us creative types, tend to fall into without even realizing that we are doing it.  But what we want out of life is not going to get accomplished by sitting around and waiting, or procrastinating.  They say that life is what you make it and that applies just as much to our goals and dreams that we want for our life.  If you want to be a doctor, you have to put in the work, and that means everything that comes with it.  If you want to be a published author, then you have to work at that too.  

If you are someone who always expects things to come to you, then more often than not, you will be sitting on the sidelines of life.  You might find yourself in your thirties wondering what happened to your life and why you have nothing to show for it.  You are what you have made of yourself.  You have to work for what it is that you want and make of yourself what it is that you are destined to be. 

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

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/ 

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter

Are your struggles getting the better of you?

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Tips for Dealing with Adversity

 

  • Thankfulness-  Be thankful for the adversity.  Adversity is God’s way of saying you are worthy of his teachings.

 

  • Patience- The key to getting through adversity is having patience and knowing that in the end everything will work out the way that it is intended to.

 

  • Acceptance-  Accept the hand that you were dealt with.  There is no sense in dwelling on what didn’t happen.  You can’t change that, you can only accept it and move forward.

 

  • Maintain a Creative Mind- Eliminate boredom otherwise it will lead you toward frustration and depression.

 

  • Understanding Why This? Vs Why Me? –  Asking why me doesn’t provide any answers, it just makes you feel guilty for having asked it in the first place.  Why not you?  No one is immune to pain.  Simply re-word the question and ask Why This?  Asking why this typically leads you to an understanding of your past thoughts and actions that may have contributed to the situation and will lead you to a resolution.

 

  • Work Toward the Future- Even if you do not feel things are moving forward, work on creating the future you desire.  Commit by writing out your goals and desires and network with like-minded people.  Each step you take, no matter how small, moves you toward your future.

 

  • Trust- Let Go and Let God.  All we really have control over is our actions and a gut feeling (or hearts desire) of what we hope the outcome of our lives to be.  Trust the Universe will provide you with exactly what you need when you need it.

Staying the Course

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“When you feel like giving up, remember why you held on for so long in the first place.”

~ Unknown

 Often times in life while trying to strive toward our dreams and make them come true we tend to get off track and stray from the course.  We start to lose momentum and seem to forget what matters the most.  We lose focus and let other things and people become more important and change the direction in which we are going.    So when do we reprioritize our lists of goals and finally get focused enough to turn them into the reality that we want them to be?  

Apart of staying focused on moving forward with your future involves letting go of certain things from your past.  Sometimes we don’t realize that we tend to hold onto what hinders us the most because we like what feels familiar and comfortable.  In order to stay focused you have to be willing to put other things that are not conducive to you achieving your ultimate goal aside.  You have to come to the realization that whether we want them to or not people and circumstances do change and the people that we re-route our lives for may not be going in the same direction. 

How our life ends up depends on how driven we are to get what we want out of it.  However that involves knowing exactly what it is that you want and what it’s going to take to get there.  Being focused takes practice and action and the process begins in the mind.  Once you’ve set your goal than all that’s left is putting it in motion and if you act like you already have what you want you’ll feel as if you’ve already succeeded.  You have to have the confidence that you will attain your dreams because without that confidence you’ll start to let in the doubt.  

Being focused is a journey in which you have to keep learning and practicing along the way.  You’re directions and paths may change and you may even get sidetracked from time to time but you can’t get distracted when what you’ve always wanted could be right within your reach.  Its hard to just throw caution to the wind and toss out all of the things that are familiar to you but if you want to get the best out of your life than you have to take action every day because there’s no time to waste. Actions speak louder than words, and nothing in life ever just happens. 

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

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/ 

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter

Are You Just Another Busy Body?

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Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin. 

~Victor Kiam 

How serious are you about your art and exactly how much are you willing to sacrifice to invest something in it? 

More and more everyday I am reminded of just how short life really is and as a writer I get to thinking about how much time I waste on a daily basis doing things that are not going to help me get to where I need to be in life.  With the hours that I have spent watching television that was not necessary to watch I could’ve literally written quite a few novels by now.  The same goes for the hours that I have spent on the telephone with non-productive idle chit chat.  

It seems as though I am always busy yet somehow I still feel like I don’t get anything done, or at least not as much as I should.  While I am productive to an extent I certainly have begun to realize that my output could be so much more then what it is.  But I have come to a reality that just because someone is busy being busy doesn’t mean that they are being productive. 

One of the two key elements in trying to remain productive is time management and using the time that you have available in the most efficient way is a crucial component and affects just how productive you are or can be.  It’s really easy to let life’s little distractions turn into excuses as to why you’re not actually working towards what you want but those excuses don’t get you any closer to what it is that you are trying to accomplish.  You have to know your limits and be more realistic about your time.  While you do need to establish a routine to effectively balance the workload that you have you can not create a schedule that works if you don’t manage your time well thus knowing how much time to designate to any given task. 

You also have to know your distractions and how to avoid them.  For example my distraction is television.  I have come to understand that for me to produce the amount of work I feel I should be putting out I need to go somewhere where there is not a television so I have adjusted to going to the library or a coffee shop in order to get my writing done.  Everyone’s distractions are different but you need to recognize them and adjust them according to the time that you have available.  Productivity begins with you having an awareness of what works and what doesn’t. 

Another key element in productivity is prioritizing.  You have to know what you want most in order to know what to do first.  You also have to know your goals before you can productively meet them.  If it takes you making a list so that you can better visualize what it is that you need to do in order to meet those goals then it’s time to pick up your pen and get writing.  Most of us don’t have a problem coming up with things that we want to get done but when we try to keep everything in our head that’s when it can get overwhelming.  A little organization and prioritizing of your time can go a long way.  Once you have that list written out you can become more organized about how to achieve those goals and assessing their levels of priority which will make your output that much greater.  

Time is very precious and valuable and if you don’t use it well and do what needs to be done in the amount of time that you have then you are wasting time that you will not get back again.  Saying you are too busy is not going to get things accomplished because the truth of the matter is that if you were busy doing what needed to be done then you wouldn’t be scrounging around for the time to do it.  

Look at what it is that you are so busy doing and evaluate it.  What is it in your “busy” day that can be cut out?  How much of what you do can be eliminated from your schedule to allow for the necessary things.  Learn how to manage your time because if you don’t you’re just going to wake up one day wondering to yourself where did all the time go and how come I’m still not where I wanted to be.  It’s because you can’t be productive if you’re not prioritizing your time.  Time can not be re-created so I suggest that we procrastinators stop being busy just to be busy, and get busy producing greatness.

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

https://writetobe.wordpress.com/

http://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

http://freemynd.wordpress.com/

http://spokenlikeaqueen.blogspot.com/ 

www.lulu.com/ladybugpress

www.authorsden.com/jimmettacarpenter