Tag: goals

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The Questions We Ask Ourselves, and God (Part 4): How Do I Know I’m On the Right Path?

February 16, 2012 jcladyluv

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

–Jeremiah 29:11

It’s hard to know if the direction you are headed in is the right one. It is even harder to know if the path you are on is the one you are destined for when it seems you continue to make so many mistakes (some mistakes repeatedly). You want there to be some way to know if that dream that you are chasing, and have been for years now, is the right one for you. You want to make sure that when you get to the destination that you are seeking, that you won’t regret the choice you made in picking that particular location. The thing is that you already know, deep down inside of you, if you are on the right path or not.

For a long time I questioned whether being a writer was really my destiny. I still question it sometimes when things seem to be hopeless. But what lets me know that this is my purpose and that I am on the right path is the fact the no matter how many mistakes I have made, they have somehow still all led me right to where I was always meant to be. I am making a living (admittedly lower then what I would like it to be at the time) doing what I love to do more then anything in this world. I am doing what calms me and what heals me. I am doing what God put me on this earth to do, and I am doing it with all of the mistakes I have made included.

Along your journey sometimes you get diverted, redirected, and turned completely around. You go in different directions then you originally saw yourself going in. But are those diversions really unplanned or were they just not a part of your plan. We make plans but our plans always get rerouted when they are not the same as God’s plans. This doesn’t mean that your destiny isn’t what you thought it was. It just means that the mistakes you think you made along the way were God’s way of getting you back on the right track.

The path you take isn’t going to be all on the straight and narrow, nor will it be without experiencing some bumps (and bruises) along the way. That doesn’t mean it’s not the right path for you, just that the right path is not going to be an easy one. You have to remember that you are on the path that God has chosen for you, for whatever reason. Don’t try to reroute God’s path with your own.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

The Questions We Ask Ourselves, and God (Part 2): How Did I End Up Here?

February 14, 2012 jcladyluv

“The first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that you are not going to stay where you are.”

~ Unknown

The way our lives unfold is due to a series of choices. We wonder to ourselves how we ended up in whatever rough spot we are in but it is often because of the choices that we have made over a period of time. Not just one choice, because one misguided choice would be simple to bounce back from. Sometimes it is a succession of choices made that lead us down the path that landed us at that point in our lives.

But you must then take into account where here really is. We often get so caught up with the struggle we are in the midst of that we aren’t focusing on realizing what it is we need to do to get out of that moment. I am extremely guilty of wallowing in whatever overwhelming mess my journey seems to be taking me through. Sometimes it takes me awhile to stop dwelling on the obstacle long enough so that I can see a way through it. I usually tend to waste a lot of time asking ‘How did I get here?’ instead of realizing that maybe, for that particular part of my journey, here is exactly where I needed to be.

Everything happens for a reason and as many times as you will hear that saying, it will probably always take a while for it to sink in. We give so much energy and time to what we can’t change, the obstacle that is sitting dead center in the middle of our journey. It’s time that is wasted. It is time that you can not get back. And all the while, as you stare at that obstacle wondering why you chose that path to begin with, the obstacle is still sitting there. You staring at it and questioning where it came from does not move it out of your way.

Wherever your ‘Here’ is, make sure you don’t waste too much time questioning the obstacle instead of moving through it. And don’t forget to take the lessons you’ve learned with you to your next stop in the road.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

The Company You Keep Could Be Helping You Sabotage Yourself

February 10, 2012 jcladyluv

Number 5 on my list yesterday was ‘Keeping people around you that are not going to give you a swift kick in the ass’ and a part of that is not surrounding yourself with people who constantly try to do everything they can to bring negativity to you. It is always good when you can separate yourself from those that do not support your goals and that do not believe in you. But how do you separate yourself when the people or person who is against you is your family, not just family members, but your own mother.

My mother has never been supportive of my dream of being a writer and she has been very verbal about the fact that she thinks that my pursuing that dream is a huge waste of time. She made her point again today that I am wasting my time with this writing ‘stuff’ as she referred to it.

Years ago that would have bothered me. That would have eaten away at me and seeped inside of my soul with her words eventually starting to be projected in my own voice. That would have sent me into months and months of questioning my dreams and whether I could really make them happen. I would spend months thinking to myself that if my own mother doesn’t believe in me, then who else will.

Like I said, that would have been me years ago. That would have been a form of me self-sabotaging myself by way of my mother’s negativity. Now I know that I can not completely cut my mother off (well I could but she did give birth to me so that would be wrong) but I have learned to distance myself from her. More importantly, when she starts to talk about how my goals and dreams don’t matter and that their not worth the time and effort I am putting into them, I have to learn how to cut her off (respectfully of course) and tell her that I can’t be around the negativity.

I know that you can’t really tune out or walk away from every negative vibe that tries to come within your orbit, but you can’t make your dream a reality if you don’t at least try. Negative energy just breeds more negative energy so if you allow it into your inner circle then you also allow it to influence your spirit. So if you are keeping people around you that are only bringing negative energy to you then it is time to distance yourself from them. Stop sabotaging yourself with the company you are keeping. Until tomorrow…Remember that your kin is not always your kind!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

10 Things We Sometimes Do to Sabotage Ourselves

February 9, 2012 jcladyluv

I was thinking of all the ways and things people do to sabotage themselves. Largely, I was thinking of all of the things that I am doing that are making me sabotage myself. Unknowingly, this week has turned out to be one of looking inward at myself and reflecting on the things that I want and most importantly what I need to change within me to get those things that I am striving for. I had no idea that was what this week would be for me but I am tired of feeling as if I am watching the life I want pass me by. So I made a list of ten things that people do to hold themselves back from success.

Procrastination
Making Excuses
Pointing the finger at everyone else but yourself
Doing a whole lot of planning without a lot of doing.
Keeping people around you that are not going to give you a swift kick in the ass
Not going after every possible opportunity that you can get your hands on
Not taking care of yourself (both mental and physical health) before you take care of others
Open their minds to change and do something new
Say yes to everyone and continue to say no to yourself
Over think everything instead of just doing

Okay so that’s my list of which I am probably guilty of more than half of those things on that list. Tomorrow I will go a little further into self-sabotage and what we can do to stop sabotaging our own destiny.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Conquering Fear Doesn’t Happen Overnight

February 8, 2012 jcladyluv

It is typical for someone to give good advice to others without ever really taking that same advice themselves. I’ve written a lot about not letting fear, whether it is fear of failure or fear of success, stop you from going after your dreams. I stand by that advice but sometimes I just can’t seem to take it myself. It isn’t that I don’t want to let the fear go, it just seems that I can’t. I get moments where I feel fearless and ready to conquer the world. Then something happens to set me back and I get afraid. I find myself afraid that I won’t succeed, then afraid that I will.

I spent a lot of time last night assessing exactly what it is that I seem to be doing wrong, or rather what is wrong with me. Why it is that I keep missing opportunities simply by not going after them in the first place. I look at my best friend Ms. L and watch her hustle her ass off to climb further and further up that ladder. She’s doing what she loves to do and she is going into it all fearlessly. Now Ms. L and I are both in pursuit of the same thing, success doing what it is we love to do. We have different avenues of the media industry that we want to conquer but we are both passionate about creativity and writing and making a living at it. I just can’t seem to mirror that same fierceness she has to hustle.

I sat in my bed last night trying to figure out why. Was it that I didn’t want it as bad anymore? Is it that I just feel that I am not cut out to be my own businesswoman after all? Can it just be that I am not hungry enough for it? No, none of those things apply to me. Then I realized that I’m still afraid. I thought it had gone away. I thought I had talked myself through the phase of being too afraid but somewhere along the way it crept back in. I’m afraid of succeeding but mostly I’m afraid of failing at everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

What I also realized in my moment of self analysis last night was that if I don’t try and give it my all then my fear will come true anyway. I fail without even trying to succeed. Not trying will be failing. I wish I could say that the fear is gone now. I wish that I could say that once it passes this time that it will never creep back in. But I can say that I know that fear is not going to help me get what I want and what I’m destined to have; success. For anyone out there experiencing a serious case of fear, you are not alone. We will overcome it and climb our way up that ladder. It just might take us a little bit longer than others. Until tomorrow…Remember that Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Critics Are Everywhere

February 1, 2012 jcladyluv

“It doesn’t matter if a million people tell you what you can’t do, or if ten million tell you no. If you get one yes from God that’s all you need.”
~Tyler Perry

There is negative energy everywhere. People will try and tear others down simply because they are succeeding at something and they are envious. There may be someone out there who doesn’t like the fact that someone else is hogging what they see as their spotlight. There all critics in their own right and just like we can’t always rely on the negative word of a book or movie reviewer for the next book we will read or movie we will see, we can not rely on the critics who say that we will never become what we know we are destined to become.

I got another Inspirational Corner message in my email from Tyler Perry today. He shared with his fans a clip that was sent to him which, at first glance, looks like a barrage of negative comments hurled at him to discourage him. But as you go on watching the clip, it phases out the negative comments and goes on to display and show all of the comments of encouragement for Tyler, both by his fans and the many actors and actresses he has worked with throughout the years.

Just like that clip, Tyler Perry has managed to tune out all of the negative comments of people who just might not have gotten his vision, and focus in on the words of encouragement and empowerment for him. There were so many people who told him no. There were so many people who told him that there was just no place for him in the industry. People told him that the world just wouldn’t buy what he was trying to sell. He had been shut down so many times by so many negative critics but he never let that stop him. Look at him now.

My message today is to say that even the most successful people that you see today have been told no and have been told that they would never get to where they were trying to go. They did it by letting the negative comments roll right off their back and putting their focus into the words of encouragement that helped fuel their desire. They never gave up until they were right where they said they were going to be, at the top. So to all of the future success stories out there that are climbing your way to the top, don’t let the critics slow down your rise. Until tomorrow…Just press on and tune out anything that’s going to get in your way!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

10 Commandments of a Successful Writer

January 28, 2012 jcladyluv

Today I started thinking of things that I could do to be a better, more successful writer. Things that I am not already doing or that I am not doing enough of. I began thinking if there were Ten Commandments for a writer what would they be. So I compiled a list of some things that I think should be a commandment for a writer to follow, at least one that wants to be successful at it.

Write Every Day (No Matter What!)
Start a blog and blog frequently, if not everyday
Make your presence known on the internet. If you don’t have one already, get a Facebook page, a Twiiter account, and a LinkedIn account.
Maintain your presence on the internet by committing yourself to social networking daily
Read about the Business of writing and your craft. You can never know too much about what it is you love to do
Trust your talent and your skill. If you don’t believe in your talent, who else will
Get a thick skin because there will be rejection letters, probably more than you would ever like to see, but you have to keep believing in your talent.
Read consistently. You have to be a great reader to be an even better writer.
Network with other artists, not just writers
Start calling yourself a writer to the rest of the world because you are one.

Well the list probably isn’t perfect but those are definitely some things that I know that I need to work on to become a better and more successful writer. What would you guys add to this list or better yet, what would your list read? Until tomorrow…Always strive to be a better writer than you were yesterday!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

The Power of Believing

January 27, 2012 jcladyluv

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”

~Frank Lloyd Wright

I was watching The Talk earlier today and they were going around their table asking if anyone believed in psychics. There was one woman that said she didn’t, two women who were proud to say that they do, and the other two women who said that they believed in psychics but that they would never give into that belief by actually going to see one. I sat there watching as a person who does believe in them. I will even admit that I actually got a reading from one a long time ago and it was pretty accurate (for the most part). I got to thinking why it is that some people don’t believe, some people believe whole heartedly, and some believe but don’t want to give into their belief.

The power of what you believe in can carry you through many things in life. Just as well, the power of you not believing can carry a lot of weight too. When it comes to your life, your goals, and your dreams, you have to believe. No one else can believe in your dreams for you. The question is how strong is your belief in you? I think that people (like me) who believe in psychics, believe because they want to have a road map of how things are going to turn out. They want to know if what they want out of life is going to become a reality. They want someone, in this case a psychic, to give them something to believe in, some kind of assurance. They want that psychic to give them a reason to believe. But a psychic can’t really do the believing for you. That’s all up to you.

You know they say that all you need to do to make your dreams come true is to believe that they can. No one has a magic crystal ball where they can look and tell you whether or not what you believe in will come to fruition. There’s no way of knowing whether or not all of your hard work will pay off. But there is power in believing. We have to remember that no matter how hard the obstacles may seem to get or how impossible they might seem to overcome, nothing is more powerful then the belief that we have in ourselves and in our dreams. Until tomorrow…How powerful is your belief in your dreams?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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

http://www.passionatewriterpublishing.com/thediary.htm

Make a Pledge To Yourself Today

January 26, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so I wasn’t really sure what I was going to post about tonight but then as luck would have it I came across something that someone had given me a long time ago. It was a pledge that they had made up for themselves to remind themselves of the goals they have and that they should never give up on them and to strive to better the next day and the day after that. I believe I was having one of those days where I was doubting everything about me and my dreams and my capability of making them happen. So they passed this on to me to lift my spirits and so that I can be reminded by looking at these words every time that I needed to be reminded. So I decided that I would pass these same words along to you. I hope that you get at much out of these words as I have gotten.

A Pledge To Myself

Today I pledge

To be the best possible me

No matter how good I am

I know that I can become better

Today I pledge

To build up the work of yesterday

Which will lead me into

The rewards of tomorrow

Today I pledge

To feed my mind knowledge

My body strength,

And my spirit faith

Today I pledge

To reach new goals,

New challenges

And new horizons

Today I pledge

To listen to the beat of my drummer

Who leads me onward in search of my dreams

Today I pledge to believe in ME

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”