Tag: Inspiration

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What is There to Wait For?

January 10, 2012January 10, 2012 jcladyluv

“Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.”

~Dr. Robert Anthony

When someone in the gym this morning asked why I didn’t wait for them to go start my running I simply said I’m not waiting for anyone this year. It got me to thinking about just how much time I have spent (or rather wasted) waiting around for something or someone. It seems like I was always the one that would wait for people to come along, or come around and who in turn wanted people to wait around for me.

I guess I must have had some sort of revelation when this year kicked into gear because my attitude became one of not wanting to wait around for anyone anymore, or for anything to just happen. Not even waiting around for the other shoe to drop as I typically do as well. How many minutes or hours do people spend just waiting? I am tired of waiting for other people, or even having people waiting for me to do something that they already know they need to do.

Now I am not speaking of every single aspect of your life but when it comes to doing something that you know has to get done, don’t sit around waiting, not even for that person that said they were going to be right there alongside you. I wish I could get back all of the time that I’ve wasted waiting around for something to happen, waiting for someone to get their act together, waiting for someone to give me great opportunities to exercise the talent that I possess, even waiting for inspiration to just strike (as I posted about yesterday).

The fact of the matter is that I can’t just sit and wait because there isn’t anymore time for that. Too much time has already gone by. Now it’s time to get my butt into high gear and get busy making what I want happen and not waiting around letting opportunities just fall through the cracks. Until tomorrow…Can you count how much time you’ve wasted just waiting around?

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

Looking for Inspirational Surroundings

January 9, 2012 jcladyluv

I am sitting in the corner of my room that is designated as ‘my office’ and looking at my empty bulletin board and I am not feeling inspired at the moment. I run into this problem at the beginning of every year. I want to put new and inspiring things up on my bulletin board but I don’t quite know what to put up there. I have some pictures up surrounding the bulletin board but I’m thinking about changing them. I am trying not to let the lack of inspiration in front of my desk stop me from being productive but it is easier said than done.

I had a battle with procrastination today and I think that procrastination may have won this one. I think that I am going to take a little time this evening to finally fill my bulletin board and the walls around my desk area full of inspiration and try again tomorrow to be my most productive self. I guess every day can’t always be a good writing day. Until tomorrow…What inspiration is surrounding you in your office?

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 Gift of Giving

December 23, 2011December 23, 2011 jcladyluv

“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by ‘I was hungry and you gave me food to eat, I was naked and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in. Hungry not only for bread — but hungry for love. Naked not only for clothing — but naked for human dignity and respect. Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks — but homeless because of rejection.”
~Mother Teresa

When Christmas comes around every year we get so caught up in worrying about what gift we are going to get for which person and whether or not we will be able to get everything that the kids wrote down on their lists or dropped hints about way back around Halloween. I admit that I am guilty of being determined to get every single little thing on my daughter’s list (knowing that I can’t possibly in good conscience get everything). I admit that it is for the sheer joy of seeing her face light up as the gifts go under the tree and on Christmas morning when she thinks I’m a rock star because I actually made the attempt to get everything she wanted.

Now I have explained to my daughter that Christmas is not in fact about getting gifts (as society has made it out to be) but I think that when she continually sees adds and cartoons and other children so focused on getting gifts that it’s still hard for her to understand what Christmas really means. They say this is the season of giving but I’m not sure that whoever said that meant gifts of toys and all sorts of material possessions. There is so much that we have to give to this world and our children then just the latest toys or electronics and video games.

There are a lot of reasons that I would like to be wealthy but one of the main reasons for me is so that I can be in a position to help people who are struggling and need it the most. I was watching the news this morning and there was a woman who talked about her foundation that she started to help the families of the wounded and deceased navy seals who died or were injured in the war inIraq. All I could think of in watching this story was ‘I wish there was something that I could do to help’. In fact I would love to be able to be someone else’s Christmas Angel for once.

I got to thinking about all of the many different foundations out there put in place to help others and made a small list which I included below. I think that everyone should compose a small list of what they would do to help if they could. Maybe it will inspire someone out there who has forgotten what the true meaning of Christmas is to be reminded once again.

Make a Wish Foundation
Local Homeless Shelter
Habitat for Humanity
UNICEF
Locks of Love
The People inHaiti
The People in Japan
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
The International Child Art Foundation (ICAF)

These are just a few of the organizations that I have wanted to help in one way or another for quite some time now. This gives me even more motivation to see my dreams through, so that I can firmly place myself in a position to be able to help others struggle just a little less so they can see their dreams become a reality and then hopefully they would one day be able to do the same for someone else. What organizations would you place on your list? Until tomorrow…Remember that we are all worth more than just the things that we possess.

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

NaNoWriMo Day 21: Do I Have To Show Up?

November 21, 2011 jcladyluv

The answer to that question is yes.

My best friend wrote a blog post yesterday about showing up even when we sometimes don’t feel like it. She was referring to instances that happen within life but primarily she was speaking of showing up to the keyboard even when you don’t feel like writing. I am guilty of not showing up when I really just don’t feel like it. I make many excuses about just needing time for my brain to decompress or about the ideas not coming to me, or at least not in the manner I would like them to. Sometimes it’s simply just because I would rather read or worse, watch something on the TV. That is unacceptable of me. Me, who wants to eventually earn a spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Me, who wants to become as famously known as Joyce Carol Oates, Zane, Maya Angelou, Terry McMillan, Mary B. Morrison, James Patterson, Eric Jerome Dickey, and Sue Grafton. Me, who wants to be able to pump out, at minimum, seven to eightbooks a year, more if possible. Me, who wants to build my brand and create a whole new Media empire and put out a new online magazine (Write 2 Be Magazine) at the beginning of next year. I have way too many things that I want to do in my life and there are not enough hours as it is to do them in so I can not afford to NOT show up.

I am very thankful for my best friend, Ms. L. because it seems like she always knows the right things to say and at just the right time that I need to hear them. She is so inspirational and I don’t think she knows just how much. It’s good to have people surround you who know what you need to hear and know when to remind you of the things you already knew. So when I whine to myself about not feeling like writing and I ask myself (in the most whiny voice possible) ‘Do I have to?’, the answer will from now on be YES! Because I know what I need to do and what I have to do to accomplish it and I just simply cannot afford not to Show Up. Until next time…Show up to your keyboard everyday, you won’t be sorry, I promise!

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

What Would You Do If You Were Not Afraid?

October 11, 2011 jcladyluv

“Whatever you fear most has no power—it is your fear that has the power.

~Oprah Winfrey

I was watching the interview that Oprah did with facebook’s COO, Sheryl Sandberg the other night and I managed to get some really inspirational things from it, but that’s no surprise considering it is Oprah. I think that the most insightful thing that I got from it was when Oprah talked about the fear she had at starting her own cable network. She said that one of the ways that she was able to move past that fear was to make a list of all of the things that she would do if she were not afraid to do them. I immediately jotted down a few notes and started pondering what my list would look like.

Now anyone who knows me knows that I am the queen of list making so of course I couldn’t just sit and ponder what would be on my list, I had to actually make my list. The funny thing was that I put quite a few things on that list that I didn’t even realize that I actually had a yearning to do. There were things that I am so afraid of doing that I had somehow convinced myself that I didn’t want to do those things simply out of fear. In writing them down and being completely honest with myself I realized that I do want to do those things, I’m just scared to. But what kind of existence can I possibly have always being afraid to do what it is I really want to do?

We are all afraid of something. Fear is just a part of life. We are going to be afraid of something, and it is even going to trip us up for a while, but how long do you let that fear control the destination of your journey? I know I can’t kick that habit of fear overnight, hell probably not even in a month or so, but I know it’s not helping me meet my goals. I think that I am going to put my list up on my bulletin board in an effort to remind me of all of the things that I am missing out on by being afraid to do them, or at the very least try.

So since I am a little bit afraid to share any part of this list with the rest of the world for fear of becoming vulnerable I am in fact going to share a part of that list:

Open my own bookstore
Go to culinary arts school and pursue opening my own restaurant.
Write a soap opera and present it for production.
Write a stage play and get it produced.
Hound a national magazine or newspaper until they hire me to write for them.
Start my own internet talk/radio show.
Audition for the X-factor.
Start doing motivational speaking to kids and teens in elementary and high schools about the dangers of bullying.

Okay so that was only a small part of my list but I don’t want to go sharing everything. So I think that everyone should go make their own list of what they would do if they were not afraid. If you don’t mind sharing maybe you could leave a comment and share one of those things that you would do. If it’s out there, then there’s no reason to be afraid anymore, right? Even if you don’t share make the list anyway, you just might find it liberating. Until next time…Do what it is you are most afraid of!

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 Theme of It All

September 26, 2011 jcladyluv

I was talking to Ms. L the other night and we were reminiscing about T.V. show theme songs from back in the 90’s and before you knew it we were googling some of those theme songs and singing along with them into the wee hours of the morning. We went from the Mary Tyler Moore show, All in the Family, and Good Times, to Growing Pains, Family Matters, and Friends. There were many more and perhaps even a CD of theme songs may have been involved but I won’t run down the entire list. In between singing these songs together, we even shared common gripes about the fact that it seems as though most of the TV shows now do not have theme songs and how we missed them.

I realized, somewhere between Perfect Strangers and Laverne and Shirley, that the difference between television shows then and now is that the writers seemed to want their shows to be graced with theme songs that were motivating and that uplifted their audiences into believing in themselves and in their dreams. The songs promoted family unity and families supporting one another through good times and bad, and through the things they want to accomplish. Now there are no theme songs, just a flash of music in the beginning of the shows and sometimes a few words to the beat of a random song, but no real theme song. No real promotion of family unity or uplifting of the spirit. It’s almost as if the writers of the shows stopped caring, along with the rest of the world, of the spirit of the people that watch their shows.

The theme shows from before were large reasons that I watched those shows in the first place. The songs would get me motivated and before the show even began I was rooting for those people, for their dreams, and for their family. I got valuable lessons from those promotions of family unity and the empowerment of following your dreams through the music of the theme songs. So when did they stop feeling the need to inspire the audience and to motivate and uplift them? When did the writers of the T.V. shows stop realizing that we still need that push and that empowerment, even if it is in the simple form of a song at the beginning of a show?

Sometimes it is the littlest things that can give someone the inspiration they need to do something different. The writers of these television shows may just see it as an insignificant theme song that cost too much for just that one minute sound bite, but that one minute sound bite might be just what that one person in their intended audience needs to hear. It might be what gets them moving and gets them motivated and lights a fire under them to do something great. That one minute sound bite is more than worth what it cost if it incites someone to be better and be greater than what they were before they sat down to watch their show.

In one of her blog posts, Ms. L said that we sometimes think that with us just being one person, what we do doesn’t count and that it doesn’t make a difference. But one person actually can make a difference and even when you might not think that what you say or do is affecting someone else, there’s a great chance that it is in fact touching someone else’s life in some way. Those writers of television shows may not think anything of the theme songs of the shows in television history and may not consider it worth their time or money to go that extra mile to find or create something that will incite inspiration but I would assure them that those songs mattered and they meant something and if anything it made people more drawn to watch. Just as everything a person does matters, what they don’t do also speaks volumes. Until next time…Do what you do best, even when you think no one will care or is paying attention; chances are that someone is watching!

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

Are You Waiting for the Muse To Strike?

August 15, 2011 jcladyluv

“It is by sitting down to write every morning that one becomes a writer.”

~Gerald Brenan~

There are a lot of notions and fantasies about being a writer. The idea of waiting for the muse to suddenly walk into your atmosphere and only writing when inspired is a nice way to look at the life of a writer and a very nice fantasy. It’s the way I looked at writing once upon a time, largely due to the fact that at one point in my life it seemed as if the muse never left me and I was always inspired in one way or another. I never had a problem with only writing when inspiration struck because with me it always seemed to strike. It was when the muse left and the inspiration was no longer an everyday occurrence that I started to wonder, “If the inspiration isn’t there and the muse is gone and I am not writing at a steady flow, can I still consider myself a writer?”

There are still those writers’ who are always inspired and the muse seems to always be there for them and that is a wonderful thing. But that alone is not the only thing makes a person a writer. A person can still be a writer even if it means them having to appoint a designated time to write and put together a schedule of the projects that they need to work on. Scheduling a time to write does not remove the artistic creativity in writing like so many people seem to think. I mean if you think about it, that makes more sense doesn’t it? A person who makes a living as a freelance writer can not simply wait to be inspired. They have to make a plan of action and follow through with it or they don’t make a living.

When I think of all of the time I have wasted waiting for some miraculous moment of inspiration to just jump up and hit me, I try not to think about the amount of novels I could’ve finished, or all of the magazines that I could’ve queried by now, or all of the many ideas I could have made come into fruition. What makes a writer is someone who puts tenacity and determination behind their drive to write and sitting in that chair behind that desk in front of that computer even though the words might not come that day.

Well if you are out there, sitting around and waiting for your muse and inspiration to suddenly strike like lightening, I am going to tell you that while you are waiting your ideas are going to waste. Your characters are going to stop speaking to you, and the stories that they are trying to tell you are disappearing and losing ground. While you are waiting, the ideas for those articles that you want to pitch to those prestigious magazines are being written by someone else who knew better then to wait. The screenplays that you are dreaming about writing are already being written by some other writer and you will no doubt be seeing them on the big screen wishing you had woken up out of your sleep and put those ideas down on paper.

It’s always nice when you can get inspired by something or someone and when you can find that perfect moment of uninterrupted inspiration. But how many novels could you have written while you were waiting for that moment? How many magazines could you have seen your articles placed in waiting for that one thing that inspires you to sit down and write? Shouldn’t seeing your name in print be inspiration enough? It is for me. Until next time….make every moment count, even the uninspired ones!

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

In the Land of Writer’s Block

August 10, 2011 jcladyluv

For a long time I thought that writer’s block was simply a person being unable to write anything at all and unable to come up with ideas for things to write about. While that is an aspect of the term writer’s block. I didn’t think of the alternative which was that a person would be able to write, just not producing anything worth publishing.

For a few months now I have been able to come up with ideas, research projects, and even create details for my writing projects for when I get back to actually writing. The problem was that I wasn’t feeling motivated to actually write. It was simply a bad case of letting life’s road blocks get in my way and affect my inspiration.

Even as I am writing this and trying to get back into the swing of things I still feel somewhat blocked. I mean I am beginning to feel more motivated and inspired to write and I am actually able to produce some wonderful work worth sharing when I get ready but I still feel that in many ways I am not back to my old self, full of inspiration and letting the muse take me on it’s many journey’s. I still feel somewhat blocked.

I am not sure which one is worse, being blocked in a way of not being able to create anything whatsoever, or being blocked in the sense of I can produce work but have it not be worth showcasing or up to your own expected standard of work. I guess I’ll have to get back to you on that one once I figure it out. Well I’m off to trying to be more productive today. Until next time, be blessed!!!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”