Tag: Jimmetta Carpenter

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

Staying the Course

March 7, 2011March 7, 2011 jcladyluv

“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

Are You Just Another Busy Body?

March 5, 2011 jcladyluv

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

Still Standing

February 21, 2011 jcladyluv

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.
— Eleanor Roosevelt

When I started writing this blog post the other day I was questioning everything from whether I am really as good of a writer as I think I am, to if I really had enough strength in me to do what I believe I am destined to do. I was beginning to feel as if the tunnel that I am in is getting longer and darker with no light at the end. It felt like all of the walls were closing in on me and that I was going to be suffocated underneath the rumble. I was completely defeated, feeling all out of my share of miracles and the devil had a tight grip on me. I had almost surrendered. Almost.

And then I had a conversation with my best friend in which she said something that reminded me that I already knew all of the answers to the questions that I had and that the one thing that I am not is a quitter. As I was talking to her I got a link in my e-mail to her latest blog post, The Vision Cannot Wait, which was just the icing on the cake of what I needed. It reminded me that what I believe I am destined to do is a part of a vision that I have had for myself since I was six years old. In twenty four years I had never let go of that vision and I was not going to let the devil take my vision away now.

The devil is always busy but it seems like he’s been really working on me a lot lately. He has been throwing every obstacle at me that he knew would stop me dead in my tracks. Picking away at any part of me he knows to be vulnerable. Plucking away all of the petals of a purposeful flower, holding it back from its full bloom. I have been up against so many walls lately, hell it seems like my whole life has been an obstacle course. But lucky for me, the devil is no match for God.

God has his way of stepping right in when you feel yourself sinking under. Just as you throw your hands up to tell him that you can’t take any more, he is already there relieving you of your load. He may not come to rescue you before the storm passes, but he will never let you drown. While I know that I shouldn’t, there are times when I forget that. There are times that I forget the strength that God instilled me with. I just have to keep reminding myself that those walls that are blocking my view of that light at the end of this tunnel won’t always be there.

I have faith that if I just keep putting in the work and jumping over all of the hurdles that come along that my vision will become a reality. There is a reason why I am still standing, still surviving, still dreaming, and still pushing and its called purpose. That phone call from my best friend reminded me of the strength that I sometimes forget that I have inside. My determination to see my vision become a reality is stronger than any attempts the devil makes to take it way. If nothing else I am a survivor and this storm too shall pass and I will still be standing when it does.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”