Tag: journey

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Even When No One Is Looking

December 26, 2011 jcladyluv

So I didn’t necessarily feel like blogging today but I’ve already taken a two day break over the Christmas holiday and I didn’t want to risk missing anymore. I was having trouble figuring out what to write about today and I found that I wasn’t feeling all that motivated because I took a look at the stats of my blog and saw that there weren’t that many people reading what I had to say to begin with. I think I need for my best friend Ms. L. to share her secrets with me because she can go from having a bad blog day to a good blog day in a matter of minutes with just one post. Maybe it’s just not my blog moment yet. I guess that I just have to wait my turn in that area too. It feels like I always seem to be waiting for my turn at something. Well they say that the best things come to those who wait and since I don’t plan on ever giving up on writing, I guess I’ll just keep on blogging and writing my novels and doing whatever else my journey as a writer brings to me even if no one is looking (or in this case reading). Until tomorrow…Always do what you love doing whether people are watching or not!

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

Where Credit Is Due

December 20, 2011 jcladyluv

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

~Mahatma Gandhi

I am reminded every morning when I go to the gym to workout that I am a lot stronger than I think I am. Each day when I do something else that I never thought that I could do or that I said that I would never even try, it reminds me that I sometimes don’t give myself enough credit. A lot of us tend to do that in general during the course of our everyday lives. We get it in our heads that we are only as good as the limits that we set for ourselves, not realizing that we often set the bar too low and don’t give ourselves nearly as much credit as we deserve.

If we think about it, each time we reach an obstacle and find ourselves saying that we can’t handle anything else, not only do we surpass that obstacle but it builds us up stronger for the one that is sure to come after that. They say that which doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger, and while sometimes I find myself wanting to throw a certain finger up at whoever started that phrase, I find it to be very true. My struggles have not only made me stronger but made me more ambitious and determined. I feel that with each road block I face during the course of my journey I am made to be hungrier and more driven to reach my destination.

Someone at the gym told me that I have been coming to the gym lately with a new drive and as if I was on a mission for the year 2012. I am on a mission. I plan on setting that bar increasingly higher for myself and raising my own expectations right along with it. I am strong enough to achieve anything I desire despite the struggles I have to face along the way. I am going to stop counting myself out before I even make it to the starting line and start giving myself the credit that I deserve. Until tomorrow…Ask yourself if you are giving yourself enough credit?

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

No Shortcuts

December 13, 2011 jcladyluv

We all seek something meaningful out of life. We have a sense of purpose that is sometimes beyond all rationality. And when it seems like it will take forever for us to reach that destination that we are striving to get to, we all sometimes wish that we could just wake up one day and be there, right where we feel we need to be in life. Unfortunately life does not work that way. Or maybe it’s fortunate for us that it doesn’t.

I was watching my soap opera today (Young and the Restless) and something was said on there that really struck a chord with me. What good is reaching your destination without having the experience of getting there? What good is it, it means nothing, and you learn nothing? I never thought of it like that.

If I were to just wake up one day and have it all handed to me, everything that I want in this life, without having the struggle of actually getting to those proud and joyful moments, then would it mean as much? Without all of the blood, sweat, and tears put into making my dreams come true, would they mean as much and would I work just as hard to hold onto them? I can say that I would but I don’t know that.

Sometimes it is the struggle of the journey that makes the end result worth every bit of hardship that you went through. Sometimes there are no shortcuts in life, and I am discovering (though it took me a while to realize) that taking the long way to your destination can sometimes be the best thing you could ever do to satisfy your purpose. Until tomorrow…Don’t always go looking for the shorter way around things.

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

While I’m Planning, God is Laughing (a lot)

December 9, 2011 jcladyluv

Writers are supposed to be established by a certain age right? By the age of thirty-one you would expect them to be published, either with articles in national magazines or a book on the shelves of every bookstore. If not that then they would certainly be working in a magazine or a newspaper getting first hand experience in their craft and getting the chance to use it on a daily basis. If you’re lucky you would have some five or six figure book deal that ends up being turned into a phenomenal movie and you’ve finally made it to the bestsellers list.

Yes I always thought that at this age (31) that I would be already inNew York, working for some national magazine, or a publishing company as an editor with my own book deals in the work simultaneously. But as you all know, life (and God) often times has very different plans for you that you didn’t anticipate. You know they say when we plan, God laughs. Well he must have been having a really good laugh with me for the last few years now. I am certainly not where I would like to be within my career but perhaps I am where I need to be and wherever God has planned for me to be.

I was reading a magazine interview with Walter Mosley and what I never knew about him was that he didn’t even start writing until he was 34 years old and wasn’t first published until he was about 38 years old. Now he is 59 with 34 books published (so far). This gave me hope. There is still time for me to make the mark on the literary and media world like I want and perhaps God’s plan for me included a long lengthy journey of good old fashion struggle on my way to success (probably along with a lesson in patience—cause I really need to work on that). I am hopeful that my journey will be worth it in the end and confident that I will carry out exactly the plan that God has tailor made for me, at the precise time he plans for it to be carried out. Until tomorrow…Don’t give up hope, his plan IS your plan too!

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 Importance of Finishing

December 1, 2011 jcladyluv

“Winning isn’t always finishing first. Sometimes winning is just finishing.”

~Manuel Diotte

Earlier today I was reflecting on how good I felt about completing National Novel Writing Month yesterday (50,002 words) and I began to think about the fact that if I finished everything as strong and with as much determination and staying power as I did those 50,000 words I might be further along in my journey to being successful. Looking at my list of what I was supposed to accomplish in this entire year I ran over the things I started and just didn’t finish. For whatever reason, be it frustration of it not working fast enough (I admit I need to work on my patience), or just pure self-doubt that I wasn’t good enough to have the success I was trying to carve out. There is something to be said for finishing what you start and not giving up halfway through the mission.

I was listening to the news earlier this morning and they were discussing the whole Herman Cain controversy and there were claims that he was “reassessing” his campaign, which of course people automatically took as him contemplating dropping out of the race. Now before I say this I want to make it clear that I am not a Herman Cain fan, neither of his politics nor how he chooses to govern his personal life, however, having said that, if he is in fact considering dropping out of the race, I do NOT think that he should. Yes he is struggling right now on so many fronts but no person is perfect and the person running for the President of theUnited Statesis not going to be an exception. He started something, and I believe that he should finish what he started. If he doesn’t I am almost certain he will forever wonder what would have been and what could have been if he had just finished.

Now no one likes to lose or have that feeling of defeat. But isn’t it defeat if you have a continuous pattern of starting these grand missions and then never finishing them and seeing them through? I have a notebook full of a lot of things that I got really excited about and jotted down all of these notes and ideas for projects and how I was going to put those ideas and plans into action and then I would hit a snag and it would seem impossible to envision me being able to complete that project. I got it in my head that because I hit that snag, there was no use wasting time on an idea that could never really go anywhere. I just wouldn’t finish.

When I look back on several moments of my life that is where the majority of my mistakes have been. That I didn’t finish. Here’s what I’ve learned from all of those unfinished mistakes. It doesn’t matter if you’ve started something if it never gets completed and put into action. Even if you finish and find it not to be a success, at least you’ve finished. This month I will be making my lists for what I want to accomplish next year. I can tell you that no matter what, I intend to finish whatever it is I start from now on. No more unfinished business for me.

Until next time…Always, Always, Always, finish!

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

It’s National Novel Writing Month Time!

October 31, 2011 jcladyluv

Regrettably I did not write any blog posts last week but it was for a good reason. I was making sure that I had everything prepared for National Novel Writing Month, which starts tomorrow, and I was mapping out my plan on how to go about achieving my maximum word count per day so that I can reach that goal of 50,000 words by the end of the month. This will be the third year (I think) that I have done this and although many might think that it should be easier the more often that I do it, it most certainly is not. Especially since this year my story is a little different for me. I am stepping out of my typical comfort zone and writing a story that is not in the genre that I have experience in writing (which is typical mainstream fiction) but one that I would like to definitely gain some experience in (mystery, suspense, with a little romance for good measure). This year this will be a little more challenging for me, but then again I always like to be challenged. So I thought to maintain my blog during November instead of completely abandoning it, that I would blog about my NaNoWriMo experience as I go along. I hope that you will follow along in my journey this year and perhaps even go sign up this year and take the plunge yourself. Well I better go make sure that I have all last minute details of my characters ironed out before tomorrow. Until next time…Start planning, you have a novel to write too!

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 Could Have Been

September 21, 2011 jcladyluv

“You can clutch the past so tightly to your chest that it leaves your arms too full to embrace the present.”

~Jan Glidewell

The other night I was talking to Ms. L and I was feeling a little down because I had a lot of things on my mind. I was thinking of all the curveballs that I have been thrown in life. I was doing a lot of wondering about what could have been.

What if I had done what I was supposed to do all the way through high school and had been able to get a full scholarship to the college of my choice inNew York? What if when I did go to college, not necessarily the one that I wanted to go to, and I had been better prepared for college life and had gotten the grades that I should’ve gotten or at least sought help when I was failing? What if I hadn’t gotten in a really bad relationship and gotten so steered off course from what my vision of my life was? What if I hadn’t met a man who I thought was the love of my life and had a child with him which derailed me going back to school until the late age of 27?

The truth is my life would more than likely be at a very different place, maybe even where I envisioned it being. Had I done all the things that I should’ve done in the correct time frame that it should have been done in I may very well already be into my writing career and perhaps even a lot closer to the top of that media mogul ladder that I am now struggling to climb. But in talking to Ms. L. the other night she helped me to see that everything does in fact happen for a reason and that just because the course of my journey has had to change, the vision has always remained the same and that’s what matters the most.

If I had never been directed to Morgan State University (which was not the school I had always wanted to attend) then I would’ve never met Ms. L. and I can not imagine going through this life without a friend as good as her and as supportive and motivating as her. If I hadn’t met the man who I thought was the love of my life, then I would not have my amazing daughter and I can not even begin to say how thankful I am for her and I wouldn’t trade her for all the money and success in the world.

So many of the things that I have been through are responsible for shaping the person I am today. But in all of that my vision of what I wanted in terms of my career goals and what I feel God put me on this earth to do have never changed. I have never questioned what I am meant to do. Now I may not have answered all of the previous doors that opportunity was knocking at, and looking back perhaps those doors were not meant for me to answer, but I certainly believe that there are still more opportunities out there that I may just have to build my own door to.

What could have been in anyone’s life is not always how things should’ve been and I firmly believe that God knows your path before you even develop a path in your own mind. So who am I to question what could have been when God already has a plan for what will be and the least that I can do, after all he has seen me through and all the talents and abilities that he has blessed me with, is follow the path that he has mapped out for me, not the one that I had mapped out for myself. Until next time…Don’t get sidetracked by the curveballs, just change your plan of how to attack them the next time you’re up to bat!

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 Best You

September 8, 2011 jcladyluv

“The best way to get approval is not to need it! Focus on being the best you and the rest will take care of itself.”

~Chris Gardner

It is natural for people to want to seek approval from others. More often than not it is of the one’s that are immediately around you, like your friends and family. We want them to accept us and to be proud of us and to support us in our endeavors and always encourage our ambitions. When we don’t get that support and that approval, especially from family, we are crushed.

As hard as we may try to hide it and act as if it doesn’t really matter that they don’t get our goals and that they don’t approve of the path we chose, it matters. It begins to feel like if the one’s you love and are supposed to be able to look to for support can’t be there for you then everyone must be against you. However, the problem isn’t them for not approving the goals we put forth; the problem is us for depending on the approval of anyone but ourselves to begin with.

On the journey towards being successful in our dreams and or passions the focus has to be us; what we think, what we approve of, and what we demand of ourselves. At some point we are going to have to realize that seeking the approval of anyone else is only going to be our downfall. People spend so much time trying to do what others expect of them and trying to be perfect in order to fit someone else’s standards. What they should be focused on is meeting their own standards and not so much on being perfect but on being the best that they can be for themselves.

Trying to be what everyone else wants you to be can become exhausting and it wastes entirely too much time and energy that can be better spent. If the people around you are making you feel as if you aren’t meeting their expectations, then you need to reevaluate who it is that you are surrounding yourself with and if they are really what you need to be focused on. I know, easier said then done.

It’s hard to let go of that need to be accepted and I know because I’m still working on the letting go part. But I am starting to realize that all the time that I’ve wasted trying to seek approval and be accepted could’ve been time that went into actually accomplishing the very things that I sought approval for. So today you should stop and ask yourselves, whose approval is that you really need? Theirs, or your own. Until next time…Be the best you that you can possibly be and everyone else will just have to follow suit!

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

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://jayceedurant.wordpress.com/