Tag: Passion

The Unseen Work

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So, the message in church this Sunday was focused a lot on guarding your time carefully and on not devaluing the work that no one ever sees. Those weren’t the exact words and phrasing that my pastor used but that was the gist and it got me thinking a lot. Being a creative individual there is a lot that goes into what we do in creative fields that no one ever sees therefore sometimes it feels like that work is never valued quite enough. There’s a reason people (myself included) love watching behind the scenes stuff about our favorite shows and makings of movies and songs and things like that. It’s because we want to see the work that no one ever gets to see.

It also made me think about how sometimes people don’t get honored or recognized for all the hard work that went into creating one moment or how they can work for decades or sometimes their entire careers, all for one night that comes far past the point where they deserved the recognition. The Oscars that just recently took place is one of those things that makes you think about how long people work in their careers just to be overlooked at this one event that purports to honor the best of the best. I mean are you not the best at what you do just because this particular academy took a vote and chose to give someone else that statue instead of you? Does that make all of the unseen work that you’ve done to get to that moment where you are even among the few that can be chosen not even matter because they didn’t pick you as the best of the best that awards season?

The answer of course is no but it doesn’t always feel that you’re appreciated for all of that unseen work in that moment when your name isn’t called. For writers, who are barely ever really recognized for much, I imagine the sting of disappointment has to feel something like that sting of not hearing your name called on Oscar night when you know you should have really won over a decade ago (yes I’m talking about Angela Basssett).

As a writer and now a content creator who hasn’t “made it” yet I can’t help but often feel like all of the hard work and labor I put into doing what I do and trying to be a positive impact on other people through my gift and the content I create goes unappreciated and often times unnoticed. Logically I know that that’s not true but when you don’t see the “fruits” of your labor so to speak (in this case the money because, shocker, artists, don’t like to starve) it’s hard to know if you are really making a difference. It’s true that money was never the reason I wanted to be a writer or content creator but let’s be real, I do desire to make an income in what I am most passionate about and it’s hard to do that sometimes when it seems like no one really sees you.

The message this Sunday was the reminder that I needed for when I get frustrated about all of the work and effort that I put into my craft and my passions that it is not for nothing. I think I may have mentioned here before that I am not a very patient person, so it makes it hard when I don’t see the benefits for all the work that I do. However, I know that often times what comes easy doesn’t always provide sustainability and more often than not the obstacles that we have to face make the outcomes and rewards even more worth it in the end.

So, if you too have also found yourself wondering what it is all for you are not alone. I see you and I commiserate with you. Just know that all of the work that no one ever gets to see, it all serves a purpose. It is the foundation for the overall outcome that you are aiming for. The long wait for your efforts to be noticed, they will be bolstered by all of the time that you have spent to make things just right. What we are trying to achieve is longevity and when all is said and done because we have done all of the behind the scenes work in masterful fashion, the result will be a legacy that was well worth the wait.

Until next time… #BePatient #BeDetermined #BeRelentless

Jimmetta Carpenter

CEO/Writer/Editor

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Even Baby Steps Keep You Moving Forward

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Baby Steps move you forward 1

Let’s talk about consistency! Do you remember when you were a kid and you discovered your passion, your dream. The moment when you realized that you actually had the talent to do what you dream of doing. You see others doing what you are only dreaming about at this beginning phase and it seems as if they have everything all together and sorted out and to you it would appear that they gained their success fairly quickly because of course you don’t see all the hard work that went into how they got to where they are.

You immediately think, well I’ve got talent just like they do and so it shouldn’t take me long at all and I think I could become an overnight success. When you’re just starting to work towards your goals you have this strange notion that talent will actually be enough and everything else can follow later. Of course when you get older is when you start to realize that there is some hard work and effort that goes into making your dreams become a reality and you start to come to terms with the fact that being an overnight success isn’t really possible.

Success comes in baby steps and it comes with a large dose of consistency. You are never going to get where you are trying to go by thinking that giant leaps are the only way that you are going to get there. Most of your journey is going to be taken in baby steps and you have to remain vigilant in your pursuit of your goals. There is no such thing as an overnight success. Even those who have managed to make it happen quicker than others, still didn’t achieve what they gained overnight.

So the next obstacle that gets in your way, and slows you down, don’t quit. Don’t just stop in your tracks and allow yourself to get stuck, or worse to turn around and move backwards. If you come up against an obstacle buckle down and dig your heels in deeper. The road is not going to be smooth the whole way through but if you keep pressing forward, and keep taking smaller steps at a time instead of trying to take these long strides you will reach your destination in due time.

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

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Reigniting an Old Flame

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“Putting off an easy thing makes it hard.  Putting off a hard thing makes it impossible.” 

~George Claude Lorimer 

I listened to Ms. L. the other day as she talked about the series of articles that she just had published in her city’s local newspaper and the projects that she has coming up (let me add, paying projects), and how she is really starting to make some pretty good income with her writing just as she wanted to do with her business.  Just as we both had hoped to do with our businesses.  She is beginning to flourish and I am really proud of her.  But honestly I am a tad bit jealous as well (but not in the bad way).  It’s not that I don’t want her to succeed but I just wish that I was flourishing just as much as her, alongside her. 

When I listen to her and hear her talk about her daily activities and just how productive she has been I see the same fire lit under her and the same drive inside of her that I used to have.  She’s always on the go and pulling all-nighters and I can remember when I used to be the same way.  My drive was so intense that I barely slept and I would skip meals just so that I could work on my writing.  I have no idea when that fire in me started to die down.  I didn’t mean for it to.  

I know that I haven’t loss my passion for writing or for any of the things that I hope to do with my writing and my media company that I am currently trying to build up.  I have a multitude of plans and my brain is constantly turning with more and more ideas by the hour, sometimes by the minute.  But yet when it comes to actually executing those ideas and plans, after I’ve done all of the normal things that need to be done during my day, I sit down and the act of execution on those plans falls by the waist-side.  I get tired and at times I accidentally fall asleep without ever tackling any of the things on my to-do list.  

I don’t mean to be such a full blown procrastinator and I certainly don’t mean to have a head (and notebook) full of plans and ideas and never accomplishing even a tenth of them.  I wish I had an explanation (at least a good one) for falling down on the job of making my dreams happen and I wish I understood why my drive and my fire isn’t naturally there the way it used to be, but I don’t.  All I know is that this week I plan to get it together because I will only have myself to blame if I fail and no one else can make this happen for me.  

I suppose I will just have to do what people do when they go to start their stove and they hear the clicking sound but yet the fire doesn’t immediately come on like it used to.  They don’t just stop cooking their food, they go light a match or a lighter and get the fire started again themselves.  I know that I still love what I do and I know I still have the passion for it and now I am just going to find a way to reignite the fire so that my dreams don’t burn out too.  If any of you out there are feeling like the biggest procrastinator in the world, you are not alone and it does not have to stay that way.  The flame can always be reignited, even if it has to be done manually.  

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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Graduating to the Next Level

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“The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work.” 

~Emile Zola 

This morning someone said to me as I was coming out of the gym, after complimenting me on my continuous efforts to get better in my physical fitness, that as long as I keep putting in the effort and hard work God was going to keep graduating me to the next level.  There was something about the thought of being promoted by God to the next level of my life, or even the next level of my journey to maintain a healthier lifestyle that made me think deeply about what that meant in other areas of my life as well.  

I will admit that when I started this conscious effort over two years ago to change the way I eat and my relationship with food, in addition to changing the way I think and feel about physical exercise, I became a little obsessed with it.  I think that it might have come at the expense of my passion with writing every single moment I could get.  I literally used to write everywhere I went, on napkins, on little bulletins or scraps of paper, I would write while I was eating, sometimes while I was lying down (supposedly trying to go to sleep).  I put that much hard work and effort into it and while I had not yet saw the fruits of my labor at that time I didn’t really care, I was just consumed with the passion that I had to write.  

When I wonder now why I have not yet gotten to where I feel I should be in my writing career yet, I now have to consider the fact that I simply stopped putting in the extreme hard work and efforts that I used to in order for me to graduate to that next level in my writing career.  Now don’t misunderstand me, I have not stopped being passionate about my writing in any way (or I wouldn’t be able to maintain this blog).  I simply seemed to have traded one obsession for another and my efforts were unbalanced.  I don’t in any way regret dedicating the time and effort that I have to beginning my journey to a better and healthier, more physically fit me.  I only regret not finding the balance I needed to graduate to the next level on both aspects.  

When you’re younger you have these stages in life that you graduate from to move on to the next level.  From elementary, middle and high school, to college and even graduate school.  Typically when you’re going through the school stage of your life you get breaks in order to have time to gather yourself and prepare for what that stage entails.  However, when you get into that stage where you have to really start living your life you don’t get those breaks.  

There is no time to wait until you have thought about what it is going to take for you to get where you need to be, there’s just hard work and effort.  Simply put if I don’t find a way to balance my efforts and my level of hard work in both areas that I am passionate about (health & fitness as well as writing) then I may not be able to simultaneously graduate to the next level on both fronts.  

It’s hard to put all of my effort and time into just one thing because I am passionate about so many and in the case of my health, that is a passion that is necessary and I can’t afford to sacrifice.  But writing is my first love, and like any kind of relationship, I have to put in the time, effort, pay close attention to it, continue to nurture it, and learn how to balance it with everything else that is important to me so that I can make it to the next level in my writing life.  Until tomorrow…Are you putting in the time and effort so that you can graduate to the next stage of your life? 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Freelance Writer/Editor

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Passionate Writer

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“A strong passion for anything will ensure success, for the desire of the end will point out the means.”
~William Hazlitt 

Very seldom do I ever wish that I could go back in time to when I was younger, perhaps in high school, and just live in that moment for while.  Perhaps I would enjoy and take stock in the moments when I wrote simply because it was all I could do to get my feelings out, or when writing was not so much of a job or chore and more of a past time that I didn’t have to actually think about anything past the point of writing the actual story.  

Now don’t get me wrong, I still absolutely love to write and I could never imagine anything else that I should be doing in this life or the next other than writing.  But before there was the business aspect of writing (the hardest part of being a writer), and the marketing and publicity aspect, and the managing sales figures and making sure you are actually making money off of your passion, there was simply just the passion of it all.  

I remember rushing to get home to just get the words of my characters out on paper (because back then I wrote long-hand), and I remember the feeling of accomplishment when the story was finished and when someone else told me that my words meant something to them.  I didn’t worry so much back then about how to get my words published and how to market and how to make actual profits off of my work.  I just knew that writing was my life’s dream and that was how I wanted to make my living.  I knew that I wanted to make the best seller’s lists and write movies and write for magazines and television shows and that I wanted my living to be made from what I loved to do more than anything in the world.  

Now I am making schedule’s to try and fit what I love into the rest of my life and reading and teaching myself about things pertaining to marketing and publicity, which are things I really don’t care about, but I have to know these things to make what I love to do work for me.  I would just love to get to that point again where all I have to think about is the sheer enjoyment of writing my words down on paper and telling the story of my characters; back to the moment when I first fell in love with writing to begin with.  

However, in reality, I want my words to be seen by the world and that part of my dream takes work and hard labor.  But it is definitely a labor of love and one that I am willing to make many sacrifices for.  So what are you most passionate about and are you willing to put in the hard labor to make it happen?  Until next time…be blessed and make your labor of love count! 

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

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