Tag: Success

Live In the Moment of Resilience

jcladyluv

There are a lot of things that you must be to make it as an artists’, particularly a writer.  Patience, courage, diligence, and perseverance, those are just a few of the qualities that someone who goes down the road of creativity is going to need to possess.  However, the most necessary quality, the one that you absolutely can not do without in the creative field, is resilience.

You have to be able to bounce back from whatever comes your way, no matter what.  It’s not the way that you fall that matters, it’s the way that you pull yourself back up.  Think about the stories that you hear of the people who have succeeded.  What’s the most memorable thing about their story?  It’s the struggle that they went through to get to their success.

From J.K. Rowlings state of poverty and her dozens of rejections before she became one of the world’s richest women with her Harry Potter Series, to Tyler Perry’s homelessness and empty seats in a theater before owning his own multi-billion dollar production company.  What you remember just as much as the way that they succeeded is what they went through to get there.

I was watching the television interview that actress Valerie Harper (from The Mary Tyler Moore Show) gave on the Doctors show the other day when she came on to discuss her diagnosis of terminal brain cancer.  She wanted to show to the rest of the world that she was okay and that while she remained realistic about the time given to her (3 months to a year) to live, she also has not given up hope.

I watched in awe, and not just because I loved her on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Rhoda Show and I think she’s awesome, but because she was just so brave and so inspiring.  I don’t know that I could be smiling if a doctor told me that I have a limited time left to be on this earth.

She said one thing (well there were many) that really stuck with me, “don’t go to the funeral before the day of the funeral.”  That applies to every aspect of life but just as a writer, as someone who thrives off of creativity, I had to apply it to the artists’ world.  You know that there are going to be rejections, but let’s not claim that rejection before it happens.  There are going to be moments of defeat, but before the moment that we are defeated, let’s not live in that defeat.

There will be disappointments, times when our expectations aren’t met, both by other people and ourselves.  There are going to be struggles so hard that we are going to assume that we can’t get past them, moments when we want to just throw up our hands and say I surrender.  Those are the moments that we have to remind ourselves of why we are doing this in the first place.

We’re waiting for that yes, for that feeling of being on cloud nine because everything we ever imagined for ourselves is finally becoming a reality.  That is what drives us to continually getting back up and we have to keep reminding ourselves of that.  We must keep getting back up.  We have to live in the moment that is now so that we can keep reaching for the destiny that awaits us.  Let’s not ever forget, even when we are being told no, that there is a yes waiting if we keep getting up.  Getting knocked down is inevitable, let’s just remember to always bounce back!

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

 

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Does Playing It Safe Just Get You a Lot of Missed Opportunities?

jcladyluv

There’s this saying, “with great risks comes even greater rewards”, and I thought about that as I was watching a news segment about Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg, discussing her success and her new book that is causing much controversy.  She was discussing her thoughts on women and their role as leaders in the business world and how women, albeit ambitious enough, are always playing it too safe and that is often what holds them back in their efforts to succeed.  She has taken many risks throughout her career and her several different roles as a leader and she has had many great rewards simply because she refused to play it safe.

It made me think about the fact that I am not a huge risk taker and if that is what is holding me back it would be a terrible shame.  Is that what is slowing me down on this journey to the top?  To say I am cautious would probably (if you ask my best friend Ms. L.) be putting it mildly.  I think things through, sometimes too much, and then once I decide something I rethink it through again, a couple more times.  The funny thing is that I don’t remember being this way when I was younger.  Granted when I was younger I was limited in the things I could do because I was not yet an adult and most of my childhood I was not a working individual so I relied on my mother for monetary well being, but I don’t remember being so scared to do things.

I don’t remember over analyzing things nearly as much as I do.  I mean I did to a certain extent because I had to analyze whether or not the risk I was taking was going to get me beat by my mother or in trouble in other ways, but I never thought of myself as playing it safe.  So now in a time in my life where I should be throwing caution to the wind and just going for everything and every opportunity that could possibly come my way, I am resistant, I find that I just want to be safe.  I don’t know if it was motherhood that made me that way or not but I know that I want my daughter to take risks and go after the dreams she wants without worrying what is or what is not going to go wrong.

The author of Wild, Cheryl Strayed, wrote her memoir about the journey that she took along the mountainous Pacific Crest Trail from California, all the way through Oregon and up to WashingtonState, with practically no money to her name and little idea of what it was she was really in search of.  Somehow she managed to complete her trip as well as accomplishing a level of self discovery that she didn’t even realize she was looking for.  She didn’t let the fear of not really knowing where she was going stop her, nor did she let the fact that she had barely any money stop her and she managed to get a New York Times Bestselling book out of it that landed on Oprah’s book club lists.  She didn’t play it safe and she took a huge amount of risk and she got great rewards.

Now obviously, it is not realistic for most of us to go and try that, but the point is that we shouldn’t let things hold us back and we shouldn’t play it so safe that we miss out on the adventures that we could have in our lives.  Now being overly cautious is a hard habit to break and I am not crazy enough to think that overnight I am just going to be this “throw caution to the wind” type of person but I do know that I don’t want to play it safe anymore and I can’t afford to over-think myself out of the next opportunity.  What about you, have you been playing it safe lately?

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

 

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

The Road to Success Is Filled With Bumps and Potholes

jcladyluv

As I was watching the Oscars the other night and looking at little Quvenzhane Wallis who is 9 years old and the youngest actress to ever be nominated for an Oscar, I thought for a moment if only someone had taken my passion for the arts seriously when I was younger I could be in such a different place right now.  I often wonder about the people who are starting out on their dreams at such younger ages now and could it possibly be that it is just too late for mine to come true.  Of course this moment was a slight lapse in sanity (lol) because I hardly believe it is ever too late for anyone who has a dream to make it come true.

I remembered a quote that I heard when I watched L.L. Cool J’s interview with Oprah Winfrey, “dreams don’t have deadlines.”  Then I thought about all of those people who have reached their goals and have accomplished their dreams and who are now deemed successful by the rest of the world, but who didn’t get there quickly, or who didn’t get there without their own share of personal failures, and even some of who were told that they would never get there.

I wanted to share with you some names of some really influential and inspiring people throughout history.  Maybe some of the names on this list will give you the hope that they give me that your dreams are not unattainable and that no matter how many people tell you that you can’t, there are people out there proving that you can.

  1. Bill Gates—He was a Harvard drop out whose first business failed.  He didn’t give up and tried again and the rest was history.
  2. Steven Spielberg—He was rejected from the University of Southern California School of Theater, Film, and Television three times.  He attended school somewhere else only to drop out before finishing.
  3. J.K. Rowling—Before publishing her Harry Potter Series, she was homeless, virtually penniless, severely depressed, divorced and a single mom while attending school.  She went from having to rely on welfare to being one of the richest women in the world in a five year span but her fairytale story did not come without its share of rock bottoms.
  4. Abraham Lincoln—While he may be considered to be one of the world’s greatest leaders to date, he did not have an easy life without failures.  He went to the war as a Captain and came back a private which is the lowest rank in the military.  He started several businesses that failed and had been defeated numerous times in running for public office.  If he had let any of that stop him who knows how different the world might be right now.
  5. Laura Ingalls Wilder—This author of the famous “Little House series” which eventually led to the show Little House on the Prairie, along with several other well known young adult series, did not become a success at a young age.  Her first book of her Little house series was not published until she was in her mid-sixties.  She attributed the years of struggle and hardship to her eventual success.
  6. Albert Einstein—While he is now revered as a genius Einstein was thought to be mentally handicapped, slow , and anti-social by both his teachers and his parents because he did not speak until the age of 4 and could not read until he was 7.  He was eventually expelled from one school and refused entrance to another.  In the end he faired rather well winning the Nobel Prize and changing the world of physics.
  7. Lucille Ball—She was widely regarded as a failed actress and a B movie star.  Her drama instructors even told her that she would never make it and told her to try a different profession.  It wasn’t until her staring role in I Love Lucy, at the age of 40, where she finally achieved the level of success that she was looking for and proved all of her drama instructors wrong.
  8. Sidney Poitier—Poitier was told by the casting director after his first audition that he should just stop wasting people’s time and go back to being a dishwasher.  It took him four years from his first audition in 1943 to even begin getting roles in film and TV and it would take another 20 years from that first audition until he became the first African-American actor to win an academy award (Oscar) for best actor in 1963 for his role in Lilies of the Field.
  9. Steven King—Before his first book, Carrie, was published in 1973, he received 30 rejections and he actually threw the book in the trash.  It was his wife who retrieved it out of the trash and nudged him to try again.  His career has only skyrocketed from there but it didn’t come to him on the first try, or even the first dozen tries.  But he eventually got there.
  10. Walt Disney—Was once fired by a newspaper editor due to the fact that he “lacked imagination and had no good ideas.”  Afterwards Disney started several businesses that did not last long and he ended up in bankruptcy and considered himself a failure.  Obviously he didn’t stay knocked down for long because he came up with a brilliant world inside of his mind and thus we have Disney.

What if they had actually believed that there was an expiration date on when they got to achieve their success?  Some of the most influential people in this world’s history and the most influential people of our present and our future did not start off having all of the answers and they did not get it right on the first, second, or even third tries.  What would this world be like if any of them just threw in the towel and said “it didn’t happen by now, must not be meant to be”.  I have been one to tell myself that this or that should’ve happened by now but that’s not really for me to say.  Have you been putting a time limit on your success lately?  Time is never up when it comes to accomplishing your dreams.  Try and remember that.  I will be trying right along with you.

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

 

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Is Having a Deadline Really Such a Bad Idea?

jcladyluv

I don’t have a tight schedule to write on.  I’m not an author who is on the New York Times Bestsellers list (not yet anyway) so I don’t have any major publishing houses breathing down my back for my next novel (they would be quite upset with me right now).  I also don’t currently have any newspaper or magazine editors waiting for my next article and hounding me about when it will be done.  That would sound like heaven to most writers, no stress and worry about being penalized for being late with an assignment.

However, what I have discovered about me over the last several years is that I am one of those writers (hopefully not the only one) who needs a deadline.  I need that invisible ticking clock over my head ticking away the minutes that I am wasting on something that is not going to actually earn me any income as a writer.  I need that editor or major publishing house breathing down my back and constantly checking in with me to see if I have finished that article yet, or that next novel that I would ordinarily be stuck on if not for the fact that I have a time limit.

I have an ebook that I was supposed to have written by now so that I can begin promoting and selling it.  However, despite the fact that I have an outline to get me off to a good start I have yet to produce one single chapter of that ebook.  Perhaps if I had some editor telling me that it needed to be done in a month I could sit down and just crank it out already.

I’ve always known that I worked a little better under pressure.  It seems like the more intense the pressure the faster I work and the better the writing is.  Even with school papers I have always waited until the final moment, even now as I am earning a Master’s degree I will wait until the night before the paper is due to do it.  I wish I was that person who could start things a week or more ahead of time, giving myself ample time to get things done and produce good work but I don’t believe I am wired that way.

So since I don’t have that editor or that publishing house screaming at me through emails I have to be the one dangling that deadline in front of my face.  I have to start setting dates for the production of my work (and actually stick to them instead of just moving the date further up) and either find a computer program (not sure where to even start with that one) to help me keep track of those deadlines or mark the calendar and hold firm to the date I set.  I suppose until I have that editor or publishing house tapping their fingers at me as a signal to hurry up and finish my project, I have to hold myself accountable in other ways.  Otherwise I might never make it to that New York Times Bestsellers list (and on Oprah’s book club list) and that is an outcome that I refuse to let happen.

How do all of you deal with deadlines?  Are deadlines your friend or your enemy?

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

 

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

How Do I Get this Thing Off of Repeat?

jcladyluv

We sometimes tend to get into cycles that are not good for us to be in and they often seem to be a cycle that we subconsciously repeat.  I have many cycles that I personally would like to never repeat again but today I started to notice a professional cycle beginning to repeat itself and it is one that has been on repeat for quite some time now and I am working my hardest to not hit the repeat button again.

I have this cycle with my writing (as I touched on briefly in yesterday’s post) where I get excited about my projects to the point where I can’t stop talking about it (and drive my friends crazy with these characters who are not real to them).  Then I get stuck on how to miraculously work on all of my projects at precisely the same time (yes I tend to be drawn to the impossible).  And when that doesn’t happen the way that I want to I just stop producing altogether.

I mean sure I am watching T.V. or a movie and calling it inspiration (which sometimes it does inspire), or I’m reading a book that I suddenly can’t seem to put down (which in and of itself is not a bad thing), or I’m staring at the blank computer screen willing the words to just somehow leap from my brain onto the screen without me having to lift a finger (too bad there’s no real technology for that—or is there).  All of these are quite possibly valid and relaxing time wasters, but they are also great procrastination techniques as well.

I have a plan for this year, to focus mainly on moving my writing career forward and promoting myself and my brand and heading towards success.  I promised myself that I would get away from the major distractions and really purposely direct my focus to what needs to get done to not only reach that level of success but to also remain on that level.  I started to notice that I was doing it again.  I was getting hung up on trying to work on all of my writing projects at one time and getting frustrated because it just isn’t possible to get an effective amount of work done trying to do it all at once, and lately I have found myself constructively procrastinating.

Constructive or not, procrastination is just that, procrastination.  I have to stop repeating the cycle of trying to do too much at one time and instead, designate the appropriate amount of time to each project at different times and not getting discouraged if it’s not getting done as quickly as I would like it to get done.  Truthfully, I would like my ideas to be able to write themselves because if that was possible I would have over a dozen novels by now, but good quality, thought provoking writing, takes time and can not be rushed.  Expecting perfection in my writing is one cycle that I can’t wait to stop repeating itself, but it’s all a work in progress.

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

 

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

The Perception of Strength

jcladyluv

It may sound strange but I sometimes get annoyed with people always using strong as one of the words to describe me.  People tell me that I’ve been through so much and that with all of the struggles that I’ve had and still have they are amazed at my strength and how I manage to persevere through it and towards something better.

I want to say “it’s not as if I actually have a choice, I can’t just curl up and die”.  More importantly I want to let them know that I am most certainly not strong, at least not any stronger than they are or anyone else out in this world going through horrific tragedies.  What exactly is it to be strong anyway?

I think that people have this idea, particularly about women, that they are always sure of themselves, sure of where they are going, unafraid, and iron willed.  There is this notion that if we are emotional, if we show our vulnerability, if we express our fears and our doubts, that somehow that makes us weak.  I must admit I have played into that a lot.

I’m an extremely emotional person and I don’t try to hide it but I find myself sometimes apologizing for it and in many ways feeling embarrassed because of it.  My mother once told me that tears and crying is for the weak and I have to admit that this made me even more apprehensive about showing my emotions to the general public.

For the people that really know me, on a deep and personal level, and they know my weaknesses and love me because of them as well as in spite of them, I will show that side.  However, for the rest of the world, the outside people who have yet to get to know me, I have discovered that I have become that person who tries to put on the front of strength because I don’t want them to see what they might perceive as weak.

The thing that I have learned through discovering more about myself is that it is okay to not be iron willed all the time.  Showing emotion, shedding tears, being afraid, or having doubts doesn’t make you any less strong than the people who won’t let their guard down enough to show cracks of vulnerability.

Strength is not in just bouncing back from tragedy or powering through the hard times.  Strength isn’t about shutting people out because you are afraid of getting rejected.  Strength is not always proving that you have all of the answers when things don’t go as planned.  Strength is about being able to admit that you are afraid.  It’s about acknowledging that you don’t have all the answers and that it’s okay, because you don’t need all of the answers today.  Having strength is acknowledging that sometimes it is okay to be weak.  As I shift into the next level of my journey and move further towards my success I don’t want to waste time and energy trying to keep up a front of always being strong.  Because I am not.

I Have the Write 2 Be Strong In Spite of My Weaknesses… What is Your Write 2 Be?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Do I Fall In the Middle?

jcladyluv

I read an article on a blog that I just started following this morning that seemed to clear up a lot of things that I sit and wonder about on a regular basis.  It talked about the 3 categories of writers that exist within the world of Hollywood.  The top level of writers is considered the professionals and those who are talented and have proven their talent and are hitting their stride as a professional writer.  The bottom level of writers are those who aspire to be a writer but who do not necessarily have the talent to back it up and they don’t really have the desire that is needed to become a successful writer.

Then there is the level of writers that fall right there in the middle.  These are the talented writers who have the ability to be successful and they have more than enough determination and desire but they just can’t get the right doors to open for them.  After reading this article I really had to wonder if I am that writer in the middle.  The answer really didn’t take that long to come to me.  Of course I am.

I am sitting right on that middle level, with the passion, the determination, the desire, and definitely the talent that it takes and I keep trying to push open door after door but the right one’s, the one’s that will lead me to that ultimate success that I’m striving for, they just won’t open up.

It’s often frustrating to go online and stumble upon blogs from people who (I’m just going to bluntly say this) just aren’t that talented and whose paragraphs are riddled with grammatical errors one right after the other and yet they have thousands and thousands of followers.  They are the one’s that are starting to turn a profit and starting to see the money come in like it’s falling off a tree.  It puzzles me and I just want to know what door they are walking through so I could at least go and knock on some of those same doors.  I am tired of being that writer in the middle standing in front of a door that just refuses to open up for me.

That’s what this year is about for me, changing that.  It’s about pushing through those doors and busting them down if need be.  I feel like I am off to a good start and going in the right direction but I know that I should be doing more because what I dread more than anything is getting to the end of this year and standing in front of those doors that still won’t open up.

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Evolve or Be Left Behind

jcladyluv

So in a career field such as writing there are many changes that have taken place.  There used to be a time when being published in print was the most desired end result by writers and the possibility of accomplishing it was damn near impossible.  Then technology came along in a huge and powerful way and allowed writers who weren’t able to get those sizeable publishing contracts from the bigger publishing houses to publish their own work in their own way and on their own time table.

Of course this then presented writers with having to do all of the hard work that the big publishing houses would have done for you such as marketing and publicity and booking their own interviews and book signings.  This then made writers more then just storytellers but also formidable business people as well.  Now, not only are writers able to self-publish their books in print form but technology has paved way for the ebooks for those (who for some reason that I have yet to figure out) who prefer to read their books through ereaders, kindles, and nooks.

Ebooks do make publishing easier, more affordable, and sometimes even more profitable.  Now I know that I have said before that I do not necessarily approve of reading my books in the form of ebooks, but I also acknowledge that as I am trying to grow my business and become more successful within the writing world, I need to give in to the times at some point.  That point is coming very soon.  Now I have a lot of research to do in the area of ebooks because I certainly don’t want to just put a product out there without knowing what I am doing, but I know that it is a step that has to be taken.

I don’t want to let my resistance to change hold me back from progressing and becoming more of a success.  This year is about moving forward and not holding myself back by refusing to budge as the world evolves around me.  Now this does not mean that I am going to turn into a kindle or nook user and suddenly start reading my books on those devices because I still prefer turning the pages of a physical (preferably hardback) book and that still is the method of reading that works for me.  However, I acknowledge that a lot of the people that I want to read my work probably don’t prefer to still read their books that way and I want to be read by everyone.

So of course after I have done all of my research and gathered my materials together and start producing ebooks to further grow my business, my readers here will be the first to know and hopefully the first to support.  So that is one way that I plan on evolving within my writing career this year.  How are you planning on evolving in yours?

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

The Time to Incite Change is Now

jcladyluv

Yesterday was one of those days that make you want to incite change, not only within yourself but in the world.  Between it being Martin Luther King Jr. day and the Inauguration day of President Barack Obama you couldn’t help but to be inspired and hopeful for the bright future that this country has ahead and the mark that you could someday leave on it.  It just feels like the time to change things is now and that in this present moment you have to be willing to stand up and be that difference that this world needs.

When I think of all of the great people who incited the change that has been made in this world, I think about the fact that these were people who refused to remain silent or stand still.  They were people who didn’t care if no one else shared their beliefs or their opinions they were going to make their belief and opinions heard anyway.  They were not going to be afraid to step outside of the box that other people kept trying to keep them in.  They weren’t afraid to be that change that the world needed and make their mark.

I would like to think that I have already started on that journey to make a great change within this world.  While it is only the beginning of this year, with the release of my new magazine and my first guest blog post, which was published last week, that seems to be well received, I am feeling more and more like everything is starting to fall right into place.  There are so many things that I want to do in this world and so much change that I want to make.

My dream started off with just writing, then evolved into wanting to build a publishing house, and evolved even more into wanting to create a media empire to pass on to my daughter that not only encourages artists to not conform to what society says they should be, but that they should celebrate their uniqueness.  I also, as I saw my daughter begin to experience the bullying that I also once went through as a child, developed an urge to want to use my message for my media company to begin communicating to young children that they should feel okay with being who they are and know that being different is not something to be ashamed of but rather something to embrace.

I’m not sure what it is about this year that feels so different but it just feels like it’s going to bring about the changes that I’ve been waiting for.  Of course some of those developments I am working towards are still in the making but I feel like I’m getting so much closer to my destination.  I am going to change this world, in my own way and in my own time.  I believe all of us have that power.  We just have to tap into it.  Did yesterday inspire you to want to move toward change?

I have the Write 2 Be Motivated and Empowered… What is your Write 2 Be?

 

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine or submit a request for an author interview at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.

Unstuck and Heading in the Right Direction

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I finally launched my magazine the other day and I am feeling really excited about all of its possibilities.  Initially I was scared (or maybe nervous would be a better word) about its release for all of the obvious reasons that anyone would be nervous going into a new venture.  This magazine is a big deal for me and the whole meaning behind Write 2 Be is important for me to get out.

Of course, as with any big venture that you embark on, I am discovering that all of the hard work that went into putting the initial debut issue out is really only just beginning because then there lies the responsibility of promotion and marketing that all falls on me.  Now anyone who reads this blog or who knows me already knows that I struggle deeply with the marketer that is supposed to live inside of me.

As a writer who does not have an agent as her advocate and who has not “hit it big” yet with some big contract from some major publishing house, and without some publicist slaving away on her behalf, I am learning how to market as I go along.  I was one of those aspiring writers who naively just thought that any publishing house would accept her work and of course they would have their own team of marketers and publicists that are working feverishly on behalf of my impending career and success.

Well that just isn’t how things worked out and nowadays as a writer trying to make it you have to be a good marketer of yourself and admittedly I am not.  I suppose it is mostly that I usually feel awkward patting myself on the back and that stems from personal childhood issues but I have slowly but surely started to get past that.  I am getting more adapt to being my own best supporter but it is definitely still a work in progress and is certainly not easy.

Having said all of that, with the release of my magazine I realized that this is a step in the right direction.  I had been feeling stuck within my writing and my drive towards success as a writer but now I know I am heading the right way towards my ultimate goals.  I felt stuck last year, and possibly even the year before that and I hadn’t realized why until I released the Write 2 Be Magazine.

I feel like I am now really beginning to fulfill my purpose and that I am starting to see my vision becoming the reality I knew it could be.  I feel revived and much surer of where I am headed and that I am definitely on the right path.  I feel very optimistic about this year as it pertains to my writing career and I am going to hold on to that optimism for as long as I can.

I have the Write 2 Be Proud and Inspired… What is your Write 2 Be?

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”

https://write-2-be.com/

http://unpleasantlyplump.wordpress.com/

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

Write 2 Be Magazine is now out so please go check it out at http://write2bemagazine.com/.  Also please go and join the magazine on twitter https://twitter.com/write2bemag, join the email listing for the magazine at Write2bemagazine@yahoo.com, and also like the Write 2 Be Magazine fan page https://www.facebook.com/Write2BeMagazine.  Please help support my endeavor and my new journey and help me spread the word about Write 2 Be and its meaning.