Tag: writing

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There’s Nothing Wrong with a Little Healthy Competition

February 22, 2012 jcladyluv

“I’m not in competition with anybody but myself. My goal is to beat my last performance.”

~Celine Dion

I have never considered myself to be competitive. I was never an athlete in school. I never competed in anything academically; well not unless you count the elementary class spelling bees. I was never one to really fight for what I wanted when I was younger. I guess I just didn’t really have any fight in me then and I would just step aside if I thought someone could do something better than me. To be honest I didn’t have fight in me until the last several years.

So when someone at my gym said to me today that they knew I could do something that another person was doing (which I kept telling him I couldn’t) simply because he knew I would never let someone else outdo me, I was a little taken aback to realize that he was right. It’s funny but I didn’t even realize that somewhere along the way I had become competitive (but not in a bad way). When I see someone doing something (at least when it comes to physical activity in the gym) that I have convinced myself in my mind that I should be able to do I can’t seem to get rid of the urge to prove that I can actually do it. I think that I am mostly competitive with myself because I find myself trying to beat my own records and my own accomplishments, convinced that I can do better then what I did before.

Now if I only took that competitive spirit that I have in the gym and infused it into my writing. I mean it wouldn’t exactly be the same sort of competition because there’s no strenuous physical activity involved. But maybe if I can keep in my mind when I see someone in my inner circle doing something that I know I should be out there doing, that there’s no reason that I can’t do that. In writing perhaps I just need to stay in good competition with myself, trying on a continuous basis to outdo my own efforts.

I know that some people might think that being competitive is a bad thing, and I suppose it can be if you are not correctly directing your competitive nature to the right places in your life. You shouldn’t be in competition with the person next to you because they aren’t the ones standing in your way. You not trying to become better each time you achieve something is what stands in your way. Sometimes you have to compete with your own best efforts because it can make you a better person and better at your craft or talent. Until tomorrow…There’s nothing wrong with a little healthy competition, as long as you don’t lose sight of what you are competing for.

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

Graduating to the Next Level

February 21, 2012 jcladyluv

“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

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

At A Loss for Words

February 20, 2012 jcladyluv

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Tonight I am at a loss for words. I have had certain inspirations come to me and I have notes written down but they haven’t completely formulated into complete posts for me yet. But I promised that I would write and post no matter what so even though the words won’t come tonight (not completely anyway) I still had to put myself out there in some way, shape, or form.

So while I promise that tomorrow the words will be much more profound, and much more inspiring and hopefully motivational, tonight these are all the words that I have to offer. It may not be much but it’s something and it’s the effort that counts. Until tomorrow…I hope your words come easy for you but know that if they don’t just put in the effort anyway and something beautiful will come.

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 Questions We Ask Ourselves, and God (Part 4): How Do I Know I’m On the Right Path?

February 16, 2012 jcladyluv

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

–Jeremiah 29:11

It’s hard to know if the direction you are headed in is the right one. It is even harder to know if the path you are on is the one you are destined for when it seems you continue to make so many mistakes (some mistakes repeatedly). You want there to be some way to know if that dream that you are chasing, and have been for years now, is the right one for you. You want to make sure that when you get to the destination that you are seeking, that you won’t regret the choice you made in picking that particular location. The thing is that you already know, deep down inside of you, if you are on the right path or not.

For a long time I questioned whether being a writer was really my destiny. I still question it sometimes when things seem to be hopeless. But what lets me know that this is my purpose and that I am on the right path is the fact the no matter how many mistakes I have made, they have somehow still all led me right to where I was always meant to be. I am making a living (admittedly lower then what I would like it to be at the time) doing what I love to do more then anything in this world. I am doing what calms me and what heals me. I am doing what God put me on this earth to do, and I am doing it with all of the mistakes I have made included.

Along your journey sometimes you get diverted, redirected, and turned completely around. You go in different directions then you originally saw yourself going in. But are those diversions really unplanned or were they just not a part of your plan. We make plans but our plans always get rerouted when they are not the same as God’s plans. This doesn’t mean that your destiny isn’t what you thought it was. It just means that the mistakes you think you made along the way were God’s way of getting you back on the right track.

The path you take isn’t going to be all on the straight and narrow, nor will it be without experiencing some bumps (and bruises) along the way. That doesn’t mean it’s not the right path for you, just that the right path is not going to be an easy one. You have to remember that you are on the path that God has chosen for you, for whatever reason. Don’t try to reroute God’s path with your own.

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

Conquering Fear Doesn’t Happen Overnight

February 8, 2012 jcladyluv

It is typical for someone to give good advice to others without ever really taking that same advice themselves. I’ve written a lot about not letting fear, whether it is fear of failure or fear of success, stop you from going after your dreams. I stand by that advice but sometimes I just can’t seem to take it myself. It isn’t that I don’t want to let the fear go, it just seems that I can’t. I get moments where I feel fearless and ready to conquer the world. Then something happens to set me back and I get afraid. I find myself afraid that I won’t succeed, then afraid that I will.

I spent a lot of time last night assessing exactly what it is that I seem to be doing wrong, or rather what is wrong with me. Why it is that I keep missing opportunities simply by not going after them in the first place. I look at my best friend Ms. L and watch her hustle her ass off to climb further and further up that ladder. She’s doing what she loves to do and she is going into it all fearlessly. Now Ms. L and I are both in pursuit of the same thing, success doing what it is we love to do. We have different avenues of the media industry that we want to conquer but we are both passionate about creativity and writing and making a living at it. I just can’t seem to mirror that same fierceness she has to hustle.

I sat in my bed last night trying to figure out why. Was it that I didn’t want it as bad anymore? Is it that I just feel that I am not cut out to be my own businesswoman after all? Can it just be that I am not hungry enough for it? No, none of those things apply to me. Then I realized that I’m still afraid. I thought it had gone away. I thought I had talked myself through the phase of being too afraid but somewhere along the way it crept back in. I’m afraid of succeeding but mostly I’m afraid of failing at everything I’ve ever dreamed of.

What I also realized in my moment of self analysis last night was that if I don’t try and give it my all then my fear will come true anyway. I fail without even trying to succeed. Not trying will be failing. I wish I could say that the fear is gone now. I wish that I could say that once it passes this time that it will never creep back in. But I can say that I know that fear is not going to help me get what I want and what I’m destined to have; success. For anyone out there experiencing a serious case of fear, you are not alone. We will overcome it and climb our way up that ladder. It just might take us a little bit longer than others. Until tomorrow…Remember that Fear stands for False Evidence Appearing Real.

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

Seeing the Blessing in the Responsibilities that God Gives Us

February 7, 2012 jcladyluv

I spent a lot of time when I was little planning out my life and what I was going to do and be. I even had time frames for certain things such as when I was going to become a New York Times staff writer and when I was going to get married and have children. But I wasn’t always so optimistic about how my life would turn out.

I grew up in an abusive home with a mother who was physically, mentally, and emotionally abusive and there were honestly days when I just didn’t want to wake up the next morning. I will even admit that I tried to make it so I wouldn’t wake up multiple times and would get angry with God when it didn’t work. I wondered why I was still here to go through the nightmare that I had to endure on a daily basis.

Now that I am at the stage I am at in my life, which admittedly is not where I had hoped to be at this age, I can see exactly why it never worked. God gave me a responsibility and a purpose. The purpose was to influence and empower people with my words and the responsibility was my beautiful and wonderfully intelligent daughter who I just know is here to change the world in big ways that I can’t even begin to see yet.

I was watching an episode of Tyler Perry’s House of Payne last week and it was something said that really struck a chord with me. The father was telling his son (who after being shot and almost killed wished that he had just died) that God sometimes gives us responsibilities just to keep you moving. He gives you those responsibilities along with the strength you need to achieve, and the provisions you need to conquer your problems. But you have to keep moving and keep fighting.

All of these responsibilities that I am stressing and worrying over and sometimes falling apart about were given to me specifically because God clearly saw something in me and believed that I could handle them. Now, looking at things from that perspective, I feel even more special because God must see more strength in me then I can see in myself. If God is going to put faith in me like that then how can I keep questioning him and not put faith in him and trust in his plan and his path that he has laid out for me.

I am writing this today because I felt compelled to. I felt as if there might be someone else out there (besides me) who continues to have questions about why certain burdens were bestowed upon them. It is all for a reason and there is a blessing in every burden, even if you don’t see it yet. I hope that anyone out there going through a rough time right now will trust in God and his reasoning. Until tomorrow…Keep moving forward and keep fighting through it.

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

7 Things About Me You May (or May Not) Want to Know

February 4, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so here are 7 things about me that I know my readers probably don’t know about me and that I don’t typically share with most people. I warn you that I am really not that interesting so if you are expecting some juicy, earth shattering secrets, I am sorry to disappoint you. Here goes…

When I was younger (and much better at it) I had another career path that I had always dreamed of doing in addition to writing. I wanted and dreamed about being a singer. I think that I would’ve been a really good one too, but that time has come and gone. Although if someone offered me a record deal today I would totally take it in a second. (I would write my own music of course)
It has always been a secret desire of mine to take dance classes. I’m not sure what style of dance because I’m not exactly the ballet or tap type, but maybe contemporary.
I started to love to cook around the age of 12 or 13 by watching Julia Child on MPT and I would someday love to go to culinary arts school and own my own restaurant.
I am about to go back to school to get my Master’s Degree in Psychology and I am actually, for the first time in life, dreading that stage of school. I’m worried I won’t be able to keep up with the course load.
I am terrified of heights and deathly afraid of being in water (not shower type of water but ocean type of water). Oddly enough I want to travel around the world which requires flying and possibly even being on some type of boat at some point in time.
I love being a mom, probably more than anything else in this world, maybe even more than being a writer (shh! Don’t tell anyone I said that).
I absolutely hate most of the latest technology advances and would probably never own any of the stuff that most writers are dying to have.

Well I think I have bared enough of myself for one day. I’m going to go hide under the covers now, I feel exposed!

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

I Was Honored To Be Chosen and Now I Pass On This Honor To 7 Others

February 3, 2012February 3, 2012 jcladyluv

Okay so back on the 16^th of January I was selected by my best friend Ms. L as a Versatile Blogger Award recipient. I was once again selected by one of my blog’s followers, Leonie Lucas, for the Versatile blogger award. I know it took me long enough to get around to actually accepting my award that I really do cherish and am honored to get but today I am doing just that. So first let me just say thank you to Ms. L and Leonie Lucas again for my award.

So as I understand, accepting the award requires me to pass the award along to seven other bloggers and to tell my readers seven little known things about myself. So tonight I will make my seven selections and share them with you here and tomorrow I will share seven things about myself (whether you will find them interesting or not is another story).

Confessions of a Love Addict– Blog by Lindsey Tigar
The Daily Cocca– Blog by Chris Cocca
Nail Your Novel– Blog by Roz Morris
Nissi Knows– Blog by Nissi x
Screenwriting From Iowa– Blog by Scott Smith
Roger Tharpe- A Voice Crying Out Into The Wilderness – Blog by Roger Tharpe
Futuristically Yours– Blog by Harold

Tomorrow I will disclose 7 things about myself.

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

10 Commandments of a Successful Writer

January 28, 2012 jcladyluv

Today I started thinking of things that I could do to be a better, more successful writer. Things that I am not already doing or that I am not doing enough of. I began thinking if there were Ten Commandments for a writer what would they be. So I compiled a list of some things that I think should be a commandment for a writer to follow, at least one that wants to be successful at it.

Write Every Day (No Matter What!)
Start a blog and blog frequently, if not everyday
Make your presence known on the internet. If you don’t have one already, get a Facebook page, a Twiiter account, and a LinkedIn account.
Maintain your presence on the internet by committing yourself to social networking daily
Read about the Business of writing and your craft. You can never know too much about what it is you love to do
Trust your talent and your skill. If you don’t believe in your talent, who else will
Get a thick skin because there will be rejection letters, probably more than you would ever like to see, but you have to keep believing in your talent.
Read consistently. You have to be a great reader to be an even better writer.
Network with other artists, not just writers
Start calling yourself a writer to the rest of the world because you are one.

Well the list probably isn’t perfect but those are definitely some things that I know that I need to work on to become a better and more successful writer. What would you guys add to this list or better yet, what would your list read? Until tomorrow…Always strive to be a better writer than you were yesterday!

Jimmetta Carpenter

Writer/Editor

The Diary: Succession of Lies (Now Available)

Writing as “Jaycee Durant”