A-Z Challenge Letter O

O is for optimism. Believing you can do something and setting goals to get to it. Everyday offers us an opportunity for being optimistic. If it's a grey day outside, what can you do inside to be positive and uplifting?

Everyday you have two choices, be optimistic and find the positve in the things around you or be pessimistic and dwell on the negatives. It's your choice to make.

To have more happiness and to be self-satisfied. I propose you choose optimism daily. See if things don't look a little better.

TTFN
2050

A-Z Challenge Letter N

N is for nurturing.

We nurture plants. Getting our hands dirty to give them life. Bringing us beautiful flowers and bountiful crops. In doing so we give them love and support to grow.

To be successful in business we nurture our employees. We give them the opportunities to grow and when they grow we all flourish. When they flounder we pick them up and nurture them some more. Otherwise our employees leave and we must start again.

As people we nurture relationships. Within our families, our friends, and our neighbors. As each relationship flourishes we grow, thrive, and become successful.

I personally nurture new writers. Some have potential and I give them the opportunities to grow. Others have no potential and while I provide opportunities, these folks often drift away. Each person I nurture who goes on to write in whatever form they choose makes me a success. I don't necessarily get a monitary benefit from this, but I do get to share in the success. So, it's all good.

Who do you nurture?

TTFN
2052

A-Z Challenge Letter M

M is for motivation. Something I have been lacking for the past week. Something we all need to carry out our dreams, get our jobs done, or just to survive.

You have to start somewhere at some time, so why not start here and now. Do one thing you've let slide. Tomorrow do another, the next day another. By day four you won't even have to remind yourself, you'll just do it.

You have to be the one to make things happen. It all starts with you. If you want to write a novel, write it. If you want to paint a master piece, pick up your paints and get started. What ever it is you wan to do, start now. Make it happen.

TTFN
2053

A-Z Challenge Letter L--Me catching up

L is for love. What many fail to remember is you have to love yourself. Embrace your uniqueness. It includes your flaws, your strengths, your weaknesses, all the things making you, you. Once you love yourself, spread you wings and love others.

Loving others can be as simple as making cookies and passing them out to the homeless in your town. Or donate them to an elementary classroom, for no other reason than you can. Love can be as simple as reaching out a hand to someone who needs it. There doesn't have to be a cost involved. Just doing the right thing when you have the chance. Showing someone you care.

Share a skill you have with someone else. No matter what the skill is, teach someone else. Help them to feel the accomplishment you feel.

But start by loving who you are.
TTFN
2053

A-Z Challenge Letter K

K is for knowledgeable. Being knowledgeable, means to have knowledge. What you do with the knowledge you have is up to you.

You can share your knowledge in the form of teaching. You can use your knowledge to build a business. You can use your knowledge to tell stories (write books). Knowledge has many uses. Use your knowledge to become a doctor, nurse, or other medical personnel. Use your knowledge to become a police officer, firefighter, service personnel.

It can be used for good. To volunteer what you know to help others get ahead. You can use your knowledge to make life better for the people around you. Create a charity, provide food or shelter for the homeless. Reach out to the people who are shut-in.

On the flip side, you can use knowledge for the not so good. You can set up a con to cheat people out of money, property, or other goods. You can use your knowledge to ridicule others.

How you use your knowledge speaks about your character and the type of person you are. Use your knowledge wisely. Make the best choices.

TTFN
2055

A-Z Challenge Letter J

J is for judgement. We often stand in judgement. We judge people for their clothes, hair, car, education, jobs, writing, and just about anything else you can think imagine.

Judgement is not all bad. We have to use our judgement when making life choices. We have to use our judgement when choosing friends, jobs, colleges, autos, loans, and credit cards. These are not all bad judgements.

We also ourselves using others as standards. Not such a good thing as we are all different. We make assumptions on what a person is or isn't based on the clothes they wear, when for all we know they are just trying to fit in.

We tend to be harshest when we judge ourselves. Our looks, our weight, our jobs, our homes, all get judged by our standards which might be higher than we have attained. Or by the standards we see others living by. Knowing our budgets don't stretch to keep up with the Jones.

Using our judgement for good instead of detrimental is a struggle. You want to do the right thing, yet find yourself falling into old traps. It is a daily struggle.

TTFN
2057

A-Z Challenge Letter I

I is for intuition. The feeling you get when something is off. The gut feeling telling you to do something differently.

This is my favorite definition of intuition: a keen and quick insight. Being able to sense something others might not.

Listen to your intuition, sometimes it's smarter than you are. 

TTFN
2059

A-Z Challenge Letter H

H is for happiness. On any given day, happiness can be something different. I'm going to just post some photos I have of happiness.

2009 a Mother/Daughter vacation in the US Virgin Islands.

All the nieces and nephews in one place for Christmas, this one has been a while.

My daughter and son-in-law.

Seeing Jojo with a gold medal...definitely won with grace.

My daughter, grandchildren, and my parents. Thanksgiving a few years ago.

My grandkids first day of the 2015-16 school year.

Me with the love of my life.
TTFN
2060

A-Z Challenge Letter G

. G is for grateful. I am grateful for the opportunities to put my writing out there for contests. It is a big leap of faith in my own work to put it out for someone else to judge.  I put a book before the panel at Book Linker.  I did not make the cut. It's okay. They gave me a look and pass, maybe the next one.

Today I received the result of the Independent Publisher awards (IPPY). Again I did not make the cut. Once again I am grateful they looked at my book.

I still have a book out there in a contest. I'm not even sure when they are making the decision. I'm just grateful they are looking at my book.

There are many things to be grateful for, however I'm not going to bore you and list them. I'm just going to live in the knowledge I am grateful God put me on this earth, gave me the ability to write, and people willing to read what I do write.

TTFN
2061

A-Z Challenge Letter F

F is for Failure. We all do it. It's a fact of life. It's how you respond when you fail which turns the failure into success.

Just learned a contest I'd entered one of my books in did not select me. Congrats to the winner and other semi-finalists. I'll submit a different book next time. Does it mean my book was not good? No, it means my book was not something they were looking for. So, back to the drawing board.

A contest was held to choose a co-author to work with James Patterson. I did not enter. The book I would have entered is not ready yet. Maybe another time. I took his class to improve my writing not enter a contest. The results were announced today. I was appalled by the whining and complaining. Really???? Bite the bullet and write a better book.

Tomorrow I will learn whether or not one of my other books is award worthy. Am I going to cry if it's not? No, I know it's up against good competition. It will hold it's own. I won't cry if I don't win. I will be disappointed, but I'm not giving up writing. At some point this year, I will learn if my children's book wins an award. I also have a book up for an Amazon award.

I believe this. Failure IS Success IN Progress. James Patterson had 27 rejections of his first novel before someone else believed in him. The Chicken Soup for the Soul books were rejected 47 times before someone said, "This is good."

Failure is just telling you to do a better job the next time, not you can't do it. Just do it better. And keep doing it until you get it right.

TTFN
2062

A-Z Challenge Letter E

I believe these words to be true. E is for enthusiasm. Nothing is achieved without some enthusiasm. Find something in your life to fill you with passion. Something you want to do more than anything else. 

For me, the passion is writing. My high school English teachers would have said no way. A college professor told me I had talent she didn't know how to help me develop it. I believed in myself. I read books, and books, and yet more books on how to write well. I practiced and practiced and practiced some more. The end result I have written five novels, two novellas, a children's book, and two ebooks. I have a poetry book and a self-help book for tweens and teens. 

I keep learning. I am taking a Master Class with James Patterson. The result of which will be a different kind of novel. I have put book four in my series on the back burner. I will be pullin another book out of moth balls and reworking it. I have a couple of novellas to be written and yes, more children's stories. 

I also share my love of writing. I do it by encouraging other writers to write, to consider publishing, to go for it. 

When you think of enthusiasm, think of this:

TTFN

2063