On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post:

The bottom line is that almost every situation imaginable has hidden beauty in it if we are willing to open up to it. For example, in the past, even as Angel and I coped with the death of loved ones, we discovered opportunities for us to appreciate life more, to celebrate the lives of those we’ve lost, and to tune in to the priceless time we’ve had, and still have, with people we love.

We do our best to embody this same mindset in every difficult life situation we encounter. When we get ill, it’s a chance for us to rest. When some unforeseeable event postpones one of our business projects, we spend more time with family. When our adolescent son throws a temper tantrum, we see that he’s expressing himself, asserting his individuality, and being human.

We choose to find what’s right, even when it’s hard to see. And we can all practice this on an average day. Try to use frustration and inconvenience to motivate you rather than annoy you. You are in control of the way you look at life.

Instead of getting angry, find the lesson. In place of envy, feel admiration. In place of worry, take action. In place of doubt, have faith. Remind yourself that your response is always more powerful than your present circumstances. Because while a small part of your life is decided by completely uncontrollable circumstances, the vast majority of your life is decided by your responses. Again, where you ultimately end up is heavily dependent on how you play the hands you’ve been dealt.

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:

In your effort to enjoy life, you need to have a vision—a clear picture of what you would like to have in the future. For example, what would your life be like if you felt energetic and had excellent health? What would it take for you to reach your goal? Or, what would it be like to be debt-free, and how can you work toward that?

God has only one gear: forward! He has no park and no reverse. He wants you to start progressing toward your goals, but before you can do that, you must get a clear image of those goals. Don’t merely “wish” things were different in your life, but have a clear goal and work toward it.

If you are hung up on your past disappointments, you are never going to escape them. Think and talk about your future, not your past! Talk about the new you that you are becoming. Every successful person starts off by envisioning his or her success.

Create a vision of the ideal you. Writing down your goals helps bring them into the real world and makes them solid. Keep your vision and a list of your goals somewhere handy so you can consult it periodically and see how you are doing. Your list of goals can serve as stepping stones on your way to becoming your ideal self.

It’s time to get out the road atlas of your life, pick your destination, and slide that transmission into gear: forward!

Source: Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Each Sunday, I receive an inspiring message from poet Donna Ashworth’s Soul Mail newsletter. Here’s the latest:

For anyone who needs reminding today, there is no such thing as a straight road in this life…

You are never really ‘there’, never fully healed and perfect.

Rather I see it as a bendy, twisty route we walk. And it often feels as though we are going backwards. But I think we are actually looping. As all things do.

I like to imagine it as a figure of eight, an infinity shape.

We loop around the same lessons, the same heartaches, over and over, but each time we do we are a slightly different version of us and so we are not truly going backwards.

The loop always moves ahead. We are always moving ahead.

So if you feel like this today, if you feel you are in a place you thought you’d left behind; mentally, emotionally, or literally… be comforted by this image of infinity shape of life that we all tread.

You are exactly where you are supposed to be and the only thing you need to keep hold of as you loop around, is love. And perhaps faith and hope. All these things make for the very lightest of luggage (in fact I think they carry us).

And as you loop don’t forget to stop sometimes and appreciate the view from where you are. And congratulate yourself on how you travel so bravely. You never give up. And that is a thing so very worth celebrating.

I highly recommend subscribing to Donna Ashworth’s website.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In The Rules of Life, international bestselling author Richard Templar shares a personal code for living a better, happier, more successful kind of life. Here is an excerpt from Rule 25, “Have a Plan”:

You’ve got to have a plan. A plan is a map, a guide, a target, a focus, a route, a signpost, a direction, a path, a strategy. It says that you are going to go somewhere, do something, be somewhere by a certain time. It gives your life structure and shape, gravitas and power. If you allow life to turn up any old thing, you’ll be floating downstream as quick as you like. OK, so not all plans work out, not all maps lead to the treasure. But at least you’re in with a better chance if you have a map and a shovel than if you just dig at random—or, like most people, don’t dig at all.

A plan indicates you’ve had a bit of a think about your life and aren’t just waiting for something to turn up. Or, again like most people, not even thinking about it but going through life perpetually surprised by what happens. Work out what it is you want to do, plan it, work out the steps to take to achieve your goal, and get on with it. If you don’t plan your plan, it will remain a dream.

So what happens if you don’t have a plan? Well, you reinforce, to yourself, your sense of being “not in control.” Once you have a plan, the logical steps to achieve that plan also become available and accessible. A plan isn’t a dream—it’s something you intend doing rather than something you want to do. And having a plan means you’ve thought through how you’re going to do it.

Of course, just because you have a plan doesn’t mean that you have to stick to it, to follow it, to obey it to the letter, come hell or high water. The plan is always up for review, for improvement, for changing as and when you need it. The plan shouldn’t be rigid. Circumstances change, you change, your plan changes. The details of the plan don’t matter.

Having a plan gives you a fall-back position. When life gets hectic—and boy does it do that sometimes—it is easy to forget what we are here for. Having a plan means that when the dust settles, you can remember, “Now what was I doing? Oh yes, I remember, my plan was to…” And off you go again, back on course.

Source: The Rules of Life, pp. 38-39.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a thought-provoking reflection from international speaker and bestselling author Joyce Meyer:

What is confidence? I believe confidence is all about being positive concerning what you can do and not worrying over what you can’t do. Confident people do not concentrate on their weaknesses; they develop and maximize their strengths.

Let’s say you are not a “numbers” kind of person. On a scale of 1 to 10, you might be a 3. You could obsess about your inability to “do the math.” You could buy Math for Dummies and take a class at the community college. But your math obsession could eat up time that could be devoted to stuff you’re an 8 or a 10 at—like teaching God’s word, creative writing, or rallying support for charity. In other words, you might rob time and effort from the 10s in your life just to bring a lowly 3 up to a mediocre 5. When you look at it this way, it’s easy to see where you need to invest your efforts.

The world is not hungry for mediocrity. We really don’t need a bunch of 4s and 5s running around, doing an average job in life. This world needs 10s. I believe everyone can be a 10 at something.

Confidence allows you and me to face life with boldness, openness, and honesty. It enables us to live without worry and to feel safe. It enables us to live authentically. We don’t have to pretend to be somebody we’re not, because we are secure in who we are—even if we’re different from those around us. God has created every person in a unique way; yet, most people spend their lives trying to be like someone else and feeling miserable as a result. Trust me on this: God will never help you be some other person. He wants you to be you!

Source: Trusting God Day by Day by Joyce Meyer

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

A long-time fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to reading their emails and blog posts. Here’s an excerpt from a recent post:

Imagine you’re blindfolded and treading water in the center of a large swimming pool, and you’re struggling desperately to grab the edge of the pool that you think is nearby, but really it’s not—it’s far away. Trying to grab that imaginary edge is stressing you out and tiring you out, as you splash around aimlessly trying to hold on to something that isn’t there.

Now imagine you pause, take a deep breath, and realize that there’s nothing nearby to hold on to. Just water around you. You can continue to struggle with grabbing at something that doesn’t exist… or you can accept that there’s only water around you, and relax, and float.

Truth be told, inner peace begins the moment you take a new breath and choose not to allow an uncontrollable event to dominate you in the present. You are not what happened to you. You are what you choose to become in this moment. Let go, breathe, and begin again.

Note: I highly recommend subscribing to Marc & Angel’s website.

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

In The Rules of Life, international bestselling author Richard Templar shares a personal code for living a better, happier, more successful kind of life. Here is an excerpt from Rule 7, “Be Flexible in Your Thinking”:

We all have set patterns in life. We like to label ourselves as this or that and are quite proud of our opinions and beliefs. We all like to read the same paper, watch the same sorts of TV programmes or movies, go to the same sort of shops every time, eat the same type of food that suits us, and wear the same type of clothes. And all this is fine. But if we cut ourselves off from all other possibilities, we become boring, rigid, hardened—and thus likely to get knocked about a bit.

You have to see life as a series of adventures. Each adventure is a chance to have fun, learn something, explore the world, expand your circle of experience and friends, and broaden your horizons. Shutting down to adventure means exactly that—you are shut down.

The second you are offered an opportunity to have an adventure, to change your thinking, to step outside of yourself, go for it and see what happens. If this thought scares you, remember that you can always go back into your shell the second it’s over, if you want to.

But even saying yes to every opportunity isn’t set in stone as a rule, because that would be inflexible. The really flexible thinkers know when to say ‘no’ as well as when to say ‘yes’.

If you want to know how flexible your thinking is, here are a couple of tests. Are the books by the side of your bed the same sorts of books you’ve always read? Have you found yourself saying anything like ‘I don’t know any people like that’ or ‘I don’t go to those kinds of places’? If so, then perhaps it’s time to broaden your mind and take the shackles off your thinking.

Source: The Rules of Life, p. 17