On Changing Your Mind

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.

I highly recommend A Year of Miracles by spiritual teacher Marianne Williamson. I have followed the 365 reflections and devotions over several years. Here’s one of my favorites:

If you think of yourself as being at the effect of a random universe that does not care about you, then you will experience your life that way. If you think of yourself as being at the effect of a loving universe that does care about you, then you will experience your life that way.

No matter what is happening in our lives, we choose how we wish to think about it. And the greatest gift we give ourselves is often our willingness to change our minds. Despite what might seem to be the saddest and most intractable situation, we have the power to believe that something else is possible, that things can change, that a miracle can happen. This gives us vision, which gives us conviction, which gives us power.

Source: A Year of Miracles

One Good Choice After Another

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:

Are you enjoying the life and blessings of God in your everyday life? Or have you made a series of choices resulting in disappointment, pain, or feeling that everything you do requires great effort and produces little reward? Don’t spend your time and energy mourning all the bad decisions you have made; just start making good ones. There is hope for you!

The way to overcome the results of a series of bad choices is through a series of right choices. The only way to walk out of trouble is to do the opposite of whatever you did to get into trouble—one choice at a time. Maybe the circumstances of your life right now are the direct result of a series of bad choices you have made. You may be in debt because you have made a lot of bad choices with money. You may be lonely because of a series of bad choices in relationships or in the way you treat people. You may be sick because of a series of unhealthy choices: eating junk food, not getting enough rest, or abusing your body through working too much and not having enough balance in your life.

You cannot make a series of bad choices that result in significant problems and then make one good choice and expect the results of all those bad choices to go away. You did not get into deep trouble through one bad choice; you got into trouble through a series of bad choices. If you really want your life to change for the better, you will need to make one good choice after another, over a period of time, just as consistently as you made the negative choices that produced negative results.

No matter what kind of trouble or difficulty you find yourself in, you can still have a blessed life. You cannot do anything about what is behind you, but you can do a great deal about what lies ahead of you. God is a redeemer, and he will always give you another chance.

Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer

Three Unfiltered Thoughts for a Tough Day

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 email:

Sometimes I catch myself staring at people – studying their mannerisms and expressions. I wonder what their story is. What are they searching for? What makes their heart beat with happiness, with sorrow, with fear, with longing?

And then I ask myself, “What words might I write to inspire them, and to remind them that, even on the toughest of days, our hearts all beat for the same things?”

So today I figured I’d share a few of these unfiltered words with you…

1. Too often we work hard to disown the parts of our lives that were painful, difficult, or sad. But just as we can’t rip chapters out of a book and expect the story to still make sense, we can’t rip past chapters out of our lives and expect our lives to still make sense. Keep every chapter of your life intact, and keep on turning the pages. Sooner or later, you’ll get to a page that brings it all together and you’ll suddenly understand why every page and chapter before it was needed.

2. In those frustrating moments when you find yourself standing face to face with an issue you battled before – one bearing a lesson you were sure you had already learned – remember, repetition is not failure. Ask the waves, ask the leaves, ask the wind. Repetition is sometimes required to evolve and grow.

3. As you live and experience things, you must recognize what works and what doesn’t, what belongs and what doesn’t, and then let things go when you know you should. Not out of pride, inability, or arrogance, but simply because not everything is supposed to fit into your life. Close the door, change the record, clean the house, get rid of the dust. Stop being who you were so you can become who you are…

Allow yourself to see something new, and discover something new.

Allow yourself to take up a lot of positive space in your own life.

Allow yourself to think better today…

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

Good Things Happen on Purpose

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:

Tragedy that has caused pain and suffering is often attributed to an accident, such as an automobile accident, a fall, a broken limb, or some other random situation. But I have never heard anyone say of a good dead, “It was an accident.” Good things happen on purpose. Someone decides to be good to someone else, and then they take corresponding action.

Most people in the world are starved for love. They need affirmation, kindness, compliments—anything that helps them feel valued. Because of what Jesus has done for us, we have the ability to do that for other people, and I think it should be one of our great purposes in life. It should be something we live to do, rather than something we do on rare occasions.

We can live on purpose. Loving God and loving people is our highest purpose in life. When you spend time with people, ask yourself how you could compliment them and then do it. When you are shopping or eating out, tell the people serving you that they did a good job. And always remember that you can never say thank you too often.

Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer

Commit to Growth

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.

I highly recommend reading When You’re Ready, This is How You Feel by Brianna Wiest. Here’s an inspiring and thought-provoking excerpt:

The truth about forward movement is that it’s more about present stillness tan anything else.

Can you sit with yourself?

Can you be present?

Can you allow yourself to metabolize the feelings that keep coming up?

Are you willing to change your mind?

Are you willing to change your life?

While there are many parts of life that are out of your control, the parts that are within it are often a reflection of you.

When you commit to working on yourself, that effort radiates out and touches everything and everyone around you. So, commit to growth. Commit to becoming better. Decide that you’re ready to expand your heart past its current perimeters.

There is so much more waiting for you, but you have to be open to it first.

Source: When You’re Ready, This is How You Feel, pp.113-114

Writing Takes Time

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 A Year of Writing Dangerously, author and teacher Barbara Abercrombie shares anecdotes, insights, and solutions. Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt:

No one has to be patient anymore. We can publish books right from our computers. We can get messages anywhere, anytime. We can have whole libraries of books instantly zapped to whatever our latest gadget is, or a complete film festival delivered at the click of a button. We can plug ourselves directly into our music without bothering with CDs. We never, ever have to be bored, subjected to silence, or deal with our inner life.

But no matter how fast the world zips along, no matter how much fun there is to be had, the fact remains that writing takes time. To write takes dreaming and remembering and thinking and imagining—and very often what feels like wasting time. It takes silence and solitude. It takes being okay with making a huge mess and not knowing what you’re doing. Then it takes rewriting and struggling to find your story and the truth of the story, and then the meaning of the story. It takes being comfortable with your own doubts and fears and questions. And there’s just no fast and easy way around it.

Source: A Year of Writing Dangerously p.12

Live Life on Purpose

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:

Living life on purpose rather than merely drifting aimlessly through one day after another is very important. We only get one life, and we should make it count. I encourage you to do something each day that adds value to someone else, and your day will be well spent.

We cannot live according to our feelings and behave wisely at the same time. Good choices often have nothing to do with emotions, so we need to learn to live beyond them. Enjoy the good feelings when they are present, but don’t let not having them control you. Live life on purpose.

Begin each day thinking about what you believe would be good choices to make, and don’t let yourself be distracted by useless things that steal your time and produce no good fruit.

Source: Strength for Each Day by Joyce Meyer