Hobby or Identity?

Posted on May 26, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

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 is a thought-provoking reflection from Gordon Duncan of the Authors Community:

You can’t live on the street corner of inspiration.

As an artist, speaker, author, or creative, we love inspiration. It’s when the moment strikes, and we can barely make it to the computer, the canvas, or the blank piece of paper.

However, living on that corner often means that our work is created slowly or not at all.

Additionally, there are parts of creating that rarely enjoy moments of inspiration. For example, has anyone ever been inspired to edit their book? Maybe, but rarely.

No, the hidden secret behind creativity is that it is hard work. In fact, inspiration’s best friend is creativity.

It’s like the old adage, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” For the artist, it should be, “The harder I work, the more inspired I get.”

To get us there, here are a couple of tips to help you supplement your inspiration with some sweat:

One: Schedule writing time weekly, and even daily, if you can. Prolific authors like John Maxwell and Stephen King writer everyday…every day.

Two: Create consequences and benefits for your deadlines. A deadline is only a deadline if it has consequence. Otherwise, it’s a wish. Let’s say you want to have 100 pages written by the end of the month. If you hit that number, take yourself and someone you love out to a nice dinner. If you don’t hit it, then deny yourself that extra coffee or that movie you were going to see. It doesn’t have to be painful, but it does need to be consequential.

Three: Seek out accountability. This one is huge. Very few of us have the drive of a Maxwell or King. Entrusting a friend to keep you accountable or enlisting the services of a coach will help. Give them the right to speak honestly into your life. Give them the freedom to be blunt with you.

Four: Make a decision. Is your art a hobby or an identity? Is it something you do here and there or is it part of who you are? If it is part of who you are, then you have to organize your time towards those things. Hobbies are things you just pick up here or there.

Note: I encourage authors and other creatives to visit the Authors Community website.

Listen to that Inner Voice

Posted on May 19, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

Here’s one of my favorite quotations from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross:

Blurb Blitz: Millennial Money Queens

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome author Maria Alcantara. Today, Maria shares her latest release, Millennial Money Queens

Blurb

The ultimate personal finance guide for millennial ladies, finally live your dream life, banish debt, make more money and create true wealth.

Millennial Money Queens brings millennial women the crucial financial education and life-changing mindset training needed to succeed. Maria shares her decade-long experience along with top financial and psychology insights to empower you to live your dream life. Master your money mindset, start your dream business and invest like a pro.

In this book, Maria starts by giving your money mindset a makeover! We all operate according to belief blueprints we’ve inherited and developed, what she calls the money in our mind. Travel through time and learn how the blueprints for wealth and poverty were created and how they trickled through millennia all the way to our present society. During her career, Maria quickly noticed how some people could have astronomical sums of money and still feel poor, while others could create wealth time and time again while feeling like they were living their dream lives, sharing their fortunes, growing their riches and supporting the causes that mattered to them. They are vibrant, accomplished, healthy and wealthy individuals in every way. The first step to master money is to adopt their blueprint, which Maria has broken down into easy and clear steps, the cornerstones you need to finally have a solid foundation for financial freedom for the rest of your life.

Once your unshakable financial blueprint is in place, it’s time to get to work with the money in our world. The first step is to stop for most millennial women is to stop spending their well-earned money on debt, whether it is student loans or credit cards, the majority of millennial women spend extravagantly on interest payments. Maria shares the best proven strategy for millennial ladies to stop this money leak. Once your debt is in control, learn where else in your life there may be money leaks and how you can make the most of the current expenses, we all have so you can live your desired lifestyle, this is the new way to budget. Whether it is in housing and moving to your dream home, transportation and driving your dream car or personal spending and funding your shopping sprees or trips to exotic destinations, learn about smart and conscious spending to truly live like a money queen. Spending is only a part of the money equation, to increase our wealth, we need to increase our income. We all have something unique to share with the world, Maria shares her secret process to help you find out what your superpower is that will allow you to build your million-dollar dream business. It’s time for millennial women to step into their power, to lead in entrepreneurship and create amazing organizations that will contribute to making our world a better place. With the access to technology and the education many of us have and can continue to gain, the sky’s the limit to what we can create! The final step is learning the money magic that will allow your wealth to grow exponentially. Investing has so far been kept out of reach for many millennial women who believed they weren’t ready to begin investing, who couldn’t afford the professional fees and who continuously postponed creating their portfolios, this ends now. Learn the best strategies to invest like a pro without the exorbitant fees and or the professional knowledge needed to succeed in the markets.

The truth is that many of us are actively keeping wealth away from us with limiting beliefs about ourselves and money and we are lacking the financial education and tools we need to create our wealth. This will no longer be your reality, once you read this book, you will be fully equipped with knowledge, secrets, tips and strategies you need to finally master money and live your dream life. With captivating stories of real millennial women, so you can learn from their journey and timeless wisdom from humanity’s greatest minds, you are in for a life-changing transformation. Maria believes that the true power in knowledge is in its application, so to help you embody the concepts and make the most of all the opportunities the knowledge in this book will give you, every chapter includes a money queen move to help you put into action all the invaluable information that is being shared. It’s your time to shine and become a millennial money queen.

Excerpt

Social media has the magic of being able to connect people worldwide, but it also has created a very insidious culture of idolizing money. Especially for a generation who is so far going down in modern history as one of the worst with money, especially us ladies. This book’s mission is to change that and instead to empower our generation with the financial literacy it so urgently needs.

Financial wellness today has a lot less to do with where you were born or how smart you are and a lot more with what education you receive and how you behave with money. So far, the financial education you’ve received is slim to none, and so, your money life is in shambles. That changes now.

Any of these RKOI kids can blow their money just as any millennial woman who is given proper financial skills can understand money, make it work for them and become a zillionaire, self-made, amigas. Get ready for your money makeover.

If you want to become a millionaire but think it can’t happen for you unless you win the lottery or marry rich, think again. Making money, getting out of debt and growing a fortune is based on a few simple principles you are about to learn.

Applying these principles leads to stories like the secretaries Grace Groner and Sylvia Bloom who died with massive multi-million-dollar estates. Ignoring them leads to stories of boom and bust like Kim Basinger, who, despite living with crippling anxiety, won multiple academy awards and still had to file for bankruptcy.

Author Bio and Links

Maria Alcantara is the founder of Millennial Money Queens, a leading financial empowerment movement for millennial women worldwide.

She is a chartered investment manager and money coach with over ten years of financial insights experience working with high-net-worth individuals to manage and grow their wealth. After a decade devoted to mastering money, she realized the gap existing between young women and financial education.

Deeply touched by the current state of millennial women’s finances, where many have fallen into debt, are unable to create inspiring opportunities for themselves and their communities, and are suffering financially, emotionally, mentally and spiritually, Maria created Millennial Money Queens to create a much-needed shift. After working with millennial clients and friends, she expanded her method to impact a whole generation, our younger sisters and our descendants. She specializes in using behavioral economics and finance to help women achieve financial literacy, freedom and independence. The results are life-changing, with the right financial and psychological preparation, young women are finally able to create purpose, independence and the confidence to live fulfilled lives.

Born and raised in Brazil, Maria witnessed the polarity of money. She vowed at a young age to make a difference in the world. During her childhood, her family moved to Canada where she studied economics, psychology and finance. She started out with big dreams like saving the rainforests of the world and creating animal-assisted therapy programs. The defining moment happened when she was not able to get funding to make those projects come to life. Feeling discouraged and powerless was a huge catalyst. Sometimes in our lives, our temporary defeats hold our most precious gems, Maria decided to master money so that she could personally fund all the projects that were important to her and reflected her values of sustainability, health, welfare and abundance for all.

Thus, she embarked on a journey to understand the financial world. She worked in banking, brokerages and wealth management, carefully observing how people handled money differently and the effect it had on their overall life satisfaction. While money can’t buy happiness, the lack of can certainly create chaos in one’s life. She found this to be true most clearly with millennial women. With promising futures and careers ahead, the women she spoke with, read about and worked with all shared tremendous baggage of feeling insecure when it came to money. While many millennial women are incredibly well educated, many are uncomfortable discussing money, including negotiating their hard-earned salary and requesting equal pay. Maria dove deeply into the history of women and money and found that outdated societal beliefs widely held by both men and women still influence our behavior today. In order to create lasting change, millennial women need to be the rising tide. It is our time to rise to our potential and pave the way for the younger generations. Financial literacy including both the psychological and external world perspectives of money are key to empowering women worldwide. That is Maria’s mission in creating the Millennial Money Queen movement.

Website | Facebook | Instagram | Book Link

***Millennial Money Queens is on sale for $0.99***

Giveaway

Maria Alcantara will be awarding a $15 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner via Rafflecopter during the tour. Find out more here.

Follow Maria on the rest of her Goddess Fish tour here.

One Hard Thing You Have to Do to Be Mentally Stronger (and Happier)

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

A longtime fan of bestselling authors and coaches Marc and Angel Chernoff, I look forward to receiving their daily emails. Here’s some excellent advice for these challenging times:

Far too often we think that mental strength is all about how we respond to extreme circumstances. How did she perform on stage during that televised event? Did he bounce back from that heart-wrenching divorce? Can she keep her life together even after suffering from a major, debilitating injury?

There’s no doubt that extreme circumstances test our bravery, determination and mental strength, but what about common, daily circumstances?

Just like every muscle in the body, the mind needs to be exercised to gain strength. It needs to be worked consistently to grow and develop over time. If you haven’t pushed yourself in hundreds of little ways over time, of course you’ll crumble on the one day that things get really challenging.

But it doesn’t have to be that way…

Choose to lift some weights when it would be more comfortable to sleep in. Choose to do the tenth rep when it would be more comfortable to quit at nine. Choose to create something special when it would be more comfortable to consume something mediocre. Choose to raise your hand and ask that extra question when it would be more comfortable to stay silent. Prove to yourself, in hundreds of little ways, that you have the guts to get in the ring and wrestle with life.

Mental strength is built through lots of small, daily victories. It’s the individual choices we make day-to-day that build our “mental strength” muscles. We all want this kind of strength, but we can’t think our way to it. If you want it, you have to do something about it ritualistically. It’s your positive daily rituals that prove your mental fortitude and move you in the direction of your dreams over the long-term.

The bottom line is that when things get difficult for most people, they find something more comfortable to do. When things get difficult for mentally strong people, they find a way to stay on track with their positive daily rituals.

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

Built Myself Up Layer by Layer

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

I’m happy to welcome multi-published author Pamela Thibodeaux. Today, Pamela shares her inspiring reinvention story and her novel, My Heart Weeps.

Here’s Pamela!

Thank you, so much Joanne for hosting me on your incredible blog! I absolutely love the idea of reinvention. So many times in our lives we have to start over or ask for and take a second (or third, or fourth) chance for a do-over. Reminds me of those movies of people trading places so popular in the 80’s.

I guess you could say my first act, after being born into a great family with three brothers was marrying at the tender age of sixteen (yes, 16!). That union lasted ten years and sadly ended in divorce which brought about my first need for change. Five years later I married a wonderful man who died a short seventeen years afterward, throwing me into my 2nd second act and time of reinvention.

For most of my adult life I was someone’s wife or mother. After my husband’s death in 2009, I began the long and arduous journey from wife to widow to individual.

When I separated from my first husband (with no self esteem intact), I adopted the motto, “What you see is what you get. You like it? Good! You don’t? Hit the road, it’s your loss.” This was out of self preservation, not a sense of self worth or self love. With my second husband, I always felt beautiful and worthy in his eyes, but never in my own.

Years after being thrust into the dating scene—something I never felt comfortable with anyway—I learned the true meaning of self worth and self love. Now, when I say that motto, I know what I bring into a relationship, therefore I mean it on a deeper level.

Today I am happy with myself, my life and my relationships!

If anyone planning to pursue a second act would ask my advice, the first thing I would tell them is to work on their inner self and internal dialogue. After all, you’re going to take you into every aspect of your life so you might as well love and appreciate yourself! I built myself up layer by layer by writing and repeating positive ‘I Am’ affirmations….

I am love and I am loving. I am forgiven and I am forgiveness. I am healthy, whole and complete. I am beautiful. I am peaceful. I am joyful. I am happy and others are happy with me. I am (YOU fill in the blanks).

Read books like, You Can Heal Your Life and Mirror Work by Louise Hay, The Power of I Am by Joel Osteen and other similar titles. Positive affirmations are one of the kindest and most rewarding things you can do for yourself in any situation, but especially when you are in need of, or in the midst of change.

My Heart Weeps is Melena Rhyker’s second act—her journey from grief into new life and parallels my own.

Blurb

After thirty years married to the man of her dreams, Melena Rhyker is devastated by her husband’s death. Relief comes in the form of an artist’s retreat at the Crossed Penn ranch in Utopia, TX. She rediscovers a forgotten dream as her artistic talent flourishes into that of a gallery-worthy artist. Will she have the courage to follow the path she was destined to travel?

Garrett Saunders has been on the run most of his life. Abused and abandoned as a child, he escapes the clutches of a past filled with pain and shame, and hides from his calling as a Native American healer. His years as a CIA agent aid in overcoming his childhood and honing his talent and skill as a fine art photographer.

Follow their journey as two people who come from totally different backgrounds, but share gifts of gigantic proportions, find meaning and purpose in the Texas Hill Country.

Excerpt

At 6 p.m., she pulled into the carport, turned off the engine and laid her head on the steering wheel.

“Well, I’m home again. Made it through another agonizing eight hours or so, now to get through another night.”

Gathering every ounce of courage she could summon, she disembarked from her vehicle, retrieved the mail from the box beside the door, and entered the house. She thumbed through the envelopes and advertisements, then laid them on the table and poured a glass of juice. She reached for the bottle of over-the-counter pain reliever and froze.

It would be so easy to end this pain.

Oh, what an enticing thought. Just take a handful of pills and end it all. Would she wake up in heaven? Would Jesus meet her there? Would Jonathan? What about the kids or Mama—would they understand? Or would she destroy them? Where was the faith she claimed to have? Why was it failing her now?

Buy Links

Amazon US | Amazon CA | Amazon UK | Amazon AU

Author Bio

Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!”™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.” Sign up to receive Pam’s newsletter and get a FREE short story!

Where to find Pamela…

Checking In With Your Boundaries

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

In a recent interview on Spirituality & Health magazine, therapist Nedra Glover Tawwab shared what she considers the four most important words in our increasingly chaotic world: Set Boundaries, Find Peace. Those words are also the title of her recent release.

Here’s a thought-provoking excerpt from that interview:

It is a spiritual practice to tune into yourself and consider the why of your feelings. What’s trying to come up that I may be trying to push down? What’s trying to be released that I need to let go of? Often, when we’re having uncomfortable feelings, there is a boundary that needs to be addressed.

Of course, we can’t live a life without uncomfortable feelings. But what are they trying to tell us? What things do we need to practice to deal with that feeling better, or even reconfigure the trigger for those feelings?

The real breakthrough is not, “Oh my gosh, I have an issue with anger.” The real breakthrough is realizing that when I put myself in situations where there are no boundaries, I have an issue with anger.

Source: Spirituality & Health, February 2021, p. 49

Fun Friday!

Posted on April 30, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

Adapt to What is Real

Posted on April 28, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

A longtime fan of acclaimed psychologist Dr. Sonya Friedman, I like to reread many of the insightful passages from her best-selling books. Here’s one of my favorites from Take It From Here

In nature, chameleons adapt to the environment by changing color, blending in, and thus fooling predators. Nothing could be more descriptive of getting real and rolling with the punches. Although we’re a much higher form of life than a chameleon, capable of thinking and having a conscience, we can essentially do the same on another level: adapt to better fit into a personal environment of family, relationships, and work. You may have had twenty jobs in your life, or three failed marriages, and your bombs may be greater than your successes, but if you stretch your ability to adapt to what is real, you can gain the courage to keep going out there and, ultimately, achieve greater success.

Just Keep Showing Up and Shining Out!

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

Welcome to my Second Acts Series!

Today, we have Candace Colt sharing her multi-act life and Familiar Blessings, Book 1 in the Magic Potter Series.

Here’s Candace!

I’m honored to be a part of Joanne’s Second Act Series. Reading the other Second Act posts has been so inspiring, and I am sure you feel the same way. May I add that when you read another person’s story, and it doesn’t sound exactly like yours, perhaps you will find encouragement that change can be good no matter what the circumstances. Maybe you’ve already made a change (planned or unplanned). Another person’s story might give you the reassurance that you will be “okay.” The most important thing is this: have trust and faith in yourself!

First Act

“In my day,” a woman’s career options were a bit limited. That’s an understatement. Honestly, there few choices. Wife and mother (in tandem), nurse, airline stewardess, secretary, teacher. All worthy paths, yes. But even with a professional degree, many women quit the job after they got married. In my case, I got married, but I did not stop working. In fact, except for a few in-between-job periods, I worked full time until I retired in 2014.

I followed the teacher track and taught K-6 for several years. But then my husband’s job took us to a university town where teaching jobs were non-existent. Why? Because all the male grad students’ wives were teachers supporting their husbands. Does this sound familiar?

So, what’s a girl to do? Reinvention!

By some miracle, I was accepted into a Nuclear Medicine Technology program, with not much clue what that was! After graduation, I was hired, and naturally, I was the queen of the world! Then, a teaching job opened up in the field (college educator) that took me on a glorious seventeen-year journey. But then program funding disappeared, and there went that dream job! Another career change led me into entry-level college administration. Then to a college library director position (hello, I’m not a librarian!), where I had ten great years working with the best people in the world.

Fast Forward to the Second Act!

Retirement provided me the wherewithal to follow my heart to become a writer. Trust me, writing and promotion is full-time work, but I love it. Since I’ve retired, I’ve had nine books published in contemporary paranormal romance. By the way, each one has a wise older woman in the story. Imagine that?

I am nothing if not persistent. I don’t possess great intellectual genius. My changes were out of necessity rather than a master plan. If you ask me for advice, I will keep it simple. Paraphrasing my yoga teacher, no matter who you are or where you are in life,”Just keep showing up and shining out!”

Blurb

Familiar Blessings: The Magic Potter Series Book 1 (Cat’s Paw Cove Romance)

The magic begins when you trust your heart.

Tired of being hounded by the greedy dead, gifted medium Dr. Theodosia Blessing, the wonder-child of historians around the world, yearned for anonymity. After renouncing her magic, she reinvented herself as Theo, the potter. She returned to her hometown of Cat’s Paw Cove, Florida, where she lives with her familiar, a mind-reading tortoiseshell cat named Aloysius.

Former Army Ranger Ethan Cooper was content to live a reclusive life in his cabin in North Carolina. But as Christmas draws near, he agrees to repay a debt to an old man whose wise counsel brought him out of war’s dark shadow. Ethan accepts one last mission: to track down Theo.

Ethan appears unannounced on Theo’s doorstep with an envelope containing the old man’s letter. If what it says is true, the reluctant medium, skeptical Ranger, and wiseacre cat must travel back to 1720 to save a young boy from the gallows.

FAMILIAR BLESSINGS originally appeared in MEOWS & MISTLETOE, a Cat’s Paw Cove Romance Holiday Anthology. It won the 2019 Paranormal Romance Guild’s Reviewers’ Choice Award.

Excerpt

Curious but cautious, Theo hesitated, then carefully opened the parchment envelope and removed the folded paper.

She waved the letter at the stranger. “You drove all the way from North Carolina to give me this?”

“I suggested he could mail it certified, but he said it was too important. The old man’s my loyal friend, so I couldn’t refuse.”

Who was behind this? A stranger shows up with a letter an old man gave him. Sure.

Have I ever lied to you? Read it.

Theo glanced down at her cat, Aloysius. “Hush.” She noticed the man’s confusion. “Didn’t mean you.” He was obviously an Ordinary and hadn’t heard a word the cat said.

Theo cleared an imagined tickle in her throat and unfolded the paper. The ink had smudged in a few places, but the handwriting was legible. Her archivist expertise told her this was written in old English. F was used for S. The sentences were sprinkled with thee and thou.

In her former university position, she had analyzed documents like this before. Why would someone want this one hand-carried all the way to Florida when there were competent researchers in North Carolina?

Aloysius gave her ankle a ‘get-on-with-it’ shove. Read it out loud so the human can hear.

“All right, already.” She took a breath and began reading.

Dearest Theodosia,

I suspect thou hast many concerns about the manner in which this letter came to thee.

Please read it to the end. Trust ’tis written with the intentions of someone who loved and has watched over thee since thee was born.

Theodosia Blessing, thou comest from an old family. Thy God-given gift must continue–.

Theo’s throat tightened, and words bunched inside. Besides her family, only one living being on this earth knew her reason to abandon the magic: the ten-pound cat sitting at her feet.

Buy/Read

Candace’s Cat’s Paw Cove Romance Books are available on Amazon.

Candace’s Nocturne Falls Universe Books are available here:

Kindle | iBooks | Nook | Kobo

About the Author

Candace Colt lives the good life on Florida’s west coast with her husband of 48 years. After careers in education and the medical field, she launched her second life as a writer. Since she retired, she’s published nine paranormal romance books. She chose paranormal because it’s fun to write and because even shape-shifters, elves, psychics and time travelers deserve their happily ever after.

Links

Sometimes Running Away Really Works

Posted on April 21, 2021 by Joanne Guidoccio

While cleaning out my files, I came across the following post from Elizabeth Gilbert, best-selling author of Eat, Pray, Love and City of Girls.

I know there are a lot of arguments AGAINST running away. I know that running away from your problems can be a coward’s path. I know there are some issues in life that you can’t avoid forever. I know that in the recovery world, they call running away “pulling a geographic”–and addicts are wisely advised against trying it. I now that wherever you go, there you are. I know that there are times in life when you have to stay right where you are, and deal with things bravely and head-on.

And I am certainly familiar with the old adage: “You can’t change deck chairs on the Titanic.”

But you know what I always think when I hear that adage? THERE WERE SOME PEOPLE ON THE TITANIC WHO SURVIVED. And largely, the people who survived did so based upon where they were placed, geographically, on that ship. (Which had a lot to do with social class and injustice, I know–but for the sake of my argument, just go along with me on this…) In other words, there actually WERE some deck chairs on the Titanic that were better placed than others.

Which means: Sometimes there IS a better place for you to be, geographically, than where you are right now.

Sometimes there IS a safer place.

Sometimes there IS a more inspiring place.

Sometimes going two or three thousand miles away and changing your name really CAN change things–helping you to get away from bad old habits and bad old influences, and letting you become somebody new.

Sometimes running away CAN offer you a better chance of surviving your own life–getting you out of third-class steerage, let us say, and moving you closer to the front of the ship, to the top of the ship, where the light and the lifeboats are.

I truly believe this.

Sometimes running away really, really, really does work.