Motivation
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Blooming
“One day you will look back and see that all along you were blooming.” ~ Morgan Harper Nichols, author and artist As we age, many of us battle the nagging belief that we “haven’t done enough” with our lives. No matter how accomplished we are in any arena, we typically undervalue our achievements and overlook our daily victories. Worst of all, sometimes we focus too intently on our mistakes or missed opportunities. Try this instead: Take inventory of all that you’ve done with your life so far, and admit that you deserve more credit than you’ve been giving yourself. Count every achievement, large and small, whether it’s raising a family, rescuing…
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Keep moving
“If you can’t do what you long to do, go do something else. You might think it’s procrastination, but it isn’t; it’s motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert Sometimes I take breaks from my writing projects — when I don’t have the energy, or I simply have nothing to say. If I have a work deadline, that’s another story: I push myself and get it done. But after all these years, I’ve learned not to panic when inspiration packs up and leaves my home office. As author Elizabeth Gilbert reminds us today, motion fuels creativity and productivity. When you’re…
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Throwback Thursday: “Make music of what you can”
Good morning, friends! Today I’m re-posting an old favorite for new subscribers… I always knew I wanted to be a writer. When I was a kid, I perched in the gnarly apple tree in my backyard and scribbled stories in a notebook with lined pages. In college I majored in English and journalism, but it took a few more years to find the courage (and the income) I needed to begin a real writing career. The zig-zag path that led me here was marked with detours and littered with excuses. After graduation, I worked at other jobs where I learned some valuable lessons — including what I didn’t…
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Mining for treasure
“I am a firm believer that every few years one needs to shake one’s life through a sieve, like a miner in the Yukon. The gold nuggets remain. The rest falls through like the soft earth it is.” ~Amy Poehler, Yes Please At the start of this year, I didn’t make traditional “resolutions.” Instead, I decided to make a few healthy changes. Just for starters, I had noticed that I can’t process alcohol like I did when I was younger, nor was my blood pressure benefitting from the salt I was shaking freely on my meals. So I stopped drinking alcohol, and I rarely reach for a salt shaker without…
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Germinating
“During the times we think we’re being ‘unproductive,’ the seeds of new worlds are germinating within us, and they need peace to grow.” ~Martha Beck Somewhere along the line, I bought into the notion that I need to be working on something 24/7. I feel like a slacker if I’m not writing an article, teaching classes, organizing my home, digging in the yard, or otherwise being productive. You too? We live in a culture that celebrates busyness — so it’s not surprising that most of us are ashamed to admit that we need some time off. We’re afraid to be still. Or maybe we’re afraid that we’ll lose momentum. Today,…
