Posted on by BWThomas

Finishing what we start. It will be what it will be, and we have to be okay with that.

It will be what it will be and we have to be okay with that. Finishing what we start.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

If you are brave enough to start, you’re strong enough to finish. Gary Ryan Blair

Do you cringe when you see a picture of yourself? On Tuesday I had an interview with the Art Gallery of Mississauga and they were taking pictures. The photographer said he would send me some I could use as the picture for my new book.

When I saw the pictures I thought of the line in the song, “The sun in your face really shows your age.” It might not be possible to get a picture of myself I like because maybe I want to look like someone else.

They say smiley author’s photos are for less serious authors, and who wants to be thought to be one of those? Resting bitch face is a real thing and when I see it on my own face, wow! How do people take beautiful pictures even when they are not young and beautiful? Would black and white photos work better?

Getting professional photos taken is something I’ve been putting off. I need to get them done but this book will have the same photo I used for Secrets and Silence. My husband read it yesterday and he pointed out a verse I left out. How did I not notice that? My soon-to-be daughter-in-law noticed a name not capitalized.

How you start is important, but it is how you finish that counts. In the race for success, speed is less important than stamina. The sticker outlasts the sprinter. B.C. Forbes

It feels good to complete a project. Something that’s been simmering for years finally comes to fruition. What I’ve realized in this whole process is the biggest challenge was to make the decision to set a goal and work toward it. We may not know how we will get to that goal or what the finished product will look like, but we have to keep trying this and trying that, seeing what works. Serendipity works in our lives and the course with the Art Gallery of Mississauga came at the right time for me. Being part of a class, seeing what others were doing, what the facilitator and speakers she brought each week were accomplishing encouraged me greatly to continue with my project, and meet what seemed like an impossible deadline.

In my interview on Tuesday, I got emotional as I talked about what I got out of the course. I struggled with the demise of the collaboration between who was to have been the illustrator and myself. If I was doing the painting then there was nothing to offer him, but he invested quite a bit of time and effort into the project. We’d been meeting for months and he helped clarify my vision. I felt bad after investing all that time and effort he got nothing out of it.

The project was once again all mine, could I do what I set out to do? Then when I thought I was finished my daughter told me I needed more paintings. I’m glad I listened to her. I’m blessed she was honest and didn’t tell me what I wanted to hear. “I love it, it’s great,” isn’t as good of feedback as, “You Know what would make it better?”

We aren’t the same person when we complete a project we were when we started. When we started we didn’t know if we could complete it. We didn’t know what it would look like, but if we keep working toward our goal it will become something.

It started out as a story about a dog that ended with a family losing their beloved pet. It ended up being the joyous event of getting a puppy. A series is being born in my mind as the puppy and family have many, many adventures. The goal of publishing a children’s book was a challenge set last year. It has turned out to be one of the most enjoyable projects I’ve ever completed. It brings together my two loves, writing, and art.

We don’t know what we can accomplish until we set out minds to something and work at it until it is finished.

Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic. Robin Sharma

Much of the stress that people feel doesn’t come from having too much to do. It comes from not finishing what they start. David Allen

The strength and clarity of the picture you envision at the start will tell you when you are done. You are finished when you have said what you wish to say, when nothing added can make it better. Richard Schmid

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Collaboration is powerful. Two heads are better than one even when partnerships don’t work out.

Two heads are better than one even when partnerships don't work out. collaboration is powerful.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results. Henry Enoch Onuoha

Going for a walk this weekend required a jacket. The crisp air, blue sky, and the company of my daughter and our dog made it fun. We have a little pond we love to walk around. There are benches if we want to sit and watch the birds. We love walking but don’t make time for it often enough. A walk by myself is enjoyable but with others, it becomes even better.

Yesterday I painted the last painting for my children’s book. As I patted myself on the back and was wrapping things up for the evening  I decided I will paint at least one more to replace the painting that was to end the book. When I finish this one will I look at others and think I should repaint, compose differently, change the colors, or refine the details?

There are some really great blogs on illustrating children’s books and one of the things they are telling me is don’t depict exactly in the pictures what the words say. Use your pictures and your words to tell a bigger story. In small picture books of only 32 or 36 pages, this makes sense. I looked at a picture book of my daughters and in it, the author says a new puppy and the old dog touched noses and that is what the picture depicts, but I think it works. The new puppy is a tiny Dachshund and the dog they already have is a huge Great Dane.

We might not even know what makes our kids or ourselves gravitate to certain books. My youngest sister tells me she tried to get her daughter interested in Pete the Cat books when she was younger. Her daughter wasn’t interested in them even though my sister was.

I’ve taken a few trips to Indigo and some of the children’s books are beautiful. Can books be too beautiful for us to want our children to handle? Well-loved books will end up looking like well-loved toys. To see what books parents are buying and kids are reading I go to Value Village.

Authors are not encouraged to illustrate their own books. Some publishers don’t want books that rhyme. When my daughter gave me advice on my book as someone who reads a lot of books to preschool children she said to include lots of pictures, lots of colors, and make it rhyme. When she looked at what I put together, she said,” Mom, you need more pictures.” I’m also getting feedback from my son’s fiancé a teacher who reads books to her students.

I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things. Mother Teresa

Creating this children’s book has been fun and very intimidating.  I didn’t know where to start until I started trying to tell the young man who was going to illustrate it in Illustrator what I wanted. I could clarify my vision when trying to tell him what to do, but when it was only me I struggled. In the end, our collaboration fell apart, but I owe him a huge debt and without our collaboration and monthly meetings it wouldn’t be where it is today.

I can see the value in a more talented illustrator doing the illustrations. Illustrators aren’t cheap. Of course, no one knows what kind of sales a book will receive so making back that investment is a gamble. I understand with the big publishers the writer and illustrator don’t meet and the writer doesn’t have control of what the illustrations for their book will look like.

This may make for a better book. The illustrator’s concept may be much better than what the author would come up with. I like the idea of collaboration and I’ve seen firsthand how powerful it is. When we put our heads together who knows what we will come up with. It is hard to bounce ideas off of a wall. When another person bounces ideas to us and us to them, clarity emerges, and something small can grow into something bigger.

What is the role of co-creation and collaboration in our daily work?

Collaboration divides the task and multiplies the success. Unknown

Collaboration allows us to know more than we are capable of knowing by ourselves. Paul Solarz

Do your little bit of good where you are; it’s those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world. Desmond Tutu

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to those that read my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Goodreads or Amazon. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Don’t worry and be happy. Making the best of where we are, enjoying the good things in life as they come.

Making the best of where we are, enjoying the good things in life as they come. Don't worry and be happy.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Happiness is a direction, not a place. Sydney J. Harris

Another season is officially here. Whether we had an eventful or uneventful season it is just a memory.  Another season presents itself for us to make the most of, enjoy, make memories, and experience life. I have to make plans to get out and enjoy nature with those I love.

As I bring my current project to a close my husband looks at me, “Then what?”

“I start another one,” I cheerfully reply. I do need to understand my immersion in my projects may seem like I am excluding others. I’ve missed a few lunches to get more painting in. When I set my goals a couple of weeks ago I cut down what I thought I could accomplish because in the midst of writing and art there are other aspects of life to enjoy, relationships to nurture, and experiences to be had.

All work and no play make us dull girls. We have to watch once we have an accomplishment that makes us feel good under our belt, we don’t just chase after that feeling again to the detriment of other parts of our lives.

How much time spent doing our own thing is too much? How much is too little? Sometimes I think I’m a slow learner and maybe this comes from being self-taught through books. I have so many books on art that tell me to paint a series. I’ve always struggled with what a series would be about, now I have a subject, a dog, and his family to paint over and over again, as new adventures arise.

The same goes with “Showing and not telling” in my writing. I received an email from Jerry Jenkins, yes, that Jerry Jenkins, the author of the “Left Behind” series. I signed up for his newsletter and he sends me emails with my name at the top. I know the same email goes to thousands if not hundreds of thousands or even more writers but still my name is at the top and he gives good advice.  He’s offering a course. I don’t have time right now, or is that an excuse. Regardless, I’m passing up the opportunity to take his course because I have to get my own writing out.

Through the internet, we can have mentors we will never meet, who give us advice. We can read books from people long dead. We can read the books of wisdom from every culture and religion. We don’t have time to read everything. The opportunities to create a life we love have never been easier. Relationships with real people have never been harder. It is as easy to get into the negative side of the internet as the positive. The negative side may suck us in as we start to think about the negativity, the wrongs that have been done, the greed, the ignorance, and how badly people have treated other people throughout the world and in our own countries.

Happiness is not the absence of problems, it’s the ability to deal with them. Steve Marboli

I don’t think we should wear the wrongs done by our group or the injustices done to our group as if they are our own. We can’t atone for what was done; we can’t make right what was wrong. We all need to build a life where we are, with what we have, and make the best of it. We need to love those close to us and realize they are not perfect, we are not perfect, but we are here.

We sometimes think life would be so much better when… When we find someone to love, when we have a baby, when we start a business, when we retire, when we win millions… No matter what happens in our life, in about six months that is now our reality we take for granted, and we will be no happier than we were before, the author of “Stumbling on Happiness” tells us.

That’s a sobering thought. If everything we can dream of won’t make us happier than we are now, then don’t we need to be happy where we are and if we get what we want, be happy then as well?

Mom always tells me, “There’s no point worrying.” What will be, will be. Can we live with the realities of life making the best of where we are? Can we live by the motto “Don’t worry and be happy?”

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves. Victor Hugo

Happiness consists more in conveniences of pleasure that occur every day than in great pieces of good fortune that happen but seldom. Benjamin Franklin

A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. Bernard de Fontenelle

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you for reading my books. A special thank you to those that leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the purchase through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Deadlines and motivation. Finishing what we started.

Finishing what we started. Deadlines and motivation.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The artist has one function – to affirm and glorify life. W. Edward Brown

How often have we seen revised books with chapters, not in the original? The author thought of something that should have been included. I received the proof of my children’s book. I knew when I ordered it that it wouldn’t be published the way it was, but I wanted to see how the colors would look, the type, the background, etc. Extra pages were added so I have more to work with than I thought I did. Deadlines motivate us. How often have we waited until the last minute but we get done what we need to do? Some things can only be done last minute and sometimes we think we are done when we have only just begun.

It is stamped not for resale. I’ve noticed other authors objecting to this but I love it. I hope to get another author’s proof before final publication, but I am running out of time.

I’m swapping out five paintings and adding two so I am busily painting and composing paintings in my head. The more I’m thinking about it the more ideas are coming. Finishing a project is exciting and nerve-racking. It is tempting to think things can be better than they are. When you actually see something complete it is what it is and you have to accept the quality produced.

Creativity is allowing oneself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep. Scott Adams

When my daughter told me, “You need more pictures, Mom.” She was totally right and some of the best ones are coming from this last-minute push to get everything done. “You don’t need to rush,” she tells me.

“I have to meet this deadline,” I tell her. No one is taking me out to the bush to shoot me if I don’t, it’s true, but I am committed. Working furiously to complete something is not the same as working furiously and continuing to move the deadline so you don’t actually get the feeling of accomplishment for finishing it.

“But, don’t you want it to be the best it can be?” That’s a tough question to answer because I do want it to be the best it can be. I also know I could always make something better. Instead of making this the best it could possibly be by repainting every picture and rethinking every word, forever. I will put it out and it will be what it will be. I will write another one using what I learned and maybe it will be better. We can rework things so much that even if they are technically better they lose some of the sparks they initially had.

There comes a time when we have to let things go. We’ve kept them to ourselves long enough. This story has been with me since our beloved dog died in 2012 and I wrote a little story about him and put it on my bookshelf where it sat for years. What is being published and what I initially wrote have gone through many iterations. The first one was sad because, in the end, he died. Instead of putting fifteen years into one book, I’m putting snippets of his life into each book.  When I found the “Pete the Cat” series based on a real cat I began to imagine something bigger than I’d originally thought. 

We don’t know where something will go when we start it. It can’t become anything until we finally release it into the world. When that deadline is approaching does it give us motivation and ramp up our productivity?

Happy are the painters, for they shall not be lonely. Light and colour, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day. Winston Churchill

Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art. Leonardo da Vinci

Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is “to fit together” and we all do this every day. Not all of us are painters but we are all artists. Each time we fit things together we are creating – whether it is to make a loaf of bread, a child, a day. Corita Kent

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to those who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the item through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Faith in ourselves, faith in life. Without faith can we have a vision?

Without faith can we have a vision? Faith in ourselves, faith in life.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Have enough courage to start and enough heart to finish. Jessica N.S. Yourko

I found an interesting blog post on The Bob Angle he was asking the question do writers who believe in God write better novels? I’ve never thought about this but I do think faith gives a writer something deeper to delve into as they probe the human psyche for their stories.

How much does faith play a role in our lives? We need to have faith in other people because in the early years of our life we depend on others so much. We have all found at one time or other people have failed us, and we have failed others. It is the human condition to want to do better, be better, and falling short. When we have faith in a higher power that does not let us down, that gives us strength and it seems this will help us even if somehow we find we are mistaken and there is no higher power.

When we feel we get inspiration from something outside ourselves, that we don’t know where it comes from, but it is there, we tap into something greater than ourselves. We don’t question we accept the gift. Many people call this their muse. If we don’t do our part of sitting down and writing the muse doesn’t do their part of showing up. One of the mistakes I’ve heard writers make is waiting for inspiration.

I know for myself that would be a mistake. Showing up is when inspiration happens. Going for a walk in the midst of a creative project an epiphany may happen but would it happen if we weren’t already in the middle of a project? Our brains work continuously but they need to be working on something.

I wonder how many artists or writers knew exactly what they were creating when they started. By starting they put something in motion and if they continue and bring it to completion they have something. All of life is like this. Starting is the first step, we have to get through the hard slogging of middles, and finally, we reach the finish line.

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step. Martin Luther King Jr.

Depending on the scope of what we have taken on it may take minutes, days, weeks, months, or years to complete. Some projects will test our determination and perseverance. We are not the same person at the end of a project – especially a long one that we were at the beginning. We learn things along the way. We are not the same person when we give our teenagers the car keys, we were cradling them as newborns. They have grown and developed and so have we.

We don’t think our children are ready to go out into the world and we may not think our writing or any other project of ours is either, but there comes a point when that is the next step. We have to have faith we’ve done our best, done enough, and let it go.

I was a writer that held onto my writing and now I wonder why. We often hold onto things because we are comfortable where we are, what if life changes so much we don’t recognize it. When our children leave home what will home be like without them? Writers mourn the loss of their characters when they put their stories out into the world. They had a close intimate connection with those characters they feel they lose when they call the story finished. It might be why we like a series. We can put a book out and we can keep the relationship going with our characters. If the audience likes our characters they may be waiting for the next book.

What faith in a higher power may give us more than anything else is the belief that we are unconditionally loved. When we feel loved we feel powerful. This gives us the courage to give our best to the world, deal with the setbacks, challenges, and whatever life throws at us.  

Courage comes from a heart that is convinced it is loved. Beth Moore

Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Steve Jobs

Once you choose hope, anything is possible. Unknown

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day, filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to those who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Starting and finishing. Creating habits and moving in the direction of our dreams.

Creating habits and moving in the direction of our dreams. Starting and finishing.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

The bookends of success are starting and finishing. Decisions help us start; discipline helps us finish. John C. Maxwell

Have you ever thought you have finished something and found you just started? We get people in our office doing a complete renovation and addition who say, “We were just going to renovate the bathroom.”

Some people start a weight loss and fitness journey that changes everything about their life. Starting something puts us on a path that may not lead where we thought it would. This works in negative and positive ways.

There is truth to the “Bet you can’t eat just one” potato chip line. There are people who start their fitness routine promising to do one push-up per day. When they are already on the floor they often do more than one. When we need an hour and a half for a fitness routine we might wonder when we will fit that in. One push-up, we can do after we brush our teeth before we get dressed. Even if we only do one push-up a day it is still 365 push-ups we wouldn’t have done.

In many areas of our life, we can make small changes and small changes lead to big things. The Fly Lady tells us to clean up our clutter in fifteen minutes. Set the timer and do what you can in fifteen minutes. She has us do it in a different area of the house every day. The idea is to develop a daily habit, that doesn’t take too long, fits into our lives, and makes things better.

Good habits make it so we don’t get up in the morning and wonder what we’ll do first. We automatically reach for the toothbrush. We could also do that push-up or a downward dog before we get ready for the rest of the day. A routine lets us not have to think about what we are doing next.

We don’t want our life so regimented we have no free time and we don’t want so much free time we have no routine. If we want to change our lives in a big or small way it will usually come in the form of a habit we develop or eliminate. Trying to change too much at once for some people might be hard other people might want to make a big change all at once instead of incremental small changes.

In essence, if we want to direct our lives, we must take control of our consistent actions. It’s not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently. Tony Robbins

We live our life by what we do daily. When we want to change things it may help if we have something that triggers our new action. When I started writing I did it after I put the kids to bed. The “kids” of course grow up so that only worked in the early years. Now I write in the morning.

My leg is bothering me, I don’t know why. “Last night my kids said, “You haven’t been to the gym in a year and a half. Maybe that’s the problem.” It might be too much sitting. I’ve spent even more time sitting as I’ve gotten my children’s book ready for publication, and I have until the end of September to submit the final edition. But, I need to find more time for exercise. I think that is what my leg is telling me.

Having a deadline is helpful. Without a deadline, I aimlessly drift along. With a deadline, I accomplish more than I thought I could. Sometimes we set impossible deadlines because we want to cram more into a year than is possible. If we take a longer view we’ll find Bill Gates is right. We overestimate what we can accomplish in one year and underestimate what we can accomplish in ten years. Is this why we are told to have five-year, ten-year, and even longer goals?

Is there something we want to start? Is there something we need to finish? Are we a new habit away from moving in the direction of our dreams?

Discipline is choosing between what you want now and what you want most. Abraham Lincoln

First, forget inspiration. Habit is more dependable. Habit will sustain you whether you are inspired or not. Octavia Butler

You’ll never change your life until you change something you do daily. The secret of success is found in your daily routine. John C. Maxwell

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day, filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you click on the picture and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Choosing beggars makes givers withhold their gifts. If we must beg don’t we need to accept what is offered?

If we must beg don't we need to accept what is offered? Choosing beggars makes givers withhold their gifts.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

Writers are nothing but beggars with a good line. Charles Bukowski

Are we choosing beggars or do we meet them regularly? One of the ways to be unhappy in life is to expect other people to react in certain ways, be grateful, understanding, thoughtful, kind, respectful, and reasonable. The less we expect of others the less they will disappoint us. When we expect more of ourselves and less from others it works but when we expect more from others and less from ourselves, it does not.

I came across “Top Ten Reasons It Costs More To Get Your Pet Groomed Than Your Own Haircut.” I won’t put them all down, but  – your hairdresser doesn’t wash, clean, and groom your rear end, says it all. We expect a lot from pet groomers. When we had our Scottie he hated being groomed and the groomer earned every penny of that fee. Cutting his nails – that was a test of determination and persistence.

Sometimes we think we are charged too much for something that didn’t take that much time to do. Knowing what to do is a big part of what we paid for and we sometimes forget that.

Someone on the internet says he tried to give money to a guy begging for money. The guy told him he doesn’t take less than $5.00. That’s choosey, but doesn’t a dollar from five people equal five dollars?

I’ve heard of people offering free stuff and being asked to deliver it.

Beggars can’t be choosey is not new. The term was first recorded in print in 1546 when it appeared in a book of proverbs by John Heywood. Entitled people who are not grateful are not new. This isn’t a sign of our times or something we are doing wrong in the upbringing of our children. We have always had people who are ungrateful and entitled. When we think back to what we think life might have been like in 1546 we think you wouldn’t be a choosey beggar then, but apparently, people were.

Human nature doesn’t change. This is why proverbs from all cultures and religions ring true. We are more alike than we are different regardless of where we grew up, or the circumstances and times of our life.

It is why when we read Tolstoy’s quote, “Happy families are all the same and unhappy ones are unhappy in their own way,” it rings true because we see the commonalities in happy families. People with miserable lives have often created their own kind of misery. It isn’t popular to say that we are responsible for our own lives, but isn’t it true that we can make the best of something or the worst of it regardless of the circumstances?

Don’t be a beggar of love, be a donor of love. Beautiful people are not always good, but good people are always beautiful. Unknown

Gratitude seems to be the difference. The problem with choosey beggars is they never seem grateful for what they are being offered. Their attitude turns people off and instead of getting, they get less and may become resentful of the attitude they create in the people that would help them.

I need to ask myself, when am I a choosey beggar. When am I not grateful enough for the bounty and blessings in my life? It is easy to see the mistakes and missteps of others, but we often make excuses for our own mistakes and missteps.

Yesterday I asked my daughter to read the children’s book I’m preparing for publication. She was reading what I’ve uploaded to Amazon. I was hoping she would say, “It’s perfect, I love it,” but she didn’t. “You need more pictures. Children love to look at the pictures because they can’t read.” She even told me where she thought I should explain a bit more and what kind of picture I should add.

I took her advice. I added two lines to explain what was happening. Last night I started working on the missing painting and thinking about a second one I can add.  When we ask for people’s input we need to welcome it. She could have told me what I wanted to hear, but that wouldn’t be helpful. I could ignore what she told me but that won’t make my book better. By accepting her advice and acting upon it she will tell me what she thinks in the future. If I ignore what she says, she would probably not bother to try and help me make it better.

It is hard to accept criticism, but it is the only way we can make things better. She also pointed something out to me I should have noticed but didn’t. When we have people in our lives that will give us their honest opinion we should be grateful, and accept their opinion with grace. We may not always think their opinion is correct, but we need to let them know we appreciate their viewpoint and did consider it even if in the end we did not change things.

If we are begging for feedback or other things don’t we need to accept what is offered?

A beggar’s hand is a bottomless basket. Dutch proverb

I would rather be a beggar and single than a queen and married. Elizabeth 1

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to all who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Setting new goals. Putting plans into action, reaching our dreams.

Putting plans into action, reaching new dreams. Setting new goals.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. Unknown

September seems to me to be the time to set new goals. Is September more the time for new starts than January? I wonder if people who start new things in September when school is starting, summer is over, and harvest is coming are more successful at sticking to those changes. I’m beginning to think of what spring bulbs to plant because we have our son’s wedding next spring. We can’t expect a lovely spring garden in the spring if we don’t plan and plant it in the fall. We can’t harvest in the fall if we don’t plant in the spring.

There is no reaping without planting and planning what to plant is part of the process. Life is a garden our thoughts are the seeds we can reap flowers or we can reap weeds. Where that quote originated is unknown to me. Is it true just by thinking different thoughts and looking at things in different ways we can change our life? By teaching our children to think different thoughts we can change the trajectory of their life?

If we have more control of our lives than we think we do, what would exercising that control look like? The flowers under the crabapple tree will be there only if I plant them. There are years I thought about planting bulbs and never got around to buying them, and years I bought them and never got around to planting them. Nothing happens if we don’t actually take action. We must implement our plans to create something. If we have no follow-through all the plans in the world will come to naught.

Without visions and written goals, what direction are we going to head? Lailah Gifty Akita

I planned on going for a walk this weekend. I haven’t done it yet. It’s a long weekend so I have an extra day to make it happen.

Setting goals and following through is how we make things happen in our life. With no plans, no goals, or no follow-through nothing happens. If it is true failing to plan is planning to fail. Why have I been so hesitant to make plans in my life to accomplish the things I want to accomplish?

When is that trip to Europe happening my kids ask? It is still in the land of someday, but I am running out of somedays. I need to start making goals and implementing them if things are going to happen.

Write down your goals, make plans to achieve them, and work on your plans every single day. Brian Tracy

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then is not an act, but a habit. Aristotle

If you are serious about your goals and you truly desire to achieve your dreams, you must write them down. John Patrick Hickey

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to all those who read my books. A special thank you to those who leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the pictures below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.

Posted on by BWThomas

Setting goals and have a timeline to reach them. When we reach them, set a new goal.

Setting goals and have a timeline to reach them. Set a new goal, when we reach them.

Painting by Belynda Wilson Thomas

If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes. Andrew Carnegie

Setting goals gives us something to shoot for. Without goals, we are going aimlessly through life.

Parkinson’s Law tells us that work expands to fill the time allotted for its completion. This term comes from Cyril Northcote Parkinson who wrote a humorous essay for “The Economist” in 1955. In his essay, he shares the story of a woman who has one task to do. She is to send one postcard, and it takes her all day to do it.

Haven’t we all had days like that? We have to find our glasses, we have to find the right card, we may have to go to the store to buy the card. We need a stamp, and we may have to buy that too. We have to walk or drive to the mailbox where we drop it in with a feeling of satisfaction. Chances are if it took all day, we had all day.

If we want to streamline our life and have time for other things we have to pare down the time we are willing to allot to given activities. I’m doing a little video on zoom for Culture Days through the Brampton Library because we can’t do it in person. I’m going to read my children’s story, “When Can We Get A Puppy.” Last night I did several recordings trying to figure out what to say, should I stand or sit. I didn’t think of displaying my book on the screen which is what I will try today. I want this finished today and I need to write a speech I am giving to the Mississauga Writers Group next Saturday, and of course, I have to fit work in.

I know I won’t be satisfied with the video, but I still won’t be satisfied with the 100’th take. The same with my book. I’ve changed a verse this morning as I sat down to write this blog. If I allow myself I can edit, and edit, and edit some more – forever. This is why I love that we can pre-release our books and give a hard publish date.

This is what I’ve done. My goal was to write my second novel by September 5, 2021, and a children’s book. It was a stretch goal in my own mind but the funny thing with goals is they give us something to hit. By pre-releasing my children’s book, “When Can We Get A Puppy” to be published on October 5, 2021, and pre-releasing my second novel, “Secrets and Sorrow” to be published February 5, 2022, I have hit my goal. With a hard publish date it means I have to work hard to get it edited, formatted and uploaded to publish. I am only committed to publishing the e-book by those dates but my goal is to have the e-book and print book published at the same time.

It must be borne in mind that the tragedy of life doesn’t lie in not reaching your goal. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach. Benjamin E. Mays

By setting small goals of plotting a certain number of chapters per week. I met my first goal of having the first draft done by Christmas which is how I could push myself to meet the second goal. I had hoped to have it edited in that year, but I feel that was too much. Jerry Jenkins tells us we must embrace procrastination because it is part of life, but we shouldn’t let it derail us from our goals.

If my schedule is so tight I can’t go out for coffee with my husband that won’t work. If people drop by and I can’t take time out to visit, that won’t work. My plan was I would go visit Mom in September after I met my goal. I’m glad I went when I did and still met my goal. Pre-releasing is a way of extending the deadline for sure but it is also a way to promote the books.

Now I know I can write a novel in a year, but I need extra time to edit it. I didn’t know when I set the goal if it was attainable for me when it took me from 2012 to 2020 to write the first one. I might find I can accomplish more in less time as I go along. We don’t know if we can meet a goal unless we set one. The children’s book is more about illustrations and I find when I am too tired to edit I can paint and the creativity of painting gives me a boost. Working on the two projects at the same time worked really well.

I’ve learned a lot this year. The biggest lesson was to set goals and break them down into smaller goals. When we meet the small goals we end up meeting the big goal. The biggest thing is to always set a new goal.

My goal is not to be better than anyone else, but to be better than I used to be. Wayne Dyer

Goals, there’s no telling what you can do when you get inspired by them. There’s no telling what you can do when you believe in them. And there’s no telling what will happen when you act upon them. Jim Rohn

Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible. Tony Robbins

Thank you for reading this post. I hope you enjoyed it. I hope you will come back and read some more. Have a blessed day filled with gratitude, joy, and love.

To subscribe, comment, see archives or categories of posts click on the picture and scroll to the end. Please subscribe, comment, and share.

Thank you to everyone that reads my books, and a special thank you to those that leave a review on Amazon and Goodreads. If you click on the picture below and purchase an item through the Amazon link I receive a small percentage of the sale through the Amazon affiliate program.