Motivation
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Hit the reset button
“I need to take an emotional breath, step back, and remind myself who’s actually in charge of my life.” ~Judith M. Knowlton How many times have you suddenly realized you’re following patterns or routines that worked for a while, but aren’t serving you anymore? As creatures of habit, we tend to stay on the same beaten path, rarely stepping away from our comfort zone. We might keep buying the same brand of coffee, hanging out with the same people, walking the same route with the dog … or continually putting up with the same negative or disrespectful treatment from others. So maybe it’s time to shake things up. Time to…
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“Make music of what you can”
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 want to do for the rest of my life. The poem below is…
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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,…
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Strength and temptation
“Strength is the capacity to break a Hershey bar into four pieces with your bare hands — and then eat just one of the pieces.” ~Judith Viorst, author In any endeavor, success depends on discipline — otherwise defined as inner strength, as today’s quote suggests. If you want to build muscle, you must stick with your daily exercise plan. If you want to get published, you have to keep writing and submitting your work. If you want to kick a bad habit, you must be diligent about changing your routine. Personal discipline is hard. Temptation is everywhere. Oh, how easy it is to give up or get lazy — to…
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Who are your heroes?
“One way to remember who you are is to remember who your heroes are.” ~Steve Jobs, Cofounder of Apple, Inc. In the sixth grade, I was deeply moved and inspired by the courage of diarist Anne Frank, who earned literary fame after her death with the 1947 publication of The Diary of a Young Girl. Anne started her diary after she turned 13, recording the details of her life in hiding (from 1942 to 1944) during the German occupation of the Netherlands. After reading it for the first time, I sobbed for days at the thought of how a young girl — not much older than I was then —…
