Tweet {flickr} What did you do today? And the day before? How much of your time was spent working? How much time did you spend on simply enjoying your life? These questions are not merely questions of curiosity, but self-preservation. In The Right to Write by Julia Cameron talks about the “well.” A fitting word to describe what we expect to be an unlimited reservoir of inspiration. But we often fail to fill ourselves up. I describe the effect as a dried out sponge. Just weeks ago I complained to my life coach that I felt like a sad orange.…
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Tweet {photo} When you’re working with someone else, there will come a time when you’ll wonder why the heck you ever decided to work for yourself in the first place. I’ve heard it from fellow entrepreneurs who’s ego got beaten by constant criticisms and demands placed on them by unsatisfied customers. I’ve went through it myself. Time. And time again. The thing is… You can’t buy perfect. You can’t bottle it up and serve it on a fancy shiny silver platter. It just doesn’t exist. But sometimes you’re placed in a situation where a client believes that in exchange for…
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Tweet {photo} I’ve been slowed down a bit, but a mountain of obstacles that have suddenly flooded my productivity levels. What’s all this drama about? For some reason, MacAfee (but no other security alert programs) decided to flag my website as a potential security risk. I’ve emailed them and hopefully the issue will sort itself out. There is no risk here people! In addition, I’ve been working on a newspaper article, a magazine article, web content for someone inspiring, on top of my day job. All good stuff. But it makes it hard to keep this up. Which explains why…
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Tweet {photo by} You’ve worked really hard on writing that book, conceiving a new idea or blogging, but you still haven’t seen results with your efforts. Literary agent Kevin Small who I interviewed in part I of this post, sets us straight this time with the unintentional mistakes you could be making that’s sabotaging your career. 1. You’re undisciplined. Yikes. Has Mr. Small been reading my blogs? Yes, folks. He didn’t quite say that us writers are “lazy.” In fact, he said he wouldn’t use that word, but that we have a tendency to be “undisciplined.” I would like to…
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Tweet I don’t know what your mother, father, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, friend told you, but freelancing is hard. Writing is hard. And so is starting your own business. With Memorial Day coming up, I thought it apropos to start the weekend off right, by composing a list of a few must-dos that’s 100% light and fun without the heavy sugary carbs to weigh you down. Reward Yourself Remember when you were a kid and your parents gave you an allowance or took you out for ice-cream on account of good behavior? Don’t ya miss those times? I’m betting that…
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Tweet {flickr photo by: khaybe} Just last week I read an author’s tweet about her lackluster review on a movie based on her book. And several weeks before that, a writer expressed her frustrating over feedback from an article she wrote. Bad reviews are a part of life. They can happen whether you are a writer, entrepreneur or a 9 to 5 employee. I certainly have had my fair share. But what do you do about them? {Besides run under the covers and hide.} Basically, you have 3 options: a) Sulk b) Quit c) Suck it up I’d opt for the…
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Tweet {flickr photo by: iamyung} Your schedule is already book for the rest of the month. You get to just 3 out of 10 goals you have for the week. You find yourself using the weekend to catch up on all of the work that you didn’t finish on the weekdays. Does that sound like you? You may be busy, but that busyness may have nothing to do with having a productive business. In fact, you may be filling time with unnecessary tasks that are hurting instead of helping your business. I was writing a post over at my other blog…
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Tweet {flickr photo by: rent-a-moose} Last week, I wrote two blog posts for the site I work for and it surprisingly did well. My article on 10 Tips for Healthy Living received 105 tweets and 88 Facebook likes. I also wrote a guest post for business writer Cathy Miller that got 21 comments. I wrote 5 Steps to Transform Your Life for Feelgooder.com, a Darren Rowse creation and it too received a lot of attention. I’ve been thinking about these articles and the ones I see online and I figured something out in the process. Here’s the secret I’ve discovered…
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Tweet {flickr photo by wstera2} I’ve been hiding out on different blogs reading the latest thoughts and trends. Some I agreed with. Others made me want to bury my head in a hole and cry. I thought I’d grab a few so we can discuss them here. I’ll call it our own little writers “View.” Let’s begin shall we? Practical or Perfectionism? On Copyblogger, Jon Morrow posted 5 Crippling Beliefs that Keep Writers Penniless and Mired in Mediocrity. The article itself was compelling with lots of points about how our thinking can sabotage success. But interestingly enough, the more than 100 comments…
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Tweet Hi guys! I’ve been busy in a good way lately. Wrote a few guest posts, working on an article for a magazine, essays, assignments for an online class and a few projects are still in brainstorm mode. {Actually, I’ve still got newsletters brewing in my head. Do any of you find it helpful for your business? Would you like to see an inspirational writing one from me?} One of the posts I recently wrote was on self-care for the self-employed because I know how you guys roll. I know how hard you work. The papers piling up on your…