All Men (and Woman) Dream

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.  T.E. Lawrence

Photo courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net

Children are amazing, because they dream with open eyes.  Anything is possible.  Super strength can be imbued with a breath mint, or their friends can be daylight vampires (my son's favorite).  If they want something (and they have been encouraged instead of demoralized) they will try to get it, to make their dream possible.  They don't think about the other kids who haven't had their dreams come true.  They don't worry if their abilities are sufficient.  They don't contemplate the wisdom of chasing a dream.  They just jump in with both feet and work to make their dreams possible.


When I was born, among other interesting issues, my left hip was not fully formed.  I had to wear a horseshoe shaped brace to keep my hips in alignment until I was a year old.  I couldn't crawl regularly because my legs were strapped out to the sides.  My mother said I'd army crawl around the house, dragging myself along with my arms. She credits this time in my early development for teaching me persistence and determination, all before I even could talk (I did that late, too.)

Maybe she's right.  I do know that if someone tells me "no," my first response is "Oh, yeah? Watch me."  I'm sure other factors in my life (high school) contribute to that defiant attitude, but I believe it's that kind of attitude we have to take if we want to break out of the box the rest of the world wants to keep us in.  We have to be willing to take the lead from children -- jump in with both feet, and make our dreams possible.

What has helped you to develop a "watch me" attitude.

How do you dream with open eyes, and make your dreams possible?

Life List Club Friday - Milestone Party

Photo by m_bartosch at FreeDigitalPhotos

It has been three months since I first joined the Life List Club, and now I (and should you wish, all of you!) get to participate in my first Milestone Party.  If you are wondering what the Life List Club is, click on the tab above, and you will get a full description of the club, and how to join, if you are interested.  Also on the page is my personal life list, which is my goals for the year.


Below is a list of the prizes we are giving away to celebrate our successes, with links to the respective member's blog.  Please hop around, because there are some fabulous prizes.  


I am working my own giveaway as I did for my 100 follower celebration. If you leave a comment, you will receive one entry into a random drawing for a $25.00 gift card (of your choice).  If you are not already a follower, and decide to join up, that will get you another entry into the drawing.  I'll post the winner of the drawing on Saturday, March 24th.  The other LLC members giveaways are:

Photo courtesy Simon Howden at FreeDigital Photos.net

Marcia Richards Guest post swap and Amazon gift card

Jess Witkins Guest post swap and an iTunes gift card

Sonia Medeiros A guest post from Sonia or the winner's work featured on Sonia's blog

Jenny Hansen A Margie Lawson lecture packet and a $10 Starbuck's gift card

David Walker A free download of his "Web Wisdom: Inspiration from the Inbox"

Gary Gauthier A choice of 3 eBooks 


The Life List Club has some exciting news, too!  Thanks to Marcia Richards' hard work, we now have our very own blog site!  While I am sad that I won't have the opportunity to welcome so many great guest posters over here, the Life List Club blog is beautiful, and will allow us to offer inspirational and motivational posts twice a week (Wednesdays and Fridays) instead of blog hopping every two weeks.  


Our kick-off post is by our newest member, Sherry Isaac, on April 4th.  Sherry believes in romance, identity and the depth of the human soul and, personally, I can't wait to read her first post!  Please visit the Life List Club blog, take a look around and learn more about all the authors on our author pages.


I think all that's left to do is review my life list, and fess up to how things are going.  

My Life List Review

Photo courtesy of Wookiepedia

"No.  Try not. Do or do not... There is no try." Yoda

Do's

Play with my boys every day for half-an-hour:  Check!  There are times where it might be a shorter amount of time, but the important thing to me is that I have carved out time to spend with my children, focusing only on them, every day.

Write for 15 minutes every day:  Check! - as long as we count blogging and editing as writing.  The thing I wanted out of this goal was to devote time every day to the writing process, and I feel I have done that.

Blog twice a week (Mondays and Fridays):  Check!

Grow Twitter followers to over 500 and blog followers to over 100 followers: Check! (thank you all so much)

Participate in six bog hops (including the A-Z Challenge):  This one takes a little explanation, but Check!  I have participated in six blog hops (Nightgale Blog Challenge, I'll Tumble 4-Ya blog hop, It's Getting Hot In Here, Fourth Campaigner Challenge, Got Green Blog Hop, and the Great Star Wars Blogathon)  I decided that there was no way to participate in the A-Z Challenge this year, and so registered for the Fourth Campaigner Challenge, instead.  So, although I had to make a substitution, I still feel like I met this goal.  I anticipate participating in more blog hops and challenges as the year goes on, but right now I need to return my focus back to getting a novel completed, so I'm not a writer wanna-be.


Guest post on three other blogs:  Check!  Thanks to the Life List Club, I have guest posted on five other blogs.  I know some of the prizes above are to guest post on LLC member's blogs, and I recommend making the jump over to the related blogs to register for the opportunity.  All members of the Life List Club have been extremely professional and their followers have been so kind and welcoming.  Every guest post was a thoroughly enjoyable experience!


Do Not's


Exercise 20 minutes five days of the week: I have been exercising, and usually multiple times a week, but dang!  Life kept getting in the way.  So, mid-February I changed the focus to 100 minutes a week, and I seemed to be able to meet that goal a little better.  Still, I have taken two of the last four weeks off, so I definitely need to work a little harder on this one!



The next three do not's are:

• Complete revisions of Finding Meara by the end of March
• Create pitch, query letter, synopsis, etc... for Finding Meara by end of April
• Write first draft of second novel by end of December 

When I wrote these goals, I had no idea how long it might take to do revisions, and so I set a date based on the fact I'm attending the Pikes Peak Writer's Conference in April, and hoped to be able to sign up for a pitch session.  Not Happening!  So, I am going to rewrite this goal so that I'm shooting for revisions and editing to be completed by May 31st.  That might even be overly optimistic, but I would really like to start querying Finding Meara and writing the next novel over the summer.  I currently am on page 64 of about 250 pages.

There it is, my goal review!  I'm wondering, how did your last three months go?  Do you have more Do's than Do Not's?  Are you needing some support, or some tough love?

Confessions of a Shopaholic

I am excited to welcome to Motivation for Creation writer and Life List Club member, Jess Witkins.  She does a wonderful job of introducing herself, so I will turn the post over to her!

Hello Lara’s blog readers! Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Jess Witkins, and I’m a shopaholic. But let me back up a minute. About 6 months ago, my phenomenal friend and superwoman, Marcia Richards, co-created a little bloggy baby with me called the Life List Club. The LLC is a group combined of readers and writers and everyone that falls in between. It’s essentially, YOUR club! What Marcia and I do, and the other six contributors, is write bi-weekly inspirations and real life stories of the ambitions, struggles, setbacks, success stories, meltdowns, and milestone parties that consume all our journeys towards the things we want in our lives. We want to inspire you and help you take the next steps toward accomplishing your own goals, knowing you’ve got pals along the whole journey to give you the nudge you need.

Recently, the group celebrated its 2nd milestone party, which meant we’ve been working on our life lists for about 6 months. That’s a long time, and a great position to look at what goals you’ve set and adapt as necessary, take account of lessons learned, and recognize small successes where you find them. My Life List has many things on it, mainly writing related, but it also included a desire to travel, to save more money, and make changes necessary to one day move to a new city or return to school. Well, that all costs money. And if there was one goal that was sitting quietly in the back of the classroom with it’s glasses cockeyed and kleenex shoved up its nose to stop it from running, it was my life list goal money saving baby. (Yes, I know that was a disgusting image, but this goal needed some desperate attention and a lesson in taking a stand against the other goal babies!) 

Now, any hardcore movieholic/chick flick entrepreneur has seen the Isla Fisher film Confessions of a Shopaholic, the film where the delightfully perky redhead spends money on the latest fashions, gets the guy, but also runs herself into rampant, full on debt. *sigh* Fairytale, here I come!

Honestly, it could become my fate. Thankfully, I’m taking charge well before my shoe collection does! I am lucky enough to only have student loan debt so far. But it doesn’t mean I’ve been able to save anything for old age or emergencies. Through college and beyond I’ve been living paycheck to paycheck, and it suddenly occurred to me: with every job promotion I’ve received and higher pay that came with it, I improved my standard of living, rather than take that money as an opportunity to save. For instance, I used the extra money to buy lots of new clothes, a habit hard to break when you manage a department store in the mall! I also spend money on food a lot. A pizza here, some tacos there doesn’t seem like much until you add all the receipts together and it matches what you spent in groceries!

So, I’m making changes. First things first, I can’t ignore my bank statements for months and then manage them all at once. I was forgetting to jot down receipts and suddenly my paycheck was almost gone when I tallied it all up! So now, I vow to manage my finances once a week, making sure my balances are accurate.

Step two was a great idea given to me by a friend I met at a writer’s conference. It’s a website called piggymojo.com which lets you track what you didn’t buy in order to show you what you could be saving. It’s completely private (unless you want to friend others for the pep boost), and you don’t enter your banking information. You do put in a goaled amount you’d like to save and a period of time. Then you synch up to twitter and make updates like if I think about stopping for fast food I don’t need, and I skip it, I can tweet “$6 lunch,” or if I see a sweater I think is cute, but I don’t put it in my shopping cart, I can tweet “$20 sweater” and piggymojo will add up what I don’t spend and I can then look at that amount and put it in my savings! I’m SUCH a visual learner that this is really helping me, and it feels like a reward when I get to “report” in via twitter how much I saved.

Step three was remembering to put your money where it matters. I made a list of what I wanted to do this year. It included traveling to the DFW conference in Dallas, TX to attend the writer’s conference and MEET up with some of my LLC peeps, visit my High School best friend in South Korea, and take a road trip to Yellowstone National Park with my honey. I’ve looked up costs of plane tickets so I know what I need to save. I’m not positive it’ll all happen, but at least I feel I have some concrete plans to work towards. That, and the continuous payments towards my student loans...

How about you readers? What money saving/budgeting tips do you have for this shopaholic? What things are on “saving up for” lists? How ‘bout your life lists? Can’t wait to chat with you all in the comments! And don’t forget, you can find Lara at Gary Gauthier’s blog today! Happy Friday!

Bio: Jess Witkins claims the title Perseverance Expert. She grew up in a small Wisconsin town as the much younger youngest sibling of four, she’s witnessed the paranormal, jumped out of a plane, worked in retail, traveled to exotic locations like Italy, Ireland, and Shipshewana, Indiana, and she’s eaten bologna and lived to tell about it! She deals with it all and writes about it! Come along on her midwest adventures; Witkins promises to keep it honest and entertaining. Go ahead, SUBSCRIBE, you know you want to.
Follow on Twitter: @jesswitkins

What, Exactly, Is the Life List Club?

Why, let me tell you all about the Life List Club.  It is a group of writers and readers who display their "life lists" (goals) for the year after they join the club.  They then work hard to meet their goals and support other Life List Clubbers. 

So far the community has been wonderfully kind and friendly.  I look forward to getting to know the other members (who will be listed in a sidebar on my blog, once I get the list).

I encourage you to read the Life List Club page (formerly my Goals of 2012 page) to learn more about LLC.  It is open for anyone to join, as long as you are willing to make the committments listed in the welcome letter.  The contact information, if you are interested, is at the bottom of the letter, before the picture of Yoda.

We all find support for our life's journey in many different places.  I am so thankful my husband and family, who have always been loving and supportive of me--as a person and a writer.  Cindy Keen Reynders has encouraged me, and helped me to become a better writer.  I have also found great support from many of you, as well as the Writer Unboxed Facebook Community.

Where have you found support for either your writing career or for personal goals?

Happy New Year - Let's Get This Party Started!

I thought I would do a quick New Years Eve post about the small additions I made to the blog.  I have seen several blogs (like Trisha at Word + Stuff) that have their goals listed on a page of their blog. 

I thought this was a great idea and decided to jump onto the bandwagon.  I made a goal page of my own and came up with a list of goals for 2012, so if you're interested about what I'm doing (or how I'm doing) feel free to check it out.

Amazingly, Yoda tweeted me today with the quote about "Try not. Do or do not." I have heard the quote used many times in writerly circles, but it was so fitting that the message would be sent to me on New Years Eve when I'm looking forward to goals of 2012 that I made it part of my page.  If you want Yoda to tweet you, put a hashtag (#Yoda) at the end of a tweet and the Yoda-bot will pick it up and tweet you.  It's pretty cool!

Finally, I would like to say a big "Thank You" to all of you who come and read what I have to say, follow this blog, or follow me on twitter.  I have had a wonderful 2011, and have made several new friends, thanks to you all.  I look forward to seeing what 2012 has to bring with you!



Happy New Year!! 

Goal Setting vs. Patience and Persistence

As for goals, I don't set myself those anymore. I'm not one of these 'I must have achieved this and that by next year' kind of writers. I take things as they come and find that patience and persistence tend to win out in the end.  Paul Kane


The question that comes to mind is “Does it have to be an either/or proposition?”

Many years ago, I took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test, which is a personality test.  I don’t know how rare it is, but I scored exactly 50/50 for being an introvert/extrovert.  This tendency toward inner conflict is revealed in other aspects of my personality, as well, such as having the need to set goals, but then feeling boxed in by them.  It even shows up in my writing, as I am a “plantser”.  I have to have some sort of structure to guide me, but room to let the creative imps out to play.

Goal setting is very important, as it keeps us on track for whatever it is we want to accomplish.  Early on I read a wonderful book, Writing Brave and Free by Ted Kooser and Steve Cox, that said to write at least ten minutes every day and make goals.  This wisdom I took seriously, began writing ten minutes a day, and made the goal to be published somewhere within two years. (Which I am happy to say I met!)

The upside to goal setting is that we have a measuring stick for how far we’ve gone on the road toward reaching our dreams.  Goals also help us to know when something isn’t working, and fix it.  Unfortunately, if you consistently don’t meet your goals, it can be pretty demoralizing.

If I were to rely on only patience and persistence, I could rationalize myself out of finishing anything I started.  I could patience myself into stagnation.  But, especially in creative endeavors, a certain level of patience is required.  Words don’t always flow like a gushing river, editing can be time-consuming, and then there is always the inevitable wait after submission, whether that be to a magazine, agent or publisher. 

I have been frustrated lately, as each writing goal I set drops away, unmet. Other life needs get in the way of writing, and I have been reduced, for the time being, to making my goal to write ten minutes a day.  Now is the time I need to incorporate patience into my writing process – patience for myself, patience for where my life is right now, and patience with the long process writing a novel entails.  And keep persisting, moving forward toward the finish line, even if it is measured only in tiny steps.

How about you?  Do you lean more heavily toward goal setting or patience/persistance?

The Motivation Station

After speaking with some writer friends, I decided to open up the Motivation Station.  It is a place for those who are interested in some company on the journey to meet their writing goals to share their successes and gain support in their struggles.  At this time the only real rules are that we use kind words that are positive in nature.  Click on the page link above, and check it out!

Back on Track from Procrastination

Keeping with the theme of obstacle illusions, I thought today might be a good one to talk about procrastination.  This week I returned to my day job full time, got both children (mostly) into their respective schools, and did very little writing.  I could have gotten up earlier to write in the mornings.  I could have written, even if just for ten minutes, at night before bed. 

Did I?  No. 

Why?  Procrastination, plain and simple.

I am the type of person who needs to know what direction I am going and when I need to get there.   I partially outline my stories before starting, and I set goals to keep me on track with my writing.  These two personality traits created two forces that worked against me this week. 

The first is that I have hit the point in my novel that is unknown territory.   I know how I want to end the book, but I am not sure how to get there.  Additionally, I have 60,000 words in a variety of computer files, and I am starting to feel the effects of fatigue.  The writing is not flowing so quickly, and instead of the thrill of discovery, I have the feeling of slogging through mud.   The idea of sitting at the computer and picking my way through my subconscious was not terribly appealing.

The second is the continuous tug of war that I experience between reasonable expectation and failure to meet the goals I set.  I missed my goal for finishing my first draft by June, then the end of June, and then the end of July, leading to a huge derailment of the writing train.  I became disappointed in myself, and was not going to let myself off the hook easily for missing my mark not just once, but three times!   The emotional self-flagellation did not increase writing output, but had the opposite effect.  I didn’t want to hear the voice berating me that I could be done by now if I would have…

Benjamin Franklin stated “You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.”  The reality is that beating myself up for not meeting a goal does not do me (or anyone else in a similar situation) any good.  Regardless of the reasons why we procrastinate, us procrastinators need to get back on track, and continue on our paths.  We need to accept where we are at present,  make a plan to pull ourselves up out of the mud, get pointed in the right direction, and gain support to keep us there.

Easy enough, right?  I have decided to get up at five o’clock to write before I go to work for the next week.  That’s my plan.  My support is my husband, of course, but also the fact I have shared my plan with you all.  If anybody out there needs to make a plan and wants to fess up and share it here, please feel free.  We can have a support group, right here on Motivation for Creation! 

Photo courtesy of: <p><a href="http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/view_photog.php?photogid=112">Image: Matt Banks / FreeDigitalPhotos.net</a></p>  

Warning: Obstacle Illusion Ahead

"Life is full of obstacle illusions."  Grant Frazier

An obstacle is something that impedes our progress or achievement.  Obstacles come in all kinds of forms and are as individualized as everything else that occurs in our lives.  The key word in the quote by Grant Frazier is not obstacle, but “illusions.”

When I began writing today’s blog, I categorized true obstacles as those that are beyond our control, and obstacle illusions as those we actually have some control over.  As I thought more about the concept, I came to realize that even true obstacles have an illusionary component. 

Once we set off down the path to realize our dreams, we must test every obstacle we meet to determine where the illusion begins.  It may be that what we thought was insurmountable will turn out to be a minor bump in the road.