GOAL SETTING & ACCOUNTABILITY

I have a confession to make. My daughter, Marisa Ynez, said she accepted a challenge recently to grow her life coaching business. The challenge is called “The 365 Day Challenge” and is simple. Post at least one line every day on social media. I doubted she could do it (Sorry, Marisa) so I volunteered to help keep her accountable. Then I did something possibly insane—I took on the challenge as well.

The intent of challenge is to get our business brand names out to the public. For my daughter, it's promoting her business in relationship counseling, including sexual dysfunction, helping women to step into their power, and other thigs necessary for couples to create a strong, healthy relationship, as well as other social connections. (One-time shameless mother plug: Marisa is an amazing coach! https://www.messagesfromyoni.com). For me, it's promotingmy books at https://www.caroleavila.com and supporting women at my website Healing Through Awareness and Self-expression at https://htase.squarespace.com.

But we don’t have to mention our work in all posts—just our names and we don't have to post at the same social media sites. The idea is to discipline ourselves to post and seeing its affect. Today is the third day of the year and I’ve made my goal so far. Granted it’s only 3 days, but that’s a start.

For those of you who want to build your brand name or product, there are still 363 days to go. It’s not too late. It may help to find an accountability buddy who will encourage your success.

Happy New Year to all. May you enjoy health and peace in 2021!

My writing blogs: https://caroleavila.blog or http://caroleavilawriter.blogspot.com. (I'm in the process of deciding which writing blog gets more hits.)

Moving Beyond Your Fears

Mark Leslie Lefebvre

After seeing several worthy blogs, including a wonderful webinar sponsored by Jane Friedman on Creating Income and Connecting with Readers Using Short Fiction with Mark Leslie Lefebvre, I was inspired to dig out a few old short stories, most of which were written in college. My intention is to post them and see what happens.

There is a learning curve with Kindle Direct Publishing. Admittedly, I chose them out of laziness. Amazon is a huge firm and a few solid hits will move my name as an author. Also, Kindle is an easy enough program to use, not that all their instructions are well-written, but no major hair pulling needed. I guess I needed a platform for my short stories and this fit me.

But more important than where this can take my work is my desire to get my work out—to share my stories, be it my personal point of view through my characters or creating an entirely fabricated person I wouldn't ever agree with at any level that matters. Writing is my passion. It is what I love to do. That we do what we love, that we move beyond our comfort zone and out of fear is the most valuable thing we can do for ourselves.

If only in the first grade a substitute teacher didn't butcher my first story with red ink—dozens of corrections and a huge red F displayed in the corner—I'm sure I would have felt the satisfaction of accomplishment and achieved many worthy goals at a early age, especially in the field of writing .

Why do we wait for motivation, for inspiration, for the right kick in the pants before we set out to explore, to do, to live, to learn, to achieve? Two of my top five favorite quotes are “What would I do if I knew I could not fail?” and “What other people think about me is none of my business.” Every time I speak these words, I question why I let fear be a constant influence when it comes to things that matter so much to me.

Now that many of us have the virus to thank for the unexpected gift of time, and even if it didn’t put us in quarantine, don’t let the opportunity pass you by that could otherwise serve as time to do what your heart as always desired to accomplish. If something brings you joy, if it serves you and the greater good, it’s worth doing.

Don't wait for something outside of you to spark your fire within.
Make your dreams happen because you're worth the effort!