The journey of #Tishspiration has been an adventure, with many twists and turns along the way. Right now, it really feels like an uphill battle. You know what I mean, you are on a narrow path, climbing a mountain one step at a time.
When this happens, you have two choices. You can stop for a rest, or you can choose a different path. I choose to rest when I need to but keep aiming for the top of the mountain.
I have been working towards the dream of launching my own business since January. While I am on this path, I am meeting people, in the areas of personal and business development. I have been in a constant state of learning for three years. Becoming an entrepreneur alongside of being a published author is the direction I must keep moving towards.
Why DIY?
Here is the thing. For the last three years, I have been learning as much as I can from free online training programs. I have to confess, that first one with the pitch at the end really threw me for a loop. I had never experienced a sales pitch for an online program before.
In this realm of online training, you have two choices. You can choose a program to invest in to have professionals help you get your business idea up and running, or you can do it yourself.
If you only have time and energy to invest in your business, it makes investing money into your dreams difficult. I started with baby steps to invest in myself financially. Quite frankly, in the online business world, it comes highly recommended.
I have had good experiences, and I have had good results after paying more than I expected. There are lessons to learn as I work towards bettering myself.
What have I tried?
I tried an online coach hot seat. I would be able to talk about my business and the coach would ask questions and offer advice. The really cool thing is that participants like myself also offered help and advice. It may have been my nervousness which caused them to want to offer support, as I was visibly nervous when my turn came around.
The coach was gracious and encouraged me to talk more about my business plan. (It has changed entirely since this session). She knew from my application that there was more to my business plan than what I was saying when the spotlight was on me. Except for my nervousness about being in the hot seat with someone I follow who is confident and has an incredible sense of business, this experience was a positive one, which I would do again if the timing and price were right.
What else have I tried?
I took a paid online challenge. There is no disputing that I did indeed get value from working through this challenge. However, the cost of doing so from a financial point of view was more than double what I expected to pay.
The series of unexpected charges which kept adding up made me feel like I was not treated fairly. I was aware of the exchange rate and having to pay a little more because I live in Canada, not the USA. After the first unexpected charge on my credit card, I asked some questions. They answered, and I was okay with their explanation until the postman delivered a book to go with the challenge, and I had to pay more money.
The work done with this online challenge did lead to a breakthrough for me, and for that I am grateful. I didn’t sign up for their next challenge, as I had a bad taste in my mouth when the sales pitch came at me.
What Lessons Have I Learned?
Sometimes I get really nervous. It can impact my experience both positively and negatively. It positively gathered more support for me than anyone else in the group coaching session. My authentic self has the ability to surprise me in what it can do, even when my palms are sweaty and my words are not conveying my whole message. I will go for it again and be less nervous the next time because I have tried it before.
It is good business sense to set the expectations for your clients in all aspects of the services you are providing. If I had known how much that paid online challenge was going to cost me in the end, I may not have taken it. Or, I would have been expecting each charge, and not becoming upset when I experienced each additional fee.
Now, some of you may be thinking I should have refused the package. It was tempting, but I want to read this book to see if it is worth the extra cost. I went to my husband one more time, as he does our household budget and I explained that there was yet another unanticipated charge on a credit card. We were both ticked off at the financial consequences of my signing up for the paid online challenge. After our discussion, we also agreed that the lessons to be learned would not be easily forgotten.
Surprises are everywhere.
Regardless of the financial impacts, I have crossed a toe over the line into paid online training. The value of what I have learned outweighs the charges on the one hand. On the other hand, I had a breakthrough with personal growth and I was amazed when people started offering to help me from an unpredictable source.
Tishspiration is The Art of Surprising Yourself. When you push your boundaries and limits, even in a small way, you might just be surprised at the results. It will not be a big deal unless you choose to learn the lessons life delivers to you and you are open to the possibilities of success. When you find your own Tishspiration, please do celebrate it with me! It is a feeling like no other when you accomplish something you never thought you could do. I would love to celebrate with you, so please share your wins in the comments so I can.
About a month ago, this website was relaunched for the third time. Why is it such a big deal for me? This can be a daunting task when you are new to building websites and maintaining them. Therefore, I am still learning, and working on this new website design when I get time. It is going to need more work in terms of housekeeping and keeping things fresh. If something is left alone long enough to go stale, it gets thrown out. I hope to keep injecting enough excitement here to create a buzz, and to excite you enough to keep coming back. If you do enjoy the blog or other parts of the website, don’t be shy! Tell people about it. Share it for your friends to see. If you like it, maybe they will like it too!
There is a new chapter coming with #Tishspiration. All the cool kids are sending out newsletters, and as an author, I have been struggling with what to use for content in a newsletter. Sure, you can expect to see recent blog posts, some cool graphics, and a surprise. The surprise might be something I write, or a picture you haven’t seen anywhere else. When I am feeling braver, more downloadable content might be what the surprise will be. I do plan to write a continuation of the first place winning short story from November. The link is in the previous blog post in this category and will be in the first newsletter.
Since I am going to be working hard on this, I am going to make as much as possible exclusive to the newsletter. So if you liked the first place winning story, and you want to read more, I will be happy to work on the continuation of it.
If you want to sign up for the newsletter, scroll to the bottom of the page.
Really easy to do. I will be publishing it once a month, and it will arrive in your inbox. There are so many newsletters and blogs in my own inbox, I know I have to work hard to make sure you want to open mine. I will do my best, and it will be only once a month. Once a month was picked for the newsletter because I don’t want to overwhelm myself, or your email inboxes.
Today, I am cleaning my desk.
Although I know the value of being organized, it is exhausting. It takes so much time! I think that is why I fall behind. I am, as I wrote more than once, an all or nothing person. Once I slack off, I start to lose all willpower when it comes to things like being organized. I am again working on it and trying to overcome the clutter. It is a lengthy process when you are so far behind it is overwhelming. This is why I have to really want to make the effort before starting.
This is not a Weekend Warrior post. Why am I writing about cleaning and organizing? If you are a regular reader of my blog, first of all, thank you. Secondly, I do have a point. I have been wanting to really dig in and write my second book. It has been on my mind, frequently. I need to get it written if I am going to keep my deadline.
Guess what I found today? The whole reason I wanted to work on my desk organization was to find my one page, rough draft for my second book. There will be more to add to it in the second draft. There are things I need to write about which had not been on my mind when I made the one page, rough draft. This is good because I want to have a book that has a bit of depth to it. In addition, it will add more substance to my story. See, there was a point there, it was related to my #Tishspiration book.
I have been working on myself, lately.
I am working on a better sleep schedule. This helps me to have more productive days. More productive days mean I do have some time to relax in the evenings, which has been a nice bonus. Appointments are being made and they are for my health, and to help with a job search. I want to be my own boss all of the time, however, I understand that I need to earn an income. Meanwhile, I have faith that things will work out, no matter how scary they might be at times.
Since I am working on myself, I enrolled in a Lisa Nichols course. It was free, for 5 days. She had different options for paid coaching at the end. I am interested, but not at this time, because I have a more important task right now. Freelance writing is something I need to spend a lot more time figuring out. It mightwill be my answer to replacing a traditional full time job.
On the other hand, I have to look for work in traditional jobs too, because I need to explore all of my options. Today, I printed out some jobs to prepare for an appointment with the same office where I got help with my resume last year. At the time I saw them, I was working, and looking for a way to find a different job. I don’t want a traditional job, but I can’t afford to not look at all of the possibilities.
Most importantly…
Between freelance writing, job searching and working on myself, I will also be writing my second book. #Tishspiration: The Art of Surprising Yourself has so much potential. It is going to be an important book for me to write, because of the concept it will explore. I found the rough draft, that excuse is no longer a valid reason to put it off any longer. I am happy that I was able to find it in a day, I knew it was here, somewhere. As a result of finding my rough draft, I can continue writing #Tishspiration: The Art of Surprising Yourself. In my heart, I know someone is waiting for this book. Therefore, it is time to get serious about writing it.
What makes you open a newsletter when it arrives in your inbox? I want to make sure it is something you look forward to reading every month! Your comments will help me identify what to include and consequently what to avoid. Please let me know.
#Tishspiration is the word I finally created to describe what has been going on in my life for the last two years or maybe even longer. I have been aware of it for the last two years, this I am sure of. I have been telling my husband for years that I am full of surprises. It went from being a saying to becoming what my superpower is. The best part of all of this is that I am using my powers for good. I am constantly surprising people around me with what I am doing. The best part is when I surprise myself. That is the true meaning of Tishspration, the part I want to share with the world. It can happen to you. I am going to try to explain it, and then give advice for what YOU should do when Tishspiration happens to you!
I have been on a journey for the last 2 years. It started when I watched that inspirational video, where I took away the message that I need to live while I am alive so that when I die and I think back on the life I lived, not filled with regrets and what ifs. I want to live life to the best of my ability. That includes trying things and doing my best. It means not dwelling on what might or might not happen, because I have done something to make a change. I am pushing my limits. I am trying new things. I am chasing my passions. I am surprising myself.
#Tishspiration.
Where do you start? Well, asking me is one way to find out more. Waiting for my book about Tishspiration is another option. It will be a few months from now before it is ready. What do you do in the meantime?
Think about what you want to do with your life. What is something that you are really good at, something that you get so involved with that before you know it, several hours have gone by. It should be something that comes really easy for you, even if you don’t think it is your passion. If it isn’t it might be a clue to where you are supposed to be going on your journey.
People are starting to pay attention to what I am up to. Some of them are curious. Some of them want to say they knew me before I started my journey, to be a cheering squad from the sidelines. There is nothing wrong with either of those reactions.
There is a small group of people that are watching me, and thinking about their own lives. They have seen me change and start to grow into the person I am now, and they wonder what if it happened to them? To me, the answer is simple. I would simply ask them, why not? Why not take one step in the direction you want to go in? Why not prepare yourself for what could be, instead of hating the way things are and doing nothing?
What is stopping you?
Fear.
Fear of failure.
Fear of not being accepted for being the unique and wonderful being that you are, from the inside out, the one you have buried inside for safe keeping.
Want to know a secret?
I am scared of failure too. When I try something and it falls flat, I let myself lay there for a while. In the melodrama of despair.
I cannot do that for very long, anymore. I have a drive in me, fueled by passion, bursting at the seams with stories to tell.
I am a Lyricist, with songs I cannot sing.
I am a Blogger, because I need to write.
I am an author, with some small published works, who is writing her first novel, and planning 5 more.
I need to let my stories out. If I keep them inside, they hurt me because I am selfishly not sharing the gift I was born with. By writing my books, I will be accomplishing my lifelong dream of becoming a published author. Surprising myself and others with how good I am at this writing thing. Most importantly, I will be sharing this gift with the world.
Because deep down inside, all of us know what our purpose is. We just have to be listening to our hearts whispering the answers to us. Then we need to make a plan and act upon it. One step at a time, on this journey of life. If you smother a spark, it will extinguish in time. Don’t smother your passion. Let it trickle out until you feel like opening the dam and letting it flow free.
Friends, I am standing in front of a lever, preparing to open the floodgates. The next step for me is getting my book published. I hope that you are 1% as excited as I am about it. I can assure you, I am the other 99% on the excitement scale, and then some! I cannot wait to be able to share this book with the world. I sincerely hope that you all will agree that it is worth the wait.
So what do you do if #Tishspiration strikes? Congratulate yourself on a job well done, then move on to the next goal. That is what I do, and I am an expert at #Tishspiration. It has gotten me this far…
This week in Treasure Seeker Tuesday, I want to write about someone very important. YOU! The world is a harsh place at times, and it is easy to get lost in the shuffle. People disappear in the mundane routine of work eat sleep repeat. I am writing today to tell you that you matter and that you need to stop existing and start living. Treasure Yourself! What do I mean by that?
Everyone on this planet is capable of making choices. Some people choose to fly under the radar and just sit in the background to avoid the spotlight. It isn’t for everyone to be the centre of attention all of the time. I think we all get our chances to shine in the world, but it is up to us to grab on and go for the ride. When it is your time to show the world what you can do, you need to own it.
I have spent many years of my life just surviving, and I have realized that I was meant to thrive. I am on a mission to tell stories, here in the Blog and also in my books. I do not know how successful this adventure will be, but I know that I am determined (okay, stubborn) enough to see it through to the finish line. I have literally come to life since I stumbled onto the path I am on, and I can honestly say that I have no regrets. It is lighting a fire in my soul called passion, and it is sometimes flickering but never extinguished. When I am on a low burn, that is when I need to find the desire to try something different or do the things I do not want to do so that I can get back to doing what makes me happy.
When I am quiet, and I let my thoughts roam, I come up with some brilliant ideas. They could be jewellery designs, topics to write about here on the blog, or plans for my current WIP (work in progress aka book.) I can solve problems, and create a solution just by sleeping on it. I can find so much joy when I press publish on a blog story like I will with this one because I know that I was inspired just before I decided to write, and it has a purpose and a message.
So do you. You are reading this because you are looking for something. Inspiration, guidance, hope. Something makes you read this category, or the title caught your eye. I am told that the featured pictures are getting stale, and that will be one of the changes I think seriously about this month. I need to work on this website. I need to edit my WIP. I don’t really want to do either of those things, any more than I want to clean my house from top to bottom or crawl out of bed to face the work week, especially on Mondays. Sometimes, you have to do the things you don’t want to do so that you can do the things you want to do. Adulting is hard.
I used to go around cranky saying that I hated being responsible. I was really miserable deep down inside before I rekindled my love for writing. The answers are within you, and being cranky all of the time, as a victim of circumstance is not one of them. I am writing today to tell you that you have to do some soul searching to find your answers.
Just like everything else, anything worth doing is never easy. If it was, we would all be doing it already. You have to ask yourself the tough questions, and then be patient enough to learn the answers.
Bad things happen. To everyone. The hardest thing is to pick yourself up by your socks and move on. Move over. Move around. Whatever obstacles stand in your way, it is up to you to find the way to crush them and seize your answers. If you just take a little tiny step, you will see that you can take another one. After that, you can keep moving forward, one baby step at a time, until you are moving forward by leaps and bounds, bracing yourself at the sharp corners, and tumbling like a pro when something dares to try to slow you down. You will stumble, and you will fall. The only thing to do is get up and try again. The only thing I ever gained from giving up was being cranky all of the time. I don’t want to be that person. Go find your baseball glove and start throwing the curveballs. Don’t dodge them. Catch them, and throw them right back where they came from.
Do you remember reading the Choose Your Own Adventure books? I used to love them. I would read the first ending, and then I would reread all of the other options until I had learned every scenario. That is how you need to approach life. We don’t know how it will end until we try all of the possible scenarios. Choose wisely, and start living to your fullest potential. I am only beginning to discover just what I really am capable of doing. The world is not ready for me yet. I am full of surprises, and I am going to keep pushing my boundaries as far as I can. The only thing standing in my way is myself. I choose to Treasure Myself and trust in what feels like I am meant to do. Treasure Seekers, do it. Treasure Yourself. Open your heart and mind to the possibilities, and believe in yourselves. I can do more than I ever thought was possible. So can you. Go get it!
Hello Treasure Seekers. I am cutting this one close, but I have a good reason. I have been writing the book, again. I have just written 20,063 of the 50,000 word count goal for November. I only have a few days left, and I am going to do the best I can. I don’t think I am going to win, but as my own superpower is surprises, I might surprise myself and pull it off. (The theme for NaNoWriMo this year is “Superpowered Noveling” hence the reference to my own superpower).
I am dividing my projects this week. I am also working on #Momentum18 Week 1 of 4; another Jennifer Kem challenge. It is already pushing me outside of my comfort zone. The week had us start to develop a freebie offer. I have done this before, in the Scavenger Hunt for Tish’s Treasures earlier this year.
I am going to run a contest in December for a beaded snowflake, made by yours truly. It will be run with facebook live videos, on the Tish’s Treasures Facebook Page. It will also be in The Tish’s Treasure Seekers Group on Facebook. I don’t know if I will do more to promote it. Yet. I will be running more contests for the Bling, no worries there. I am going to have a Bling section on my website so there will be more to promote there, in time. If the website was ready, that would have been a great project, to launch it. I am going to have the website ready for 2018, sooner if I can get it ready. I needed time to process what I want to do with it.
Which brings me back to my challenge this week. I decided that I will make a checklist. I am not sure how to do that, but I want it to be, “downloadable and totally printable.” I may need to ask some friends for help. Want to know the hilarious part? I decided to create a checklist for how to start conquering the feeling of being overwhelmed. On day 4, I was lost in the details of the launch for this idea. Do I need to make the checklist before launching the page to announce it? It is meant to be a common sense checklist of things anybody can refer to when they get overwhelmed. I am going to test drive it before writing it, I guess. Only me, right?
I know there are a lot of topics that I could choose, and I know that I want to help people. I am not going to claim to have all the answers or to be an expert on anything but thinking, writing, and living. One thing I have learned from this year long blogging adventure is that I am capable of inspiring people. I was told this when I started Zumba, by the instructor, who is now a friend as well. I didn’t believe her. I am just me, nothing special, just geeky me. Who happens to love dancing and music.
I am starting to believe in myself, and when complete strangers read my words and comment that I am inspiring them to do things in their lives, I believe it. When people I know tell me they want to start a blog and ask for advice, I believe it. It is a part of what makes this writing adventure meaningful. I am writing from my heart, and people are getting something out of it.
Someone once told me that I should do something very simple to help me believe in myself more, a long time ago. Admittedly, I never followed that advice, but stick with me here, I have a point. They said to start every day, writing your name down on a piece of paper, and underlining it. That’s it. Do you know why it was supposed to work? Because people underline important words when they write them down. This simple habit helps you believe that YOU are IMPORTANT.
So when I think about my reactions to all of the comments, both from people telling me and people writing them down, it stands to reason that the written comments seem more real to me, even if they are coming from strangers. If you are one of the people that took the time to write a comment to me about this blog, thank you. I may not know you outside of the internet, but I consider you a friend. If you have contacted me asking for help to start your blog, that is a very high compliment. It means I am doing exactly what I am trying to do. I want to make people think about what I write. I want them to get something out of it. Ultimately, I want them to buy my books so I can write full time. And much to my own surprise, I want to inspire them to do what they are passionate about.
I don’t have my launch page ready. I may have to bow out gracefully this week when it comes to winning the prize for the challenge. That does not mean I am giving up. Not by a longshot. It doesn’t mean I need it to be perfect to put it out into the world. What it does mean is that I care about the quality of what I am putting out there, and I won’t do anything halfway just to beat a deadline. I need to work more on the concept. That is what I can live with. It doesn’t mean I can’t or that I won’t, it means I need to figure out how to do it because I can and I will. When I am ready. I have a lot going on in the next few days.
It is similar to the NaNoWriMo for me. I was inspired, but I had to figure out how to write a book based on that concept. I have written more at this current moment on the NaNoWriMo novel than I have for any previous attempt to write a book in my whole life. I can do this too. When I have an idea that grows over the length of time that I am working on the project. I have been writing down ideas for the fantasy novel. I am getting that off my shoulders by working on it when I think of things. When I get back to that after I finish the NaNoWriMo novel, I will have building blocks to work with. I needed to find out what my process is for writing books. NaNoWriMo helped me start to learn how I need to write to make the concept develop into an actual book. I may not cross the 50,000 word count before Thursday at midnight, but in my mind, I am calling this an unofficial win, regardless. I have a solid foundation for this practice book, and people want to read it. So I will have to finish it, just based on the bits I have shared with a few people as they are very supportive of my writing this book. There you have it. My superpower strikes again. A book about cats, really? Yes, really. Because I am writing it, in the way only I can. Surprise!
#TreasureSeekerTuesday
Treasure Seeker Tuesday: Photo by Tish MacWebber; Photo Edited by Noa Price
