Success & Motivation

What makes you come alive?

Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

I’m never so alive as when I’m writing something that has the potential to change someone else’s life. DOing what I was CREATED and gifted to do. I am not perfect. I will continue to get better, hone my craft, improve my skills…. But there’s nothing like living out your God-given purpose in real life. What’s your purpose? What makes you come alive? When is the last time you thought about it? Or acted on it? I know how easy it is to get buried in the routine of every day until weeks have gone by and you haven’t done anything meaningful. Friends, you were not created to work a job, to make…

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You Make Me Brave

faith, Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

Jonathan Robert Willis *Photographer snapped this shot at the ‪#‎Unpolished2015‬ conference the moment he was asking me about my book, and i was telling him and his team about how i’m in the editing process now and how editing is WAY harder and more work than writing the book ever was! and then we laughed about it. what i love is that this expression captures so much of what 2015 was for me – that’s an overwhelmed laugh. it’s laughter lined with a layer of uncertainty because i actually had no idea what i was doing. being an author, publishing, speaking publicly…. i know it’s what I’m being called to, but it’s all…

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What Business AM I in??!

freedom, Success & Motivation

A few weeks ago, Facebook released a promotional tool for “business pages” housed on their site. It’s a video that starts with, “we are in the business of….” And gives a very brief overview/description of your business.  Like a 15 second mini-commercial. I followed the link to create my own for my writer/speaker page.  Facebook did all the work for me, I just had to fill in the blanks and make my selections and it would spit out a professional marketing tool.  I picked all my favorite pictures and clicked “next”, then the tagline pops up: “We are in the business of…..”  I sat staring at the blinking cursor in the empty text…

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Boys Don’t Like Girls Who Bite Their Nails

Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

I wanted to call this blog, “Boys Don’t Like Girls Who Bite Their Nails – And Other Habit-Breaking Pieces of Wisdom” but that was a bit wordy, and my editor tells me I need to work on that. For as long as I could remember, I was a nail-biter. Like the compulsive, bite-down-until-they-bleed kind. I know, it’s a dirty, disgusting habit. You don’t have to tell me. In middle school my older brother endowed me with the timeless wisdom, “Boys don’t like girls who bite their nails.” Thanks brother. Nice pep talk. I had tried putting tape over them, bitter-tasting stuff on them, sheer will-power, and a myriad of other tricks to get…

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The Best Days of Your Life

faith, Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

Every year, I tape a quote to the front of my planner, something I am going to focus on for the year. This is what I choose for 2013.  March of that year would mark 2 years since my divorce, and 3 years since my husband left.  2010 and 2011 were a blur, as everything I believed in and the picture I held of my life shattered in front of me. 2012 was the year God chased after me relentlessly, as I was running full speed away, and invited me into a new, fresh relationship with Him unlike anything I had ever experienced.  But I still struggled to see how my my dreams…

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Eye See You

Life Lessons, Metaphors, Success & Motivation

It’s been said that our eyes are the windows to our souls. I believe that. I saw a picture tonight, of a girl I don’t know, and this thought went through my head: There are some people, who even though they are smiling in every picture, and even if their smile is perfect, you can still see sadness in their eyes. Have you seen this before? Has this ever been you? My next thought was: These are the people I want to meet. I want them to know they don’t need to wear a smiling mask. I want them to know they are not alone. And I want to give them a picture…

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The New Guy

Life Lessons, Success & Motivation

They recently moved my desk at my office. I’m only there for a few hours every couple weeks, so it’s not a huge deal, I’ve been moved several times. I’ve been put in the middle of administrative assistants, and customer service, and for a long time I sat with the marketing department. This time, they moved me right in the middle of the sales floor, so I sit right behind a [brand] new guy, who has just gone out on his own. I hear him making cold calls and it’s….well, rough, and it’s awkward, and I know he’s struggling…. I have to fill in the other side of the conversation in my mind,…

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