A lot of people are finding out that following their passion is fraught with difficulty, pain and suffering, and sometimes it’s unbearable. But what if they’re mistaken and it’s not their passion that they are following?
Whatever your dream is, that’s your passion. Right? Not so fast. That’s not always the case and if you’re someone who has fallen for this trap it could be the reason you are miserably following the wrong path.
This year I’m starting the year right by highlighting some of the best writing blogs on the web. I love to visit blogs about writing for inspiration, encouragement and motivation, and it’s with those three qualities in mind that I have compiled this list of the top 25 writing blogs.
Next year I will expand the list to the top 50, and I’d like to do that with your help. You can help by posting links to writing blogs you love in the comments. If you’re a blogger for writers, how about introducing yourself and add your link in the comments, too.
Have you ever wanted to start a project and couldn’t? Have you ever waited in vain for inspiration to strike and it didn’t? Have you ever looked at the clock to check the time and realized you wasted yet another day (or week or month) and wondered how that happened (again)?
If you’ve wondered about any of those things, you’re not alone. I’ve done all of them and more. Isn’t it depressing? Darn right it is.
The good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. I’ve discovered a few ways to motivate myself that actually work. Maybe they’ll work for you too.
If you’re waiting for the universe to provide for you, I’ve got a feeling you’re going to wait a long time. If you know what you want then my advice is to confidently take the necessary steps and go get it.
Disclaimer: This post is about me and what I learned in over the last year. It’s not about you. Then again, maybe it could be – if you want it to be, but that’s up to you…
If you’re a writer (or any kind of artist), the odds are you’ve struggled with doubt and I bet there have been days when it has been downright overwhelming, perhaps even enough to make you want to give in and give up.
Fear not, doubting one’s self is human nature, but (and this is a big BUT) it’s also part of human nature to overcome and triumph over one’s doubts.
YOU can do it! Yes, you can!
Today I am happy to announce the winner of the “Happy Every Day” Caption on an Image Contest, Jessica Peterson.
Jessica is an exciting young artist who aspires to make a living creating art. In the interview below Jessica shares with us her success using crowd funding via Kickstarter, how she’s overcoming her doubts and her plans for the future, plus much more.
I hope you enjoy the interview, and join me in congratulating Jessica! And thank you to all who entered the contest, you can view the entries on Pinterest.
Last week Jeff Goins (the dude who wrote the foreword for my book), posted something deceptively simple and quite thought provoking, “Why I Write”. In his post he talked about, you guessed it – Why he writes.
Jeff ended his post with an invitation to his readers to share why they write in the comments. I typed off an answer, but I soon realized there was so much more to it and suddenly I found myself going deep.
When the rest of my answer came to me, I was floored. I have a feeling that a lot of writers, and other creative types for that matter, will find themselves identifying with the rest of my answer.
As writers, we are by our very nature, critical thinkers, but for some reason we don’t think too much about the ramifications of our own counterintuitive self-talk.
All too often we allow doubt to rule over us and take command of our gift to write words that matter. We tend to think that the harder we are on ourselves the better we will become. We challenge ourselves and, unfortunately, to do this most of us are drawn to using reverse psychology. Hey, even some of the greats have advised it.
But what if reverse psychology is one of the many tools doubt uses to cause you to stall, and even, give up?
Thank you to everyone who participated in the “Happy Every Day” book description contest. The winners have been chosen.
Before I get to the winners I want to remind you that there is only one day left to enter the drawing for the blog entry contest. It’s super simple to enter and you can find out how to at this link.
Now, the winners…
Photo Taken from the top of the Arc de Triomphe, Paris by Bryan Hutchinson
As writers, it seems our reputations precede us when it comes to giving harsh criticism to fellow writers.
But is it true? Are we each other’s most brutal critics?