ATTENTION: There is an Amber Alert in your area.
Please CLICK HERE to find out more information.
Missing From: 4000th block of Shay Drive, Bartow, FL
Missing Date: 9/30/2007 12:00 AM
Contact: Polk County Sheriff's Office
1-800-226-TIPS
Circumstances: The child may be in the company of William Joe Mitchell, a registered sex offender out of the Jacksonville area.
Missing Child
Name: Alyssa Frank
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Hazel
Skin Color: White Age: 15
Height: 5'9 Weight: 200lbs
Gender: Female
Description: The child has naturally curly brown hair with blonde streaks on the top. She has 3 piercings in both ears. May be wearing a pink or black "Tinkerbell' shirt, jeans, and black tennis shoes with gray and black checkered shoelaces.
Suspect
Name: William Joe Mitchell
Hair Color: Brown Eye Color: Blue
Skin Color: White Age: 46
Height: 5'10 Weight: 158lbs
Gender: Male
Vehicle Information
Make: Chevrolet Model: Lumina
License State: FL License Text: G025EL
Showing posts with label Moms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moms. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 02, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
MISTAKES WE MAKE: PART 7
SELF-SABOTAGE AND SELF-FULFILLED PROPHESY
SELF-SABOTAGE: THE ART OF SNATCHING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY.
SELF-FULFILLED PROPHESY: THE ART OF WILLFULLY STRUCTURING EVENTS TO MANIFEST A PROJECTED OUTCOME.
It isn’t enough that we have to battle the rest of the world, we have to battle ourselves. And often we are not only our greatest critic, we are our worst enemy. We treat everyone else in the world--including strangers on the street--with more dignity and compassion and respect than we treat ourselves. Why is that? Why is it that everyone else deserves more and better and kindnesses and considerations that we feel we don’t deserve?
A huge part of it is due to upbringing and what we have adopted or has been forced upon us as appropriate conduct and social behavior. We’ve all heard some form of:
Be modest. Be humble. Be unassuming. Don’t get a big head. I made you, I can break you. You owe me. If it weren’t for me, you’d be nothing. I don’t care what you think, in my house, you’ll do as I say. Pretty is as pretty does. Never brag, it’s bad form. Don’t blow your own horn, toot your own whistle. You do you think you are? If I wanted your advice, I’d ask for it.
Loser. You can’t do that. You’re too __________ (fill in the blank).
Think back through your life. This goes back further: (color inside the lines; be seen, not heard; don’t cause a stir). What putdown or well intended behavior sapped the confidence right out of you? Made you feel small and insignificant? Hopeless? Helpless? Clueless or unworthy? Like a victim?
These types of things happen to all of us. Often, they were well intended and not meant to impact us they way they did, but they do. (Remember that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? Well partly, no doubt, it got to be an often-repeated saying like this.)
Words carry power. We know that. And that definitely includes words spoken to us about us. Ones that impact us strongly, we carry with us. They help form and shape our opinions, our esteem, our behavior and our beliefs. We believe we can, odds are we can. We believe we can’t and we never will--and we will make that true because we believe it to be true. That’s self-fulfilled prophesy. And often to make it happen, we embrace self-sabotage.
An Example: An author has been writing one type of book for years. The market for that type book is dwindling and her editor recommends the author write a different type of book and makes several suggestions. The author refuses--and when contract renewal time comes around, author is told publisher will not be offering a new contract.
Author refused for any of a number of reasons. Didn’t like the type of books suggested. Had no interest in shifting to a new type novel. Feared change. Feared losing her existing reader base. The point is, regardless of the reason the author is now without a publisher.
A more blatant example: An author goes to a conference and at a luncheon complains to a table full of people about her publisher. An editor for that publisher is sitting at the next table and overhears her house being raked over the coals. Said editor reports this tongue-lashing in a public forum to author’s editor. How how enthused is said editor to work with said author?
We all take wrong steps. We try something that doesn’t work. We write something that doesn’t resonate. We plan and set expectations based on the information we have available but that information proves faulty. These are mistakes, yes, but not ones where we have through our own arrogance or ignorance or fears or other personal issue-based actions, shoot ourselves in the foot and cut ourselves off at the knees.
The discretion errors are most frequent. Or, I should say, the lack of discretion. Over the years, I’ve seen more authors sabotage their careers by exercising a lack of discretion than anything else. A little story to keep in mind:
Author A wrote for an Editor at a publishing company.
Author A had some very nasty things to say about another writer to Editor.
Editor spoke very little and formally--cautiously--to Author A because Author couldn’t be trusted to be discreet.
Author A was offended by Editor’s distance and had some very nasty things to say to Editor about it, then promptly went to the Editorial Director and asked to be assigned to a new Editor.
The request was refused.
Author A left the Publisher and wrote for a New Editor at a New Publisher.
Before Author A’s first book with New Publisher came out, her New Editor left the New Publisher for employment at a third Publisher.
New Publisher hired a replacement: Editor from Publisher.
So now Author A is with Original Editor at New Publisher. The Editor she said some very nasty things to and asked to reassigned away from.
Small world, publishing. And Editors move around to move up. Author A is in a tough spot. One she put herself in because of her lack of discretion. Net: self-sabotage. Can she recover: probably only if she looks for and secures a New New Editor at a New New Publisher.
Life would have been so much simpler for Author A had that author just be discreet.
Self-sabotage isn’t only seated in esteem and confidence and negative issues. It can also be seated in fear. Like the fear of success.
People driven by a dream will just about kill themselves to hit benchmarks that define for them success. They’ll climb the ladder, struggle and sacrifice and put in super-human effort to get up to the next rung. Their goal is in sight. They’re almost there. Almost to the pinnacle that has occupied their hopes and dreams and cost them so much and now--now they’re---
scared to death and decide they may not really want it, or that they definitely do not want it.
Suddenly unthought of facets come to life:
✦If I make that sale, people are actually going to read what I write. They might hate it, have ugly things to say about it--about me. I could be embarrassed, humiliated, rejected.
✦If I make that list, people are going to expect so much out of the book. What if it disappoints them. What if they bad-mouth me and it? My family, friends, everyone I know will hear all about it. I’ll look like a fool, an idiot. I could be hurt. My kids could be hurt or embarrassed or humiliated. Rejected.
✦The last book did so well. What if this one bombs?
✦I am going to be judged. I could be found wanting and/or rejected.
See how these things all tie back to self-esteem and image? Your perception of who you are and your place in your world, and in the worlds of others?
We all want to be loved and accepted. We all want our work, which is an extension of us, to be loved and accepted.
And it’s hard to open ourselves up for not being loved and accepted. But the simple fact is this:
Some will love and accept us.
Some will hate us and reject us.
And some will be indifferent.
Of all these things--think about this--indifference troubles us most.
Why? Because it jerks our chains and feeds those little nags in us that says we and what we are doing are insignificant.
You can go into broader analysis, but in my experience, when you do and then you dive deep, it takes you right back to this place. Maybe you need the journey to feel sure of that. Maybe you can take the word of one who has journeyed and taken that journey with many others. Regardless, you do need to grasp the reasons we sabotage ourselves and take constructive steps to resolve the underlying issues. Understand them. And stop doing it so that you can fulfill your potential.
How do you do that? There are many ways, I’m sure, but one I know works is by knowing what you need. And that will be the topic in Mistakes We Make, Part 8.
Blessings,
Vicki
© 2007, Vicki Hinze
SELF-SABOTAGE: THE ART OF SNATCHING DEFEAT OUT OF THE JAWS OF VICTORY.
SELF-FULFILLED PROPHESY: THE ART OF WILLFULLY STRUCTURING EVENTS TO MANIFEST A PROJECTED OUTCOME.
It isn’t enough that we have to battle the rest of the world, we have to battle ourselves. And often we are not only our greatest critic, we are our worst enemy. We treat everyone else in the world--including strangers on the street--with more dignity and compassion and respect than we treat ourselves. Why is that? Why is it that everyone else deserves more and better and kindnesses and considerations that we feel we don’t deserve?
A huge part of it is due to upbringing and what we have adopted or has been forced upon us as appropriate conduct and social behavior. We’ve all heard some form of:
Be modest. Be humble. Be unassuming. Don’t get a big head. I made you, I can break you. You owe me. If it weren’t for me, you’d be nothing. I don’t care what you think, in my house, you’ll do as I say. Pretty is as pretty does. Never brag, it’s bad form. Don’t blow your own horn, toot your own whistle. You do you think you are? If I wanted your advice, I’d ask for it.
Loser. You can’t do that. You’re too __________ (fill in the blank).
Think back through your life. This goes back further: (color inside the lines; be seen, not heard; don’t cause a stir). What putdown or well intended behavior sapped the confidence right out of you? Made you feel small and insignificant? Hopeless? Helpless? Clueless or unworthy? Like a victim?
These types of things happen to all of us. Often, they were well intended and not meant to impact us they way they did, but they do. (Remember that saying about the road to hell being paved with good intentions? Well partly, no doubt, it got to be an often-repeated saying like this.)
Words carry power. We know that. And that definitely includes words spoken to us about us. Ones that impact us strongly, we carry with us. They help form and shape our opinions, our esteem, our behavior and our beliefs. We believe we can, odds are we can. We believe we can’t and we never will--and we will make that true because we believe it to be true. That’s self-fulfilled prophesy. And often to make it happen, we embrace self-sabotage.
An Example: An author has been writing one type of book for years. The market for that type book is dwindling and her editor recommends the author write a different type of book and makes several suggestions. The author refuses--and when contract renewal time comes around, author is told publisher will not be offering a new contract.
Author refused for any of a number of reasons. Didn’t like the type of books suggested. Had no interest in shifting to a new type novel. Feared change. Feared losing her existing reader base. The point is, regardless of the reason the author is now without a publisher.
A more blatant example: An author goes to a conference and at a luncheon complains to a table full of people about her publisher. An editor for that publisher is sitting at the next table and overhears her house being raked over the coals. Said editor reports this tongue-lashing in a public forum to author’s editor. How how enthused is said editor to work with said author?
We all take wrong steps. We try something that doesn’t work. We write something that doesn’t resonate. We plan and set expectations based on the information we have available but that information proves faulty. These are mistakes, yes, but not ones where we have through our own arrogance or ignorance or fears or other personal issue-based actions, shoot ourselves in the foot and cut ourselves off at the knees.
The discretion errors are most frequent. Or, I should say, the lack of discretion. Over the years, I’ve seen more authors sabotage their careers by exercising a lack of discretion than anything else. A little story to keep in mind:
Author A wrote for an Editor at a publishing company.
Author A had some very nasty things to say about another writer to Editor.
Editor spoke very little and formally--cautiously--to Author A because Author couldn’t be trusted to be discreet.
Author A was offended by Editor’s distance and had some very nasty things to say to Editor about it, then promptly went to the Editorial Director and asked to be assigned to a new Editor.
The request was refused.
Author A left the Publisher and wrote for a New Editor at a New Publisher.
Before Author A’s first book with New Publisher came out, her New Editor left the New Publisher for employment at a third Publisher.
New Publisher hired a replacement: Editor from Publisher.
So now Author A is with Original Editor at New Publisher. The Editor she said some very nasty things to and asked to reassigned away from.
Small world, publishing. And Editors move around to move up. Author A is in a tough spot. One she put herself in because of her lack of discretion. Net: self-sabotage. Can she recover: probably only if she looks for and secures a New New Editor at a New New Publisher.
Life would have been so much simpler for Author A had that author just be discreet.
Self-sabotage isn’t only seated in esteem and confidence and negative issues. It can also be seated in fear. Like the fear of success.
People driven by a dream will just about kill themselves to hit benchmarks that define for them success. They’ll climb the ladder, struggle and sacrifice and put in super-human effort to get up to the next rung. Their goal is in sight. They’re almost there. Almost to the pinnacle that has occupied their hopes and dreams and cost them so much and now--now they’re---
scared to death and decide they may not really want it, or that they definitely do not want it.
Suddenly unthought of facets come to life:
✦If I make that sale, people are actually going to read what I write. They might hate it, have ugly things to say about it--about me. I could be embarrassed, humiliated, rejected.
✦If I make that list, people are going to expect so much out of the book. What if it disappoints them. What if they bad-mouth me and it? My family, friends, everyone I know will hear all about it. I’ll look like a fool, an idiot. I could be hurt. My kids could be hurt or embarrassed or humiliated. Rejected.
✦The last book did so well. What if this one bombs?
✦I am going to be judged. I could be found wanting and/or rejected.
See how these things all tie back to self-esteem and image? Your perception of who you are and your place in your world, and in the worlds of others?
We all want to be loved and accepted. We all want our work, which is an extension of us, to be loved and accepted.
And it’s hard to open ourselves up for not being loved and accepted. But the simple fact is this:
Some will love and accept us.
Some will hate us and reject us.
And some will be indifferent.
Of all these things--think about this--indifference troubles us most.
Why? Because it jerks our chains and feeds those little nags in us that says we and what we are doing are insignificant.
You can go into broader analysis, but in my experience, when you do and then you dive deep, it takes you right back to this place. Maybe you need the journey to feel sure of that. Maybe you can take the word of one who has journeyed and taken that journey with many others. Regardless, you do need to grasp the reasons we sabotage ourselves and take constructive steps to resolve the underlying issues. Understand them. And stop doing it so that you can fulfill your potential.
How do you do that? There are many ways, I’m sure, but one I know works is by knowing what you need. And that will be the topic in Mistakes We Make, Part 8.
Blessings,
Vicki
© 2007, Vicki Hinze
Sunday, December 10, 2006
WORKING AT HOME, PART 2
The 2nd segment of a new Everyday Woman Radio show series on Working At Home has just been released by iWRN radio network. This show and several other recent ones are available through the www.everydaywomanradio.com web site. Blessings, Vicki
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
WRITING CHARACTERS: THE POWER OF CHOICE
Warning: This is a no-edit zone....
I received an interesting question from a writer this morning that related to character. And as I worked through the psychological forces that would develop a character of that specific nature who would logically fit into her specific novel situation, given her specific personal history--a history that would foster sufficient and realistic motivation for her actions in the novel events--it became apparent that far more goes into forming our attitudes and forging those hot buttons we all have than our personal experiences.
Those are significant, no doubt about it, but we also have very real innate tendencies to craft and frame events in such a way that we don't feel badly about ourselves. We justify our actions--whether or not they can be justified through a clear eye. And we rationalize, if that's required to make whatever we do seem logical, reasonable, warranted and fair.
Why do we do that?
Well, there are a variety of schools of thought on this. Some say we start out in life adopting the social attitudes, morals and ethics of our family members or principle caregivers. As we grow up and our exposure to others occurs, we expand that sphere of influence. And then as adults, when our sphere of influence is at its broadest, we then revisit those attitudes, morals and ethics and beliefs passed to us by others and we examine them closely, debating and finally deciding which ones we want to keep, which ones we want to ditch or replace and what exactly we want to replace them with.
Now it's at this point that a lot of people suffer, well, let's call it stunted growth. They don't want to grow up. They don't want to accept responsibility for their own actions. So they go through a "growing process" of sorts, blaming everyone else for everything bad that's ever happened in their lives, and every mistake they've made, and every problem they have had or will have in the future.
We all know people like that, I'm sorry to say. They just never quite get it that having that broadest influence as an adult opens the door beyond who did what to us as kids. We're accountable. And responsible. And every day we make choices--some good, some not--but they are our choices and we take both the kudos and the hits for them. That's being an adult. And the bottom line is no one reaches or survives puberty without having to deal with something.
Yet, while all of this is true, it still isn't just those things that shape and mold us into the people we become. The truth is also in nebulous events that happen to others. In how those we respect or admire or those we want to emulate conduct themselves and their lives. People who are not necessarily in our sphere, but ones we observe from a distance.
People who inspire or repulse us. People we love or hate. People we never meet or know who might have lived in another time or distant place, but through some means touched us.
If you look at this, what you see--or what I saw--is that loving or hating has equal power to instill determination and declarations in people. Think back for a second. Do you ever recall yourself saying, "When I have kids, I'll never do that!"
Think again. When you thought that thought, or made that comment, was in always in reaction to something that had been done to you? Your parent treating you in a way you didn't like? It's just as likely that you were shopping in a store and saw a stranger say or do something to his/her kid that set off an emotional reaction in you.
I remember once when I was very young--grade school at best. I found a wallet in a department store with a great deal of money in it. I debated keeping it. We were poor and that money would have been really useful. But it was wrong, and I couldn't make myself do that. So I turned it in to a security guard posted near the front of the store. As I watched, he opened it and removed the money, shoved it into his pocket, then announced a wallet had been found. He stole the money. A man in uniform stole the money.
I was appalled, and to this day, I see this man's face clearly. The event happened decades ago. The result walks with me today. A few years ago, I picked up a book at the grocery store, put it in the baby carrier, front part of the shopping cart with my purse. When I paid for the groceries, I missed the book. And when I loaded them into the car, I found the book and knew I hadn't paid for it.
My first thought was, "Oh, hell. It's just a few dollars." But that man's face flashed through my mind, and I got that same sick, thief feeling. So I walked back into the store with the book, waited in line for ten minutes, then explained to the cashier what happened, who called the manager and told him, and finally I paid for the book.
My ice-cream had melted in the hot car. But when it froze again I could swallow it.
Now the guard at the store didn't know me, or me him. But decades after an incident that he isn't aware even happened (me seeing him take that money), I'm still aware of it and emotionally reacting to it. The incident still carries impact.
Some would consider the event negative. A kid seeing a grown-up guard steal surely can't be considered a good thing. And yet the emotional reaction the event incited in me has been positive. Many times over the years, I've given back money when handed the wrong amount of change, looked for rightful owners of things, and so forth.
If that incident hadn't occurred, would I still have taken the extra pains to do so? Would stealing still be as repulsive to me? I don't honestly know. It did happen. It is repulsive. But because I still see the man's face clearly in my mind, and because unrelated incidents still trigger that emotional repulsion to his stealing, I'd say the impression was firmly implanted and likely does impact.
That's the heart of why we need to consider these little, seemingly insignificant events that happen with strangers and grasp their powerful ability to motivate characters. Too often, we think of family and friends and never consider strangers as strong influences or motivators. But they are for people, and that means they can and should be for characters, too.
And that's what's on my mind this morning....
Blessings,
Vicki
Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com
www.everydayradio.com
I received an interesting question from a writer this morning that related to character. And as I worked through the psychological forces that would develop a character of that specific nature who would logically fit into her specific novel situation, given her specific personal history--a history that would foster sufficient and realistic motivation for her actions in the novel events--it became apparent that far more goes into forming our attitudes and forging those hot buttons we all have than our personal experiences.
Those are significant, no doubt about it, but we also have very real innate tendencies to craft and frame events in such a way that we don't feel badly about ourselves. We justify our actions--whether or not they can be justified through a clear eye. And we rationalize, if that's required to make whatever we do seem logical, reasonable, warranted and fair.
Why do we do that?
Well, there are a variety of schools of thought on this. Some say we start out in life adopting the social attitudes, morals and ethics of our family members or principle caregivers. As we grow up and our exposure to others occurs, we expand that sphere of influence. And then as adults, when our sphere of influence is at its broadest, we then revisit those attitudes, morals and ethics and beliefs passed to us by others and we examine them closely, debating and finally deciding which ones we want to keep, which ones we want to ditch or replace and what exactly we want to replace them with.
Now it's at this point that a lot of people suffer, well, let's call it stunted growth. They don't want to grow up. They don't want to accept responsibility for their own actions. So they go through a "growing process" of sorts, blaming everyone else for everything bad that's ever happened in their lives, and every mistake they've made, and every problem they have had or will have in the future.
We all know people like that, I'm sorry to say. They just never quite get it that having that broadest influence as an adult opens the door beyond who did what to us as kids. We're accountable. And responsible. And every day we make choices--some good, some not--but they are our choices and we take both the kudos and the hits for them. That's being an adult. And the bottom line is no one reaches or survives puberty without having to deal with something.
Yet, while all of this is true, it still isn't just those things that shape and mold us into the people we become. The truth is also in nebulous events that happen to others. In how those we respect or admire or those we want to emulate conduct themselves and their lives. People who are not necessarily in our sphere, but ones we observe from a distance.
People who inspire or repulse us. People we love or hate. People we never meet or know who might have lived in another time or distant place, but through some means touched us.
If you look at this, what you see--or what I saw--is that loving or hating has equal power to instill determination and declarations in people. Think back for a second. Do you ever recall yourself saying, "When I have kids, I'll never do that!"
Think again. When you thought that thought, or made that comment, was in always in reaction to something that had been done to you? Your parent treating you in a way you didn't like? It's just as likely that you were shopping in a store and saw a stranger say or do something to his/her kid that set off an emotional reaction in you.
I remember once when I was very young--grade school at best. I found a wallet in a department store with a great deal of money in it. I debated keeping it. We were poor and that money would have been really useful. But it was wrong, and I couldn't make myself do that. So I turned it in to a security guard posted near the front of the store. As I watched, he opened it and removed the money, shoved it into his pocket, then announced a wallet had been found. He stole the money. A man in uniform stole the money.
I was appalled, and to this day, I see this man's face clearly. The event happened decades ago. The result walks with me today. A few years ago, I picked up a book at the grocery store, put it in the baby carrier, front part of the shopping cart with my purse. When I paid for the groceries, I missed the book. And when I loaded them into the car, I found the book and knew I hadn't paid for it.
My first thought was, "Oh, hell. It's just a few dollars." But that man's face flashed through my mind, and I got that same sick, thief feeling. So I walked back into the store with the book, waited in line for ten minutes, then explained to the cashier what happened, who called the manager and told him, and finally I paid for the book.
My ice-cream had melted in the hot car. But when it froze again I could swallow it.
Now the guard at the store didn't know me, or me him. But decades after an incident that he isn't aware even happened (me seeing him take that money), I'm still aware of it and emotionally reacting to it. The incident still carries impact.
Some would consider the event negative. A kid seeing a grown-up guard steal surely can't be considered a good thing. And yet the emotional reaction the event incited in me has been positive. Many times over the years, I've given back money when handed the wrong amount of change, looked for rightful owners of things, and so forth.
If that incident hadn't occurred, would I still have taken the extra pains to do so? Would stealing still be as repulsive to me? I don't honestly know. It did happen. It is repulsive. But because I still see the man's face clearly in my mind, and because unrelated incidents still trigger that emotional repulsion to his stealing, I'd say the impression was firmly implanted and likely does impact.
That's the heart of why we need to consider these little, seemingly insignificant events that happen with strangers and grasp their powerful ability to motivate characters. Too often, we think of family and friends and never consider strangers as strong influences or motivators. But they are for people, and that means they can and should be for characters, too.
And that's what's on my mind this morning....
Blessings,
Vicki
Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com
www.everydayradio.com
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
BUSY DAYS AND MOMMY WARS
Warning: this is a no-edit zone...
It's about ten in the morning and I've been at it for nearly eight hours--since just after two. I don't know about you, but when I have a lot of diverse projects going, I forget how valuable sleep is because I'm too wired to even think about doing it much less to actually try it.
Right now is one such time, and last night was one such night. Currently, I'm setting up some small companies I've wanted to do for a while. I'm writing on five, not my usual four, novels, and doing the research for a new non-fiction. In my spare time, I'm building a fourth new website and recording radio shows both for Everyday Woman, the show I host, and shows for writers, which is going to debut shortly.
The new Everyday Woman show, THE MOMMY WARS: Special Challenges and Tips and Solutions, is up by the way. If you want to listen, head over to www.iwrnradio.com.
In addition to the things listed above, I've been spending extra time with my gran--she needs it with the new baby and her new tooth injury--and working on a bombshellauthors project, one for a local writer's group and trying to learn a new art form. I am also exploring doing some writing workshops and podcasting them--so it'd be like attending workshops without leaving home.
This isn't all the goodies I'm trying to focus on working at the moment. I'm afraid to put everything in one list. I can't eat that bear all at once. But in bites, he's going down!
And I guess that's what's really on my mind this morning. Multi-tasking and how writers either must be oriented to it or become oriented to it. I'm looking back over the years I've been a writer and I remember no time during all that time when I felt able to solely focus on a single task.
Writers are jugglers. They're creating at least one project, editing another, promoting a third, planning promotion on a fourth, researching a fifth--and so on. That doesn't count the extras like workshops, seminars, blogging, aiding writers' groups, answering questions or brainstorming with a stuck writer, looking over a project someone else is working on and feels something they can't pin down isn't quite right or any of the thousand other things we writers do. (Notice I haven't touched personal items or family obligations/responsibilities or fun stuff at all in this listing.)
I've been a priority list proponent for many years. When people ask I get so much done, I point directly to it because I'm convinced that it keeps me out of crisis-mode and in a functioning frame of mind. I also attribute the workload carried to the annual goals planning I do each November. Yes, it takes a little time to think about it and get it set up, but then for the entire year, I'm focused on specific goals and that helps me stay on track. I also get to celebrate my progress because I can actually see it--since I'm looking for it.
Tools make the jobs easier, and I am all for that--even on those days when I haven't been able to sleep the night before because so much is on my mind.
Don't misunderstand, it isn't worry about those things keeping me awake. It's excitement. I'm enjoying the heck out of the projects I'm doing and, well, the truth is, when a creative person's enthusiasm is fired (and it follows her to even mundane tasks), that just isn't conducive to sleep.
Yet I'm reminded to consider the restorative properties in sleep. The healing. The purging of daily stress. The wonderful things we come upon in the stillness.
And knowing the value of each of those things--and those unmentioned--makes it clear that discipline is warranted.
That too is on my mind this morning. Remembering the wisdom in knowing every hour slept before 2:00 A.M. is like sleeping double the number of hours actually slept. (Experts claim its because of sleep cycles, and 2 for 1 sounds like a good deal to me.) Remembering that sleepless nights lead to cranky days and tired bodies. And tired bodies easily get sick. Who needs that?
So this morning, though I'm wired for sound and ready to keep going, discipline has arrived and insisted it be set free from the closet. It's snatched the crown off enthusiasm's head and is ruling with an iron fist. The royal orders flow down from the hallowed hall:
"Work until lunch, goof around AWAY from the office for an hour, and then take a nap. Only after those items are ticked off on your priority list may you return to the office and unleash enthusiasm for Round Two."
My honest first thought: Spit. Damn, damn, damn.
My honest second thought: What the heck am I going to do for an hour away from the office--that doesn't include anything domestic? Think, woman. Think. Justify! Justify! Justify!
Mmm, well, I'll go vote. And--I'm looking out my office window. It's sunny and warm and, while the hammock is too obvious, my beloved Lloyd H happens to have a huge wheelbarrow parked in the shade under my favorite oak. Now that looks like a great place to hide out with a good book and snooze. I look to my To-be-read pile. EYE OF THE DREAM and PAST SINS.... I'm gone!
Have a wonderful day!
Blessings,
Vicki
Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com
www.everydaywomanradio.com
Everyday Woman Blog: http://everydaywoman.typepad.com/everyday_woman_radio_show/
It's about ten in the morning and I've been at it for nearly eight hours--since just after two. I don't know about you, but when I have a lot of diverse projects going, I forget how valuable sleep is because I'm too wired to even think about doing it much less to actually try it.
Right now is one such time, and last night was one such night. Currently, I'm setting up some small companies I've wanted to do for a while. I'm writing on five, not my usual four, novels, and doing the research for a new non-fiction. In my spare time, I'm building a fourth new website and recording radio shows both for Everyday Woman, the show I host, and shows for writers, which is going to debut shortly.
The new Everyday Woman show, THE MOMMY WARS: Special Challenges and Tips and Solutions, is up by the way. If you want to listen, head over to www.iwrnradio.com.
In addition to the things listed above, I've been spending extra time with my gran--she needs it with the new baby and her new tooth injury--and working on a bombshellauthors project, one for a local writer's group and trying to learn a new art form. I am also exploring doing some writing workshops and podcasting them--so it'd be like attending workshops without leaving home.
This isn't all the goodies I'm trying to focus on working at the moment. I'm afraid to put everything in one list. I can't eat that bear all at once. But in bites, he's going down!
And I guess that's what's really on my mind this morning. Multi-tasking and how writers either must be oriented to it or become oriented to it. I'm looking back over the years I've been a writer and I remember no time during all that time when I felt able to solely focus on a single task.
Writers are jugglers. They're creating at least one project, editing another, promoting a third, planning promotion on a fourth, researching a fifth--and so on. That doesn't count the extras like workshops, seminars, blogging, aiding writers' groups, answering questions or brainstorming with a stuck writer, looking over a project someone else is working on and feels something they can't pin down isn't quite right or any of the thousand other things we writers do. (Notice I haven't touched personal items or family obligations/responsibilities or fun stuff at all in this listing.)
I've been a priority list proponent for many years. When people ask I get so much done, I point directly to it because I'm convinced that it keeps me out of crisis-mode and in a functioning frame of mind. I also attribute the workload carried to the annual goals planning I do each November. Yes, it takes a little time to think about it and get it set up, but then for the entire year, I'm focused on specific goals and that helps me stay on track. I also get to celebrate my progress because I can actually see it--since I'm looking for it.
Tools make the jobs easier, and I am all for that--even on those days when I haven't been able to sleep the night before because so much is on my mind.
Don't misunderstand, it isn't worry about those things keeping me awake. It's excitement. I'm enjoying the heck out of the projects I'm doing and, well, the truth is, when a creative person's enthusiasm is fired (and it follows her to even mundane tasks), that just isn't conducive to sleep.
Yet I'm reminded to consider the restorative properties in sleep. The healing. The purging of daily stress. The wonderful things we come upon in the stillness.
And knowing the value of each of those things--and those unmentioned--makes it clear that discipline is warranted.
That too is on my mind this morning. Remembering the wisdom in knowing every hour slept before 2:00 A.M. is like sleeping double the number of hours actually slept. (Experts claim its because of sleep cycles, and 2 for 1 sounds like a good deal to me.) Remembering that sleepless nights lead to cranky days and tired bodies. And tired bodies easily get sick.
So this morning, though I'm wired for sound and ready to keep going, discipline has arrived and insisted it be set free from the closet. It's snatched the crown off enthusiasm's head and is ruling with an iron fist. The royal orders flow down from the hallowed hall:
"Work until lunch, goof around AWAY from the office for an hour, and then take a nap. Only after those items are ticked off on your priority list may you return to the office and unleash enthusiasm for Round Two."
My honest first thought: Spit. Damn, damn, damn.
My honest second thought: What the heck am I going to do for an hour away from the office--that doesn't include anything domestic?
Mmm, well, I'll go vote. And--I'm looking out my office window. It's sunny and warm and, while the hammock is too obvious, my beloved Lloyd H happens to have a huge wheelbarrow parked in the shade under my favorite oak. Now that looks like a great place to hide out with a good book and snooze. I look to my To-be-read pile. EYE OF THE DREAM and PAST SINS.... I'm gone!
Have a wonderful day!
Blessings,
Vicki
Vicki Hinze
www.vickihinze.com
www.everydaywomanradio.com
Everyday Woman Blog: http://everydaywoman.typepad.com/everyday_woman_radio_show/
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