Deep thoughts and Goals

Today I scribbled a couple of quotes on the side of my calendar while sitting at church. I am privileged to spend the Sunday School hour with our youth, and today we had a guest teacher. WAIT, before you run away, I promise this has to do with writing. He chose to speak on the topic--Who are you? I won't go into the spiritual things we talked about, but here are the three things I wrote in the margins.

1. Did you know that 2/3 of our thoughts during the day are negative. (He said it has been scientifically proven, but I don't have a reference for that, so believe it or not as you see fit.) Why is that? (We discussed...) Then he said, "Negative thoughts are like a hole in our confidence bucket."

How many times to we knock ourselves down with negative thoughts or comments about our writing abilities? Each thought depletes our confidence by another drop. Every time we give ourselves credit for trying to improve, spend time revising, recognize a sentence that comes out just right, we begin to refill that confidence bucket.

2. "At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us." Albert Schweitzer.  

When he read this quote, I thought of all my new blogger friends. Thank you for sharing your spark with me. Many times I feel down, and then I read someones blog and feel lifted and ready to plug along my journey a little longer. So, THANK YOU for sharing and being you. No one can replace or fill the spot you fill in this world.

3.  "If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." Henry Ford.

Wow, think about how true that is.

He also quoted Yoda from the Empire Strikes Back. At one point in Luke's training he tried to raise his X-wing from the swamp and fails. Yoda then lifts it and sets it on solid ground with ease. Luke complains that it is impossible and Yoda replies, "That is why you failed."

Now, I'm not going to point out the obvious connection between these three things and our goals as writers. I simply want you to think about these things and how it can apply to you personally. Are you depleting your confidence with negative thinking? Are you failing to reach your goals because you secretly think it is impossible?

Last Week's Goals:

1. Make a plan for which days I will blog so my readers know the plan. I need to blog less and write/revise more.Yay! The plan, in case you missed it is--M W F posts and goal posting on the weekend. I have many written and scheduled.
2. Get back into the editing groove on my WIP--goal ten pages (the writing is super sloppy where I'm at!) I did edit 10 pages worth, they just were scattered throughout the wip.
3. Work on Blogfest scenes--baking, body language, last line (see sidebar for links) Body language is written, I have two baking ones started, and I chose a section for the last line.
4. Survive Saturday--deliver baby shower cake, run another 10 miles (last week before 1/2 marathon), get kids to their activities, go to Church Prom with the 16-18 year old's (don't worry,  my hubby is my date). It is going to be a crazy day. I'm still alive! Forgot to take a picture of the cake, only ran 5 (but did fast intervals), kids had a good day, and Prom was a blast!
5. Get one more follower and work on dance video. :) I hit 100 and new friends are still coming! Welcome. Tuesday night my girls are going to help me record the dance clip. Be afraid, be very afraid.

Goals for Next Week:

1. Continue revising. Goal--get through the "meets Jaron, second battle scene". Oy, it needs a lot of work. Almost paralyzing, but in view of today's lessons, I will be positive and say, "I know I can do it."
2. Stick to my training schedule. See that counter at the top? It is way too close to race day and last week I didn't do very well.

What I learned:
I need to post, or write down when I get awards. Sorry I'm so bad about passing them back out. I think all the blogs I follow are AWESOMESAUCE and many times I find my Silver Lining in their lines. So, feel free to take either award and pass it on.

This came from Stina Lindenblatt and Nicole. Thank you!

This came from ??? I can't find who sent it, but I remember getting it. Can you remind me so I can link back to you. It was about 2 weeks ago?

And this was from Laurel.

Thank You!