Fortune Cookie Friday: Be Willing

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Photo by Hannah Olinger on Unsplash

Welcome back to Fortune Cookie Friday! I hope you’ve all had a good week and are ready for a nice weekend. I’m excited about my weekend plans, as I’ll be taking my first-ever writing course. I’ll let you know how it goes, but I'm really looking forward to it!


Before we get to today’s fortune, I wanted to provide an update to last week’s post about Soul Wounds and Sacred Revelations. For those of you local to the Pittsburgh region, author Deneen Joyner asked me to share the news that she will be doing a book signing at Barnes and Noble at Settlers Ridge on March 30th from 1-4 p.m. I highly recommend meeting Deneen in person if you can! If you want to read her book electronically, it’s available from a variety of sources, including here:



Okay, announcement aside, let’s get to today’s fortune, shall we? This one is a reader submission that came in just this week, and it fits in so perfectly with the theme of the last two fortunes we had (Success; Failure) that I’m going to trust the timing and share it today:

“You must be willing to act today in order to succeed.”

I like to think of this fortune as a reminder that “there’s no time like the present,” as the old adage goes. And I think it's fair to say that we can apply this concept to just about anything, not just life’s “big stuff.”

Keep reading for three examples about how you can apply this type of thinking. Feel free to utilize these ideas in any area of your life.

Example 1: Chores & Daily Life
I can look around my house and feel overwhelmed by how much laundry I have to do. If I'm honest, it’s a lot! Did I mention our washing machine broke after burst water pipes in our house a couple of weeks ago? No? It rained inside our house, and then I couldn’t wash all the wet towels because the washer broke. I got those handled at the laundromat til our washer got fixed, but now I’m a bit behind on the rest of the laundry! I feel like I am always playing catch-up, which can feel a little overwhelming.

(image courtesy clipartpng.com)

Now...I can sit here continuing to feel overwhelmed, or the next time I get up from this chair, I could just go throw in a load and start the machine up. But I have to be willing to do that, right?

It’s not that big a deal, but as anyone who has a lot on their to-do list can probably relate, sometimes one more thing to do can feel like one-too-many things. But the nice thing about doing laundry is it can do itself, for the most part, so I should really just get on with it.

(Hang on, BRB—gonna go throw in a load of laundry!)

Great! Now my laundry is getting done. I just had to be willing to act on it.


Example 2: Life Goal
Now, let’s say there’s a bigger goal you want to achieve. What steps are you going to take to get there? Are you willing to explore this?

Let me just make up an example out of thin air, since I hear this one a lot in my line of work: you want to publish a book.

Are you going to sit in the land of “Someday I want to…” or starting today, are you willing to take the steps you need to take to get that book published?

You can be doing something every single day to get the “published author” title after your name. Want some inspiration?

• Brainstorm your book idea with a basic notebook and pen ; you can even use workbooks or project notebooks made specifically for writers, if you think they'd help.

• You can take a writing class or join a writing support group in your local community.

• Start writing. Write every single day. Set word count goals. (500. 5,000. Doesn’t matter how many.)

• Read up on the publishing process so you know which direction you want to go in: self-publish or traditional publishing? What do you need to know about it?

• Reach out to people who will help you with your goal, such as: other writers to give you feedback and guidance on your work, beta readers, editor, proofreader, agent, etc. (You do know I’m an editor and proofreader, right? You've got one resource handled, at least.)

Do you see how quickly I jotted down some potential steps for that goal? It only took me a few minutes to do that. Once you've noted the steps, you can take action on them.

Example 3: Something You Want to Have
A few weeks ago, a friend who wasn't a crocheter expressed the desire to have a shawl. There's one she liked on Ravelry. I said to her, "Oh, you can TOTALLY make that yourself, and I can show you how."

I offered to do a "besties crochet-a-long" with her, where we would both buy the yarn and get started on it on the same day and do it together. I offered to be there for her every step of the way to answer questions.

I'm happy to say that she is now several repeats of the pattern ahead of me on this shawl!

I am so happy for my friend! She was willing to do something she had never done before in order to get the end result she wanted. She had faith she could do it, and she had the resources (me, the internet, YouTube) to help her when she had questions.

She hasn't crocheted anything more than a granny square before. She has never read a pattern. She hasn't touched a crochet hook in 20 years, but she is making herself a shawl! And all because she was willing to entertain the possibility that she could.

The Takeaway
So after reading these examples, are you inspired to get started on something you've always wanted to do? If so, what do you want to accomplish, and what steps are you going to take—TODAY—to get there?

Be willing to have an open mind. Be willing to act. Be willing to know that anything is possible. Be willing to have faith in yourself.

Be willing.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by what the steps may be, there’s help available to you. From groups on the internet to local meetup groups to friends and family to books and podcasts and YouTube videos on how to do just about anything...you will have the resources you need.

Whatever it is that you want to do, just start. 

What are you waiting for?

Drop me a comment and let’s talk about this! Tell me your goals and steps; maybe we can inspire each other or brainstorm!

Until next time,

💛🐝

 ~positively b.e.e. is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow me there!~

Fortune Cookie Friday: Failure

This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See Disclosures. 

Greetings and Happy Friday to you all! Guess what today is? It’s the one-year anniversary of when I first started posting Fortune Cookie Friday posts! Here’s a flashback fortune cookie for you to savor.

So how’s your week been going? I’m not going to lie: I’ve had a week. You could classify it as one of THOSE weeks. You know how things tend to happen in threes? Boy, did they ever! Between burst pipes and broken appliances and unexpected car work, my attention was taken up by other things this week, so I apologize for the lateness of this post. That said, I’m giving myself some slack about it, because it’s all going to be okay, and you’ll see why, below.

Without further adieu, let’s get right to today’s fortune!

“You’re never a loser until you quit trying.”

One of the things that I think makes humans cool is our ability to adapt in a variety of settings!

This fortune cookie may be worded a little harshly, but I think it’s true. No matter how hard you have to work, or how many steps you have to take, or how many attempts you have to make:

KEEP TRYING. Don’t give up! Failure isn’t the end of the world, and it’s not something you should judge yourself on, either. If anything, it should goad you to learn and do more.

As humans, we are uniquely situated to always be learning, either from our own mistakes or from others. We flex. We adapt. We look at things in new ways. We change the rules.

We innovate. 

But we’re not perfect, and we’re not going to hit it out of the park right on the first try every time we try something, right?

So please, if you take only one thing away from today’s fortune, let it be this: if you’ve ever failed miserably at something...you are not alone, and YOU ARE NOT A LOSER.

Take these really basic examples:

Did you learn how to ride a bike? I bet you fell off that bike a few times in the process, right? (Yup, I sure did! Got pretty good at riding it, eventually.)

Did you learn how to ice skate? I bet you fell on your butt the first time you hit the ice, probably multiple times! (I totally did! I eventually became a figure skater.)

Or do you currently drive a car? It's something you don't even think about when you do it every day, but did you scare the you-know-what out of the person who was teaching you how to drive back when you had your learner’s permit? (Ask my dad how teaching me to parallel park went the first few times! AND I failed my driver’s test the first time I took it! But now I’m a really good driver.) (No, really, I am! *g*)

The point is: we all make mistakes. Failure isn’t a thing by which we should judge ourselves. It’s a crappy metric. We are geared to learn from our mistakes. We adjust, iterate, or tackle the problem from another angle, either until we succeed or we decide to change the game altogether.

Failure isn’t a measure of success. I mean, do you know how many successful people out there failed at first? If you don’t believe me, check out this article by Business Insider about 29 people who failed in one way or another, yet still succeeded.

You’re not alone.

So how about trying this: stop judging yourself so harshly. Know that as long as you keep trying in life, you’re doing good. When you fail at something, don’t treat yourself like it’s the worst thing ever. Just keep trying.

I’ll give it a shot, too.

Let's pinky swear: “I do solemnly swear not to freak out when I fail. I will not measure myself by my failures."

Cool?

Cool.

Oh, and one more thing:

[Base photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash]

xo,

🐝

Have a great week! 

 ~positively b.e.e. is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow me there!~

Fortune Cookie Friday: Success!

This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See Disclosures. 



Greetings my fellow bee-peeps!

First of all, I want to thank all of you who reached out and congratulated me on positively b.e.e.’s Liebster Award. Whether you emailed, commented on social media, or commented on the blog, you all really made my week! =)

After all of that excitement, though, I am definitely ready for a fortune cookie, aren’t you?

(For those of you who are new here, welcome! I have a regular feature called Fortune Cookie Friday, where I use a fortune to kick off a topic. You can read more about how it started.)

Ready? Okay, let’s go:

For success today look first to yourself.

Pretty much does what it says on the tin, doesn’t it? 

When I look around me, I see a lot of blame-shifting in our culture and society, in general. I’m not pointing to specific people, but for instance, when we process the things or events in our lives that are going wrong, we have a natural tendency as human beings to “explain” why things went wrong or didn’t go our way, but what we’re really doing is “blaming” someone or something instead of taking responsibility. 

Yes, sometimes “stuff happens,” and it’s out of your control. But those events are few and far between; the majority of the time, it was in your control. (Generic "you" here, guys!)

That said, be honest with yourself: does this resemble you?

It sure resembled me, for a very, very long time. 

For me, it really took a swift self-kick in the tuckus to start disrupting those old patterns of blame in my life and shift my energy more towards: enlightenment, learning, self-awareness, responsibility, and ownership. 

I hope this inspires you to take a look at your patterns, too. Knowing that we are the key to our own success is an empowering thing! 

Have a great week, everyone! 

 ~positively b.e.e. is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow me there!~

Want to learn how to be successful having a proofreading income? 

Fortune Cookie Friday: Small Steps

This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See Disclosures. 


Hello everyone! Welcome to the first post and first fortune cookie of 2019! I want to start by wishing you all a very happy new year! 

I hope it is everything you wish it to be! Which brings me to today's fortune: 

A journey of a thousand miles begins with one small step. 

This fortune is from a meal that Fred and I shared with my parents the other day.  

I decided to post this as the first fortune of the year because of its message. It's appropriate for the new year, don't you think? 

With each new year, we're culturally primed to do a bit of a "reset"—we set resolutions, start new projects, create new goals, or wipe the slate clean from the year before. So this seems like the perfect time to consider our journeys.

So what do I mean when I say "journey"?  Well, that really is up to you. We could be talking about your entire life, or we could be talking about one portion, like a dream you have, something you've always wanted to do with your life.

Big or small, every goal or dream is able to be broken down into actionable steps, and every step is worthwhile, no matter how small. And that's why this fortune really spoke to me.

Let me give you an example from my own life: I always felt like I'd want to start my own business, but I was a little wary of the steps involved. I didn't want to have to deal with paperwork and taxes and all that jazz.

And then I saw an online course that really spoke to me, so I took it.

Taking that course was only beginning of my journey to entrepreneurship. My business started with just one small, simple step:  I took a course to learn new skills.

Since then, there have been more steps, too: I built a website (something I'd never done before). I made business cards. I started telling people about my dreams. I joined professional societies. And I've taken many, many more steps since then.

And I'm happy! Life is good! Isn't that what our journey in life is about? To do the things that make us feel fulfilled?

Sometimes, things have been difficult, but it's WORTH IT. I just keep taking small steps forward on my bigger journey, and they are starting to pay off.

I hope this gives you some food for thought?

Tell me, what journey are you on? I'd love to hear about your small steps, too. And if you'd like to read more about my own business journey, you can read about it here. We can learn from and inspire each other!

Have a great week, and a wonderful journey!

 ~positively b.e.e. is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow me there!~

Fortune Cookie Friday: The Value of Mistakes

This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See Disclosures. 


Hello everyone, and Happy Friday! I hope your week has been great!

Today's Fortune Cookie was sent in by a reader, and it's so great:

Mistakes show us what we need to learn.

How true is that?

I think a lot of us fear making a mistake, thinking that it shows we are incompetent, unintelligent, or incapable of learning.

But there is no shame in them! Mistakes can have their value, too.

Take, for instance, learning to ride a bike. Did you consider every time you wobbled or fell over to be a mistake? Were you ashamed by that? Why? You're LEARNING! How else are you going to figure out how to ride if you don't keep trying—and failing—until you eventually get it?

Maybe you're a distance cycler now, or compete in races, or perhaps you just enjoy riding to work and back. You wouldn't have learned how to ride that bike without falling off a few times.

Here's another example: I'm a pretty accomplished knitter, but do you know how many times I failed at knitting, making seemingly insurmountable mistakes and feeling like I'd never get there? My husband likes to joke about how many times needles and yarn would sail across the room in my fits of frustration—but I always picked them back up again, learned from my mistakes, and mastered it. I now know what to do when I drop a stitch, how to go back and fix an error, and create beautiful garments without sweating it. I wouldn't have been able to do that without making the errors or dropping the stitches in the first place.

And then there are the many inventions that were actually the result of mistakes. How many people have pacemakers that are saving their lives? How many of you have heated up leftovers in a microwave? Did you know that these items were created due to mistakes made by their inventors? I didn't, until now!

So here's my takeaway from all of this: stop being so hard on yourself. Next time you make a mistake, use the pain point as a learning point. Put aside shame and embarrassment; there's no point in dwelling. Learn from it, instead! You can also ask yourself if the mistake has value in and of itself—you never know,  you could have just invented the next big thing!

I hope this fortune was insightful for you. I'd love to read your thoughts on it! Leave me a comment below and tell me a mistake that had value to you: what you learned from it, or if it led to a new discovery in your life.

Until next time, b.e.e. peeps...  🐝🌹

 ~positively b.e.e. is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow me there!~

Sources: Medical Daily / Popular Mechanics

Fortune Cookie Friday: Bide Your Time

This post may contain affiliate links, by which I may be financially compensated. See Disclosures.

Hello fortune lovers! I hope you have had a most excellent week!

Here is today's fortune:

Bide your time, for success is near.

This one has me scratching my head a tiny bit. Is it saying to just cool my heels and wait for success to show up? I mean, to bide your time means to wait, but I've never been good at that. :) Let's explore this concept a little more.

Imagine the following scenario:

You really want to launch a new business. You develop a product, and then put it up on the internet to sell it. Do you then sit back and wait to see if it'll sell?

NOPE!

You're going to market it, right? You're going to place ads, tell everyone you know, maybe hold an open house or pass out flyers or business cards.

That said, there is value in patiently following the steps you need in order to be successful, and not shortcutting on any of the stages or materials.

I've read many times that the most successful people are the ones who put in the time to make a written plan outlining not only their goals, but the steps they'll need to take them, and then they put that plan into action. This type of work needs patience, though. Sometimes you hear about "overnight success stories," but most of the time, successful people are the ones who know that consistent, solid effort over time will eventually net the payoff they seek.

I can think of one such example off the top of my head, actually, because I just saw a feature about her: Melissa McCarthy. Did you know she worked for 20 years before she "made it" in Hollywood? She credits her success now with all of the hard work and tenacity she put in. According to the article I linked to, she's glad nothing was just handed to her when she was 18. I love the following quote from her:

"I have a very, very high level of gratitude. There is not a single day that goes by that I don't think, I can't believe I'm doing this. 

"And there is no world where I confuse the fact that I've gotten lucky with the idea that there's something special about me. I think entitlement is a really, really scary thing to possess. 

"For me, it's like, 'No. I've gotten lucky, and I've worked hard.' "

Talk about dedication and patience—and biding time, come to think of it.

I really believe in this model of success. For me, that's the point of this week's fortune: if we do the work and are patient with the process, success will be ours.

What does this fortune mean to you, though? And what are your thoughts about success and how it happens? Drop me a line, I'd love to hear more!

 ~positively b.e.e. is on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Pinterest. Follow me there!~