What You Want in Life

I haven't posted in a couple months.  As happens every year, I got caught up in Christmas preparations and cleaning up before (a waste of time) and afterwards (essential).

Also, I have several publishers interested in a romantic mystery I wrote so I'm dealing with revisions to the manuscript and making a decision about which publisher offers the best opportunity for my future as a writer - problems I'm thrilled to have.  Writing and the prospect of getting published fill my days with work, pleasure, and satisfaction.   

Everyone should have a passion, something that makes you glad to get going in the morning - the feeling of waking up and having something to do that excites you.  Dreading to get out of bed and dreading to face the day is no way to live.

If you don't know your passion, how do you find it?  I recommend reading The Power by Rhonda Byrne.  The book's been around a couple years and many of you already know about it because Oprah's very into the law of attraction philosophy - simply put, positive thoughts attract positive things to your life, negative thoughts attract negative things.  I knew what I wanted so the positive part was easy but letting go of grudges and negative feelings has been an ongoing struggle.

A technique to help you focus on what you really want in your life is making a vision board.  It may sound kind of 4th-gradeish but it works.  Find pictures, words, and images of things that interest you in magazines, print from online, or write thoughts on sticky notes and put them on a piece of paper/poster board.  If you decide something isn't important, take it off.  Experiment until it becomes clear to you what you want.  In the film, The Women, the Meg Ryan character made a vision board when she began putting her life back together.  I'm sure many people have made similar versions of a vision board without ever giving it a name.

I keep my copy of The Power in my writing area.  When I feel discouraged or down, I reach for it and open it to one of many bookmarked pages or read a random passage until I get back on track.   It works for me!

Good luck!