Be Amazing!

Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.~ Helen Keller~

I subscribe to a newsletter at Publication Coach and in Daphne's latest newsletter (view the content here) this week she talks about resolutions and one point is 'Be specific. Don't just resolve to become a "better writer." Instead, promise to write 150 words a day. That's the length of a typical email! You can do that -- right? At the end of a year, even if you take every weekend off, you'll have a total of 39,000 words. That's half a book! Double your output to 350 words per day and you'll have an entire book by 2012.'

Prior to reading her newsletter I was really disappointed on Tuesday, having only managed a paltry 500 words. Daphne's point made me feel 100% better. When you look at word counts in her terms then 500 in a day is a champion effort. For the record I churned out another 2000 or so yesterday, so not so bad. I think the key is just sitting down every day and writing something, I find some days it flows and some days I have to push myself - but I'm still getting it out there.

I have 3 and a bit days left of holidays and then back to the daily grind which will be when I am challenged with trying to maintain my wordcount, but now that I've created some sort of pattern I'm sure it will be easier. That's what I keep telling myself anyway.

I had to laugh this morning when I read Louise's blog Recover your Joy because it was so easy to identify with what she wrote about the memory getting thinner and the waistline getting thicker with age. Never have I read truer words. I too read so many things on blogs and then lose track of what I read where. Because of her post, today I have sat down and created some order with my favourites, I now have a must read blog folder and a visit occasionally folder so that I can keep track a little easier. Sad when it gets to that stage isn't it?

I've been keeping track of the flood crisis and reports are saying that water levels in the town of St George are expected to peak at 13.4 metres today. Friends and neighbours have helped one woman, who is living in a home that her father built many years ago, to build a sandbag levy of 13.8 metres to protect the family home which was inundated during the 1974 floods.

Aren't friends and neighbours gold? In times of disaster and hardship you find out who your true friends are and you also discover strength and courage that you may not have even realised you possessed.

We are all capable of being amazing human beings, so go out there today and show someone you care, the smallest most insignificant acts can actually mean the world to another person.

Smiling both on the inside and the outside,

Cheers, Fi