So I took advantage of the solar-powered motivation to:

• catch up on three baskets of laundry;
• finish the first draft of a short story;
• outline 15 blog posts;
• troubleshoot the missed schedule problem on my blog – none of the solutions have worked…yet;
• begin the inventory of my personal library that I’ve wanted to do for two years;
• begin a painting project with my daughter – I’m no painter but it’s still fun;
• discuss classic literature with my daughter and order our first set of “complete book with study guide” for such gems as Frankenstein and Great Expectations. She also wants to read Shakespeare and she selected Hamlet and A Midsummer Night’s Dream to get started there. Oh, and she begged for H.G. Wells and Jules Verne so, of course, I caved and ordered a box set and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, respectively.

Plus, there was time for movies – yay!

• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) – Jake Gyllenhaal can do no wrong in my eyes! But I’d put this movie off for a very long time because I just wasn’t expecting much. It was a pleasant surprise to say the least. Great entertainment and, for its genre, did everything it was supposed to.
• The Disappeared (2008) – I found the pace just a tad slow but Harry Treadaway’s performance kept me connected. And while the story’s been done before, I wasn’t bored. Oh, and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy from the Harry Potter films) did a fine job; although, it caught me a little off guard to hear him drop the f-bomb. It’s still hard to believe he’s an adult.
• Blackout (2008) – The less you read about this one, the better. It’s a psychological thriller with some splashes of horror that will probably leave you in the middle of the road as far as overall rating. I’ve seen many “people trapped in an elevator” or “people locked in a room” type flicks so I walked away from this one feeling just okay about it. I’m curious if the book on which it’s based, by Gianluca Morozzi, is better.

Overall, a peaceful yet productive weekend. The time sucks I’ve allowed to creep in the last six months are being eliminated. (Turn off your cable or satellite and you’ll see just how much you’re capable of getting done!) And progress is being made on my goal to finish one story before going on to the next. Good times!

Are you feeling the effects of winter?

Do you find you have [more, less, the same] productivity in the winter?

Photo credit: Sergey Soldatov

Here’s a quote I read that really speaks to the power of positive thinking and a good attitude:

I’ve learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances. – Martha Washington

You might snicker at the thought that I can control my happiness by the way I think about my life, but I’ve put these beliefs into practice, and I testify to their validity. A positive attitude always helps me see past the circumstances about which I’m not 100% stoked.

For example, 40 hours for my clients results in not being able to write any posts for my blog, post any new tweets, check out Facebook, or watch new movies. All of which means my right-brain hasn’t been able to play as much as it likes.

So instead of thinking about the things I didn’t get to do this week, I remind myself what I have accomplished, both professionally and personally: more hours billed, more money earned; added words to my manuscript; discovered a new horror market for my short stories, read about 150 more pages of The Onion Girl; enjoyed a homemade dinner with my daughter every evening; and spent quality one-on-one time with my daughter every day.

Therefore, even though this week hasn’t been the most productive for my creative endeavors, I just needed to remind myself this week is not indicative of every week, and I focus on the positive.

You see, it’d be easy to lose myself in the day-to-day grind of responsibilities, but if I keep my head in a positive place, focused on today and its possibilities, my attitude always follows suit, and my day always looks brighter.

Have you discovered the connection between your attitude, your circumstances, and your happiness?

I probably have my mother to thank for my neverending passion for life. Her and the myriad of self-help articles and books I’ve read over the past 20 years. She always taught me to never give up, to go for my dreams, and most of all, to believe in myself. She constantly reminded me to stay true to myself, to not conform to everyone else’s ideas, to lead, not follow.

I’ve taken those early lessons and put them into practice my entire life. If a job started to suck the joy from my life, I quit. If a person started to darken my optimistic ideas, I ended the relationship. Of course, I’m not immune to allowing the necessities of life (food, water, shelter) to push my passion to the side for a short amount of time, but I’ve always come back to what really gets me excited about life, and I refuse to allow materialistic pursuits to outweigh my dreams or kill my spirit.

Yeah, that means I’ll probably live in this old, fixer upper house for the next 20 years and I’ll drive the same car for 15 years and I won’t be able to compete in any fashion contests. But, I’ll get up every morning looking forward to that day’s events and I’ll be greeted with a loving, respectful smile from my daughter and I’ll be able to stop to enjoy the beautiful sunrise on a crisp, autumn morning. It’s a no-brainer choice for me because I understand the power of living a creative life, motivated by my passions.

It really is tragic to watch so many adults walking around half-dead inside. Many are so status hungry they’ve forgotten the true reason for what they wanted to do when they grew up. They’ve forgotten the pure joy bubbling up inside of them as a child while playing and dreaming of the day they’d build things or invent things or heal people. And I know for a fact, a lot of adults have totally forgotten the importance of things like fun and naps. Our spirits as children seem immature to the majority of the population when, really, a child’s spirit holds the key to sustaining the gift of life.

How many adults nowadays could have fun without spending a dime?

I daresay not a lot.

It really does make me sad to see people missing out on what’s truly important in life. We all start out super excited about the next possibility life has to offer us, and for some reason, along the way, we stop caring for that creative and unique part of ourselves. We don’t nurture it. We don’t feed it. We allow it to die a slow, miserable death, leaving a gaping hole in our souls, which we then attempt to fill with large salaries, fancy cars and “dream” homes.

I read an article the other day that really enlightened me as to the motivation in some areas of my life. The article, “Energize Your Life by Understanding Drive vs. Passion,” opened my eyes to the difference between my drive and my passion. I realized that many times in my work life I’ve allowed my strong work ethic and drive to overshadow my intense passions. It was the small reminder I needed to keep fighting for my dreams, to remain loyal to who I am, and most importantly, to never take for granted the life I’ve been gifted.

So I ask, are you leading the life you always dreamed of?

And I’m not talking about material junk. I’m talking about the dreams that give you goosebumps, that get you excited to get out of bed, that remind you how great life really is – are those the passions by which you’re being motivated? If they’re not, if you’re living the life you think you should live, then I invite you to resurrect your spirit, your creativity, your uniqueness by reconnecting with your dreams and passions.