by Jane | Apr 30, 2020 | Creativity, Dream, Inspiration
Pluck – pluk – (n) – spirited and determined courage
I LOVE this word that Liz uses for her book!! Pluck. I want to have pluck. Do you have pluck?!
Liz is the founder of Sseko Designs.
Liz went after her heart and created a business to give Sseko high potential, talented young women in Uganda an opportunity to continue on to university. Due to the gap of 9 months between high school and college, many young women were pressured to find jobs or to marry instead of waiting and going to college. Sseko grew to become the largest footwear exporter in East Africa and gives a growing number of scholarships. Sseko Designs appeared on NBC’s Shark Tank and the world fell in love with their versatile strappy Ribbon Sandals. The Sseko Fellows program launched, and for the first time, women all across the U.S. launched their own impact businesses by selling Sseko and styling their communities.
As Liz shares in her book, she was a total beginner in everything, but she followed her heart, with a passion to help women, and discovered a particular problem and found a creative solution. She has succeeded far above and beyond her expectations. This book is about her journey and to encourage other “beginners” to go for their dreams!
As she looked back on her journey, she asked herself this question: “Could being a Beginner actually be an asset in your journey to build a life of purpose and passion? PLUCK! What beginners lack in experience, track record, know-how, and connections, they make up for in nerve, curiosity, spirit, courage, and willingness to acknowledge they don’t have all the answers. Which are all incredibly useful in building lives of purpose, passion, and impact.”
Isn’t this an awesome thought? We don’t have to be “Experts” to succeed!!
Liz encourages us to “own our average.” In other words, figure out what you have to give and go all in! If we think we are so gifted or talented in a certain area we need to beware that we might not want to risk anything new or challenging in that area Our success is more about our posture, mindset, and curiosity. Curiosity leads us to ask, “What if?” and to take risks. We must be willing to fail to go forward.
“The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.”
Frederick Buechner
What is in your heart? What is it you love to do? Are you doing it? If you are not, what’s stopping you?
Let’s not let anything keep us from following our purpose and passion. We can have PLUCK!! We can have Beginner’s Pluck!
Please share with me in the comments.
Blessings and may you have pluck!
jane
by Jane | Apr 16, 2020 | Inspiration, Transformation
If you have a message you passionately want to share with the world, if you are a speaker, teacher, pastor, leader, then this book is for you!
If you are NOT any of the above – then this book is for YOU!! All of us have people in our lives who we want to connect and communicate better with:
husbands, wives, children, grandchildren, friends, neighbors, work employees, customers, community clubs, groups, church, etc. We have people. We have influence. (Even in this time of “social distancing”) What are we doing with that? How are our communication skills? Do we draw people to us and have true
understanding between us?
“Tell me a fact and I’ll listen
Tell me a truth and I’ll learn.
But tell me a story,
And It will live in my heart forever.”
Native American Wisdom
Each one of us has hard-won knowledge and wisdom from our life’s journey. We understand that the trials and hardships we have endured were a part of our character development; part of making us who we are today. Our hurts and disappointments can be transformed into sources of power as we overcame, and we can encourage and relate to to others. We can be authentic with others and share with them not just “information but illumination.” We must touch people emotionally, in the soul, to truly connect. We must seek to discover the common ground with people we are wanting to connect with and build on that common ground to create greater connection.
We can share stories that are deeply rooted in who we are. To tell a story well is not to just “recall” it but to “relive” it by putting yourself back there in it and tell it from there. This authenticity draws people into the story.
This book shares lots of practical information in preparing to speak to transform people, not to just give out information, but the heart of this book is about making connection in communication, and we all need that!
I have 7 dear grandchildren I want to connect with to encourage them for good, from the heart, in a way they can relate to and understand, with love. I think this quote applies not only to audiences but to all those we come in contact with:
“They may not remember what you said,
but they’ll remember how you made them feel.”
Let’s “tell a better story!”
With love,
PS With all the lockdown and social distancing, I am using the Marco Polo app to leave video messages for the grandkids and making Youtubes of things we can do together even when while we are apart. I am sending cards, drawing, etc. I sometimes us an app called “TouchNote” in which you can create cards or postcards with photos etc and they will print and mail them for you! I am sure you have creative ideas you are doing to stay connected with your loved ones during this time too. I would LOVE to hear what you are doing! Please SHARE your ideas with us in the comments section on this blog on my website. HERE! 🙂
by Jane | Apr 9, 2020 | Dream, Inspiration
In this time of “social distancing”, I hope you are using this opportunity to “seize the day” and to do those creative projects you have postponed forever, take the on-line course for something you have been wanting to learn, tackle those home projects that you just haven’t had time for, AND I hope you are making time to READ! 🙂
I have been reading LOTS of book on creativity. The book I am sharing today has some huge truths and lots of encouragement in it for you to pursue your passion and follow your heart. This is my big message that I seek to share to encourage others to GO AFTER THEIR DREAMS, so I resonated with a lot of what Bob Doyle says in “Follow Your Passion, Find Your Power.”
When things do not work, and we realize our limited knowledge and understanding, it is just a realization of our need to give it up to God. (Bob likes to use the words “intelligent power” or the “Universe,” whereas, I prefer to call God, God.) God will give us clarity of our vision, and once we are clear, we can take action. As we step out, God meets us there. We experience “attraction” to what we are desiring and many interesting and unexpected connections begin to happen as in conversations, new people, creative inspiration, opportunities, confirmation in books or whatever we are reading, watching etc. These connections come to inspire us to move forward into ACTION.
You may be thinking of some examples of this in your life. One example from mine was several years ago when everything I read or watched seemed to be about Africa and tugged on my heart! Even the end of a ministry talk show I caught the end of while walking on the treadmill was talking about digging wells in Africa. I was so inspired but not clear of what God might be telling me I told my husband we could at least help dig a well! LOL! (ACTION) I read more books about Africa which happened to be Heidi Baker’s books of whom I had seen in the video. I was so touched, I went on line to find out more about her and discovered she was going to be speaking in California. I felt I “had” to go to find out what this tremendous “pull” toward Africa. I did go. (ACTION) I was even more inspired and contacted another speaker who had been at the same conference with Heidi, who does missions around the world and takes teams. When I went on line, I discovered that he was taking a team where? Yes, you guessed it to Pemba, Mozambique, Africa to help Heidi Baker! (I applied and went!)
We must take ACTION toward the passion that is calling us. We must come to understand that we are not limited. We have infinite possibility because God is in us! Taking even tiny, small steps of ACTION will help us to shift from negativity/unbelief to positivity/belief. Negativity attracts just like the positive. We must choose what to believe.
As you choose to believe that you can indeed accomplish your passion/dream/goal, write about it in detail as if it has already happened. Use your imagination to see what your life would look like if it had already happened. What would a day look like? How would your feel? What would you be doing? How would this passion/dream/goal affect your loved ones, friends, and world? Writing is a powerful way to receive and to firm up beliefs.
Finally, I want to remind us to be grateful. Gratefulness attracts. Acknowledge and appreciate the everyday ordinary things in your life, what you have, and what you are doing presently. We have so much to be thankful for! You may want to start a “Gratefulness” group with your close family or friends, just a few, in which you share what you are grateful for each day, or just speak what you are grateful for out loud to God, or write it in your journal. God is so good. He is bringing us through this time. Let us join together to be grateful for the good gifts of opportunity within the crisis as we trust in Him to bring us through.
Gratefully Yours,
by Jane | Apr 2, 2020 | Business
I loved how Ryan combined the “Making” and the “Marketing” together in this book. The Making section has to do with creating something great, but realizing that only comes with doing lots and lots of whatever it is!
This is a great quote by Austin Kleon:
“Lots of people want to be the noun without doing the verb.”
To be a writer/author, we must write.
To be an artist, we must make art.
To be a piano player, we must play.
To be a teacher, we must teach.
To be an inspirational speaker, we must speak.
So whatever is on YOUR heart to do,
Be encouraged to take action and DO IT TODAY!!
“It’s so amazing how even in small ideas that come from ordinary people there can be wisdom, beauty, and insight that if they put in the work might reap incredible rewards.”
Ryan Holiday
The 2nd section of the book is on Marketing and articulating what your project or vision is, what it does, how it helps people and who it is for. Ryan offers some practical suggestions for a launch plan for your project that was very helpful.
So – What creative idea or project are YOU working on right now?
Please share below any comments and any good books YOU are reading now!
Blessings & Happy Reading!
jane
