in competition with your facebook news feed!

the other day i mentioned to my brother the release of my new book. a sure thing for my brother to buy my book, right? nope. he told me he doesn’t have much bandwidth. my reply was, “oh no, it’s not a digital book.” then he explained what he meant, he doesn’t have much space in his head for extra stuff like my book!

i assured my brother that the book wasn’t dense, very easy to get through like my other two books. but there i was…selling my book to my very own brother! i finally told him that he can buy it and give it away to someone. in other words, don’t have to read it just buy it! :)

the reason why my brother isn’t interested in buying my book is the same reason why a lot of people won’t buy my book (or your book!)…information overload! another book? something else you want me to read? don’t i read enough when i scroll through my facebook news feed every hour? i’m already overloaded with information, no thank you.

so on the day of the official release of my book GIVE everything (thanks alice for buying it already!) i think about the tons of writers and bloggers out in the world producing information and content and then how there is little ol’ me with my little blog and books. i am completely grateful to anyone who buys my book!

the conversation with my brother reinforced the importance of never taking for granted someone buying into and supporting whatever it is that you do. we live in a choice based world, people have options! you are not the only fish in the sea. so if you are one of many how do you be successful and survive?

how to be heard in a loud world!

1. be your best

the competition is crazy fierce, and the only thing you can control in the competition is your performance. sharpen your skills, work harder, be consistent. your work will separate you from the crowd. and when people get the opportunity to choose you will be a front runner and they will hopefully choose you.

2. love what you do

love what you do because not everyone is going to love it and want it. then what? it’s okay, because the only imperative thing is that you love doing whatever it is that you do. the love that you have for your work will be the thing that propels you to your next project, time after time. and maybe next time they will love it and want it.

my heart will overflow with gratitude

while some of you all have your reasons like my brother why you are not really interested in my book i believe many of you guys will actually buy GIVE everything! and that my dear friends will make my heart overflow with gratitude. and i hope you will not only buy it but read it. there is something in the book for you if you need encouragement and focus for your dreams. right now i am all about dreams and making them happen!

for everyone who buys any of my books within the next month i will personally send you a handwritten thank you note if you contact me with your information.

GIVE everything (ISBN: 0615803644) is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com today!

to celebrate the release of my new book my first book 30 things will be FREE on the kindle all this week until the 18th! grab it. tweet it. read it. thanks!

YAY! :)

the subtitle of my upcoming book is called a quote book for dreamers because it really is fuel for anyone who has a dream! at the beginning of the year i told you i wanted to help you dream bigger dreams and accomplish great things. GIVE everything is part of that promise.

God has really been speaking to me concerning dreams. at church this past sunday there was a guest speaker who delivered a sermon called the dream seed, and it was one of those wow moments. i felt like God was speaking directly to me, just confirmation on this whole dream direction i have taken with GIVE everything.

people talk a lot about how to find your life’s purpose, and i believe one way to do that is to pursue God given dreams!

these dreams do not include the expectations or limitations of people. a lot of times our dreams and goals can be influenced by people and their expectations of how our lives should be.

but what are your God given dreams? if you don’t know consider these two things:

1. childhood dreams

how about taking a look at your childhood dream! it is so cliche to ask a child what do they want to be when they grow up, yet whatever they answer with is very profound. i believe the answer to this question as a child comes from the soul. it comes from your spirit. it comes from God. at that age you are not weighing the positives and negatives, you’re just drawn for some reason to whatever it is that you want to be. as a child you are your true self, and because of that there is power in your childhood dreams.

oh, but what if your childhood dream was to be a superhero? see no. 2!

2. ask for revelation

maybe you didn’t have a concrete answer to the old age question of “what do you want to be when you grow up?” because you were too busy playing in the sandbox! ;) it’s okay, it’s never too late to ask God to reveal what he will have you to be and do, and from this will spring God given dreams.

and here is the awesome thing about God given dreams…

God will reveal the dreams he has for your life, but all the things he is capable of doing is beyond our comprehension and wildest dreams!

when you have God given dreams the holy thing to do is to make up in your mind to pursue and to walk in your life’s purpose, to pursue the dreams that God has planted in your soul.

in other news: i now have a fb fan page for gloriamarie.com! right now i only have 2 likes! paaa-thetic! :) go like and help me grow my fb page! thanks! i also want to thank my email subscribers! you guys absolutely rock! my last 7 email updates got an over 100% open rate, which is not an industry norm! thanks for continuing to read my blog! if you are not subscribed by email you can subscribe here.

i’ve always been a quote junkie, in the 90′s i started collecting quotes. didn’t have pinterest so i collected them in a word document. technically this book has grown from that document. last year i started work on the project, put it down for a while, and recently came back to it! so glad i did!

chase down dreams and conquer mountains!

i’m a dreamer at heart, and when i make books i make them to encourage people to go after their dreams. GIVE everything is not just a quote book (oh, no!) but a quote book for dreamers! :) the collection of quotes is meant to help you chase down dreams and conquer mountains!

the title is based on a quote by vince lombardi, “There is only one way to succeed in anything and that is to give everything. I do and I demand that my players do. Any man’s finest hour is when he has worked his heart out in a good cause and lies exhausted on the field of battle… victorious.”

victorious! yes. walk in victory.

available may 14th on amazon.com

GIVE everything will be available on may 14th on amazon.com (ISBN: 9780615803647), look out for a giveaway on goodreads.com, and check out the hashtag #giveeverything on twitter. I AM ALL KINDS OF EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK! start the countdown!

in other news: i will be doing the blogathon this year, but it has been moved from may to june.

JIM ROHN SAID:

failure is not a single, cataclysmic event. you don’t fail overnight. instead, failure is a few errors in judgement, repeated every day.

I SAY:

success is not a single, magical event. you don’t succeed overnight. instead, success is many moments of hard work, repeated every day.

foreeeeverrr

last year this time i talked about an affirmation book i had been working on at the time for over a year. the post was called sometimes things just take time (and lots of work), and i went on about how the book was taking FOREVER. little did i know at the time that it would take another year to finally say…i finished writing my affirmation book!!!!!! the book is called 365 affirmations, and i’m SO EXCITED about this project! i really do believe in the power of speaking life over your life.

it took foreeeeverrr to finish writing the book, but in the process i gained training in sticking it out! i like things to be check, check, done! BUT, things don’t always work like that. sometimes you find yourself not too far from where you started, but always keep the end goal in mind. be willing to go through the process. some people don’t have the patience for the process, but the process (the work) is the bridge you must take if you want to move from ideas to reality.

stick it out!

whatever creative project you are working on right now i encourage you to stick it out! don’t give up on it. you can successfully finish it, but it doesn’t happen overnight. totally trust me on this one!

i’ve been keeping busy, folks! besides from the affirmation book i’ve been working on a quote book and a book on teaching. soon and very soon they will all be available. release dates coming soon!

in other news: emeli sandé is all kinds of amazing!

“america will never be destroyed from the outside. if we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves”. – abraham lincoln

if you are worried about people bringing you down you can scratch that off your worry list. the people who talk behind your back, the people who look over you, the people who use you, and the people who just generally hate you for no reason are NOT the destroying forces in your life. the true things that destroy your life are the unhealthy things you carry inside.

here are 3 sure ways to self destruct

1. have unforgiveness

i have written multiple times on forgiveness, and it is an important topic because the world is filled with broken and hurt people and broken and hurt people break and hurt other people. in other words, someone is bound to slight you. someone is bound to do something evil to you. then what? here is what you do…you forgive them. yep, you find it in your heart to forgive them. and it’s not always easy. sometimes you just want to remove everything from your schedule and work on your vengeance plan.

your life is more meaningful than other people’s transgressions. don’t allow unforgiveness to eat at you, destroy your life, and have you exist in bitterness. God will fight your battles, you don’t have to hold on to it. you can let it go.

matthew 18:23-35 is a good passage to read about unforgiveness.

2. have hate

dr. martin luther king, jr. said, “hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” stop hating people who are different from you, stop hating out of fear, stop hating that person who hates you, and just put a stop to all the hate. right now i am really digging col. 3:14, “let love guide your life.” it’s all about the love, people. God is love. love more.

stop the hate and appreciate! ;)

3. have jealously

it’s called the green eyed monster, and it is called a monster for a good reason!

according to phrases.org.uk the origin of the term comes from the fact that “green is a colour associated with sickness, possibly because people’s skin sometimes takes on a slightly yellow/green tinge when they are seriously ill. green is also the colour of many unripe foods that cause stomach pains.”

walk in God’s purpose and timing for your life. no need to envy what God has for someone else. some people are so fixated on other people’s blessings that they miss their own.

* * *

in other news: i will be blogging over on my mom’s blog for a few weeks at cynthiabanessa.com because she broke her wrist and will be in recovery for a moment. please keep her in your prayers. if you are into homemaking and crafts you will LOVE her blog!

the past few months have been challenging. there has been what i call chaos in my mind, and i am using that term as a ribbon to wrap what is going on in a nice way. i’ve just been all over the place and extremely distracted.

this past sunday i was having a really rough day, i didn’t even go to church, and i get on fb and there is joel osteen with his happy positive self encouraging the masses! his update read, “when you leave, people should be better off than they were before. don’t get too busy, too stressed out or discouraged to lift someone’s spirit.”

i became very convicted, because these past few months i’ve pretty much been too stressed out and discouraged to really operate in the realm that allows me to uplift someone’s spirit. then i remembered what liz taylor said, she said “pour yourself a drink, put on some lipstick, and pull yourself together.” ha. i kid! she did say that but that is not what i suggested for myself! ;) i actually had a self talk over the chaos, and i told myself to not allow stress and discouragement become bigger in my life than my purpose. and just to stay the course.

psalm 34:1 says, “i will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” and that’s the key there, at all times bless the Lord. at all times walk in your purpose…even when you don’t feel like it. even when things are chaotic. whatever the work God has put in you to do just keep doing it. stick it out. stay dedicated.

this is what i plan to do!

instead of allowing the oscars to be a complete time suck i spent time writing while i watched the show. i’m glad i watched. a couple things stood out to me during the evening.

the first one i tweeted out and it was a quote from the late great nora ephron, “the hardest thing about writing is writing.” as i sat and wrote i completely agreed! for me it is making the time to actually sit and write, that’s why i have my “sit & write”sticky note near my desk. and yes, sometimes it is the act within itself that is hard. the things you must do isn’t always easy, though. but if you want to be not only called but chosen you must do them.

then there is the thing ben affleck said at the end of his acceptance speech for best picture. he said, “work harder than you think you possibly can.” i know that it is work that gets things accomplished, and it is what separates successful people from non successful people.

this week i am going to require more of myself, work on my goals even when i am dead tired. i will go ahead and add the comparative er to my work hard. c’mon, join me in working harder than before!

have a blessed week!

1. let love guide your life

feel free to pin! :)

2. happy first hearts scarf

a few weeks ago i met up with debbie vinyard from happyfirst.com and we attended the entrepreneur growth conference and had an awesome time! she is amazing, and i absolutely love her happy hearts designs. cute stuff.

3. “my heart is yours” by justin nozuka

never heard of him? same here until a couple months ago! a couple months ago i discovered this song on one of my pandora stations. thank you pandora for introducing me to this song and artist.

4. “longest married couple”

this is freakin’ amazing. read the story at nydailynews.com

5. porcupining: a prickly love story

shared this book with my students this week. their response? “again, again!” it’s a really cute book for kids, unfortunately it looks like it is out of print and is selling for a ridiculous price on amazon’s marketplace. maybe your local library carries it.

What could be more poignant than a porcupine pining for a companion? With pun-filled prose and pleasing pictures, this passionate tale of love and friendship between two prickly creatures in a petting zoo makes a perfect read aloud (and a sublime Valentine). “A wonderfully funny tale of love and happiness. The adorable illustrations make Cushion a charming character.” –Kidsbookshelf.com

6. w is for wedding

instead of putting a wedding dress on the list this year i’m sharing my wedding board over on pinterest. no, i’m not engaged or planning a wedding.

7. love the life you live

source: amazon

8. breakfast at tiffany’s

great movie!

9. LOVE what you do

make it a point to find work that you love. life is too short to spend your time doing things you are not passionate about.

10. paris

source: piccsy.com/2013/02/eiffel-vintage

11. how many times can nicholas sparks rewrite the same story?

i have nicholas sparks to blame for a lot of my unrealistic love expectations! haha. theweek.com has a rundown of all the movies based on his books along with the trailers. i have been sucked in, i have plans to see safe haven this weekend!

12. (red)

“Send a Valentine’s Day card via Paperless Post – use the (RED) stamp & 5¢ goes to fight AIDS! http://paperless.ly/SNWOpf” – facebook.com/joinred

13. all there is: love stories from storycorps

this book is incredible. it is filled with interviews with couples, it gives insight into what love looks like when it is applied day in and day out. the work that storycorps is doing is priceless. someday i would love to participate in storycorps.

14. the 2011 list

want more lovely things? take a look at the 2011 list.

At 101 years old, Connie was still riding her horse every day. She taught over 36,000 girls to ride at a girls summer camp over a span of 70 years. She was a huge inspiration to many people. Her health was great and her mind was sharp. I asked her what her secret to longevity was. She said, “Well Honey, you just don’t let that rocking chair take over…you get up and go even if you don’t want to.” – americancowgirl.com