Higher standard

Happy Monday,

How is everyone doing on this beautiful Monday morning? I do hope all is well in your world. How was your weekend? Were you able to keep cool and enjoy some weekend fun, or perhaps, just some weekend relaxation? Shoot me a text or drop me a comment, I love hearing from you all.

Today I have the pleasure of helping my neighbor and friend. She’s having some heart issues, so I brought her to see her cardiologist. I sure do hope everything will be okay. I can see and hear the fear she is heavily burdened with. Thank goodness she has family close by in the event they put her in the hospital. (NOTE: They are admitting her. Please send lots of prayers her way.)

This morning I was up nice and early to ensure I got Grant to school. He’s excited because today he will be getting his toolbox for school. He’s in aeronautics school learning to be an airplane mechanic. I think this will be an excellent fit as a career choice. He loves to solve puzzles and what better puzzle to solve then that of mechanical errors on a plane.

I came across this quote this morning and it made me think of something John told me when he took Grant to his orientation. The dean of the school told Grant, “don’t be average, you need to be the best. You want to stand out to be one of the ones selected by an elite airline to work on their planes. “

How true that is. When we put effort into something, the question must be asked, “why bother if I’m not going to do it right and give it my best effort?” My thought is, if I’m going to do something half-assed, then why even begin.

I think this is a great attitude when it comes to anything we do and for me, I need to stay more focused on maintaining this attitude when it comes to my writing. What I mean is, instead of having so many different writings, I need to focus more on one or two writings and make those the best.

“Strive hard to be among the top performers. To do this, create a standard. Go higher than this standard. Set another higher standard; surpass it and repeat the process.”-Israelmore Ayivor.

This morning John and I were talking about my goals. I was and am over the moon about hitting 10,000 views on this blog. I told him I want to hit an even higher goal by the end of the year. He kindly told me to set realistic goals, ones that I can reach, then set another one after that. While I’d love to have 100,000 views by December 31, 2024, that might be a goal a little out of my reach, for now anyway. So I’m setting the goal of reaching 20,000 views by the end of the year and I’ll work hard each and every day to try and beat that goal, but at least I’ll have an obtainable goal.

“‘Believe you can and you’re halfway there.”-Theodore Roosevelt.

I’m halfway to reaching my goal. I’ve set it and I’m ready to launch. I know I told you all awhile back that it might be good for me to post a couple of times a day. While I’d still like to try and post a couple times a day here and there, for most days, that’s not a reality for me as I have my book to work on too. I need to have balance in my life, something I’m terrible at, but I need to try. Organization is definitely not my strong suit.

“If you don’t make the time to work on creating the life that you want, you’re going to spend a lot of time dealing with a life you don’t want.”-Kevin Ngo

We all have a dream or a vision on how we see our lives playing out, especially when we are young. Some are realistic, some we may think aren’t so realistic. Often parents tell their kids they can be anything and do anything they want in this life. I believe those words. I think the problem is, we get so caught up in thinking the goal is unattainable, or silly or not a real goal, and that’s where the problem lies. We dismiss our own dreams or goals. As Walt Disney once said, “if you can dream it, you can do it.”

My thought is always believe in what we think may be the impossible. If we have so much faith in ourselves, so much drive and passion for something, then why can’t we set a goal and bust our boots to get it?

“If your dreams don’t scare you, they aren’t big enough.”-Unknown

I never thought of it like that. Wow, I just had an a-ha moment. The reason I’m shuffling my feet along in giving my book/manuscript to Kathy and her daughter to read and the reason I keep going back to my book and changing things is because I’ve told myself one too many times, ‘it’s not good enough.’ I’ve been afraid that my book isn’t good. I’ve truly robbed myself of taking the final steps to seeing my dreams become a reality. How sad is that!

My heart tells me my book is good enough. My head reviews all the what if’s.

I just had an idea. I’m going to add a paragraph of my book right here right now and I’m begging you to tell me what you think. Would you do that for me? Please? I surely would appreciate it.

Here is a short insert from the book:

“That unforgettable day Suzie was in charge of me while her mom hosted a bible study. She told me we had to go outside to play. The house sat up on a hill. It had a large yard. Suzie and I walked down the slope of the yard to a leveled area. She brought me to a camper shell housed on the back of an old pick up truck. She was holding my hand, pulling me, and forcing me to go along with her. She told me if I screamed or tried to get away that she would hurt me, so I went along like a good little girl. I struggled at first, but soon learned that I had to comply with her directions.”

Thoughts?

Would this be something you would want to read? Does it capture your attention? I’d love to hear from you.

Well guys, I need to wrap this blog up for now.

Follow your dreams my dear readers and live with little to no regrets. Until next time, don’t forget, Love Life++ Hugs.