Category: Smartness

I’ve just recently started reading fiction books. The start of this hobby, funny enough, came when I got my iPad and thus the Kindle app. I started by reading a few of the Kindle books available for free or less than $5. I figured if I was going to test out jumping into fiction books I wasn’t ready to invest much in the event that I was just a fan of “learning” while reading.

One of the books I picked up (errr downloaded) was called A Scattered Life. They (whoever “they” are) say you’re not supposed to judge a book by it’s cover but being someone with a design background I most certainly pick books based on the aesthetics of the cover in addition to the title. The one sentence description certainly helped in the deciding factor –

“Most people have everything they need to be happy.” The words latched onto some part of Skyla’s brain. She repeated the phrase to herself while she rang up books and stocked shelves. It had a certain resonance to it, but she doubted it was true.

I tend to be a person with about 47 things going at once. When I read a blog post that recommends 3 books, I’m the type to stop mid sentence on the blog post, jump over to amazon and save that book to my to-read list, then head back to the blog to finish reading. At any given moment, twitter, yammer, and various email accounts may be dinging at me looking for attention while I’m working on something else. Pandora is usually playing in the background from my TV. This works for me most of the time. But sometimes it’s necessary to shut off all the noise, to disconnect from the world. As I write this I’m being serenaded by the dishwasher and Taylor Swift. How’s that for writing inspiration?

I picked up A Scattered Life because I’ve had people ask me, how do you keep up with all those things? blogs. apps. friends. music. social media. family. texts. emails. news. you name it. To an outsider my life may seem scattered. BUT to me it’s not. Everything works together. Having lunch with a friend can be blog inspiration, spark an idea for work or result in wanting to look up a recipe for the food we’ve had. I believe that everything in life has the stone in a pond effect.

When I read the reverb prompt for today: “Writing. What do you do each day that doesn’t contribute to your writing — and can you eliminate it?”, I almost just posted “nothing and everything“. That is my short answer there isn’t anything that DOESN’T contribute to my writing but everything that isn’t writing takes time that could be allotted for writing. I however, don’t hold myself to a strict deadline of must write X number of posts a week. I write when something interests me, I share writing of others that inspires me and sometimes I choose nothing.

{in participate with reverb10}

In addition the the month long guest post series I’m running on GenPink, today is the first day of REVERB10, a month of reflection. While I’ll be managing posts from writers all over providing their insight into various categories of life, love and work, I will also be reflecting on my life and path I’ve traveled in 2010.

Reverb 10 is an annual event and online initiative to reflect on your year and manifest what’s next. The end of the year is an opportunity to reflect on what’s happened, and to send out reverberations for the year ahead. With Reverb 10, we’ll do both.

Today’s prompt: One Word

Encapsulate the year 2010 in one word. Explain why you’re choosing that word. Now, imagine it’s one year from today, what would you like the word to be that captures 2011 for you?

2010: Discovery

In 2010 I…

• began a new relationship
• turned 28
• spoke in 4 conferences
• was published in a magazine
• traveled 17,784 miles
• published 200ish blog posts (personal and professional combined)
• heard 20 some odd inspiring speakers/authors present
• read fiction books for the first time since high school
• sat by my mother for 3 different surgeries
• stood by a long time friend as she began a new life with her husband
• left a job I was excelling in
• started a new job, in a new industry, working for people I’d never met
• moved to a new apartment
• cried happy tears when my friends adopted their precious daughter
• hired a personal trainer
• lost someone important to cancer
• decided to write some people out of the current chapter in my life
• paid off 2 credit cards
• discovered what’s important

2011: Development

• 2011 will be the time for things to flourish from the seeds that have been planned in 2010
• things that were new can move to a different classification
• things that are yet to happen can begin to develop