Inspiration for a joyful and creative life

Is it too late to pursue your dreams?  I recently read about a man who as a little boy always dreamed of being a doctor.   Instead he worked with his father in the family business running a clothing company for 27 years.

A year after the business sold, Robert Lopatin, at 51 years old, decided to pursue his dream and enrolled in medical school.   He began his residency at 55.  He said it felt so right.

His advice:  “Don’t be afraid of change, and never pass up an opportunity to try something new.”

Julia Child,  co-author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, was 37 years old when she went to Le Cordon Bleu cooking school in Paris. She said she had been looking for a career all her life.   She didn’t let the facts that she was the only woman in the class and she wasn’t’ fluent in french stop her from pursuing her passion of learning to cook french food.

Last week, in Barbara Winter’s ezine, she shared Sam Greenspan’s 11 Points blog about 11 famous people who were in the completely wrong career at age 30.

By the way, thirty is still sounds young to me!   It’s never too late to reinvent yourself and follow your dreams.

If you thought the opportunity has passed you by, maybe it’s worth a second look.
What do you hope to do next?

I saw the wonderful movie Julia and Julie last weekend.  Most likely you’ve seen the ads for the movie and you may have had one of two reactions.

If you are like me and love to cook, and remember watching Julia Child on PBS, you were eagerly anticipating the movie.  (I hope PBS will air her shows again.)

If you are like my son, he can’t imagine why anyone would want to watch a movie about someone blogging about cooking.

The movie was so well done on many different levels.  The writer and director, Nora Ephron, showed the parallel lives of two women sharing their passion for cooking and life.

“At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person.  Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.”     -Albert Schweitzer

Julie Powell, a writer, is ignited by her passion for  Julia Child, author and teacher of Mastering the Art of French Cooking .  Julie chose to blog about her experience of working her way through the cookbook in a year.

Here are some of the lessons I got from the movie:

Finding out what you love to do and are passionate about is worth the effort.

It doesn’t mean you’ll get famous for doing it but it does mean you are using your gifts and talents for a more rewarding life.

Being persistent and patient is its own reward.

Both of these women spent a great deal of time and effort pursuing their passions of cooking and writing, and had many frustrations and dashed hopes along the way but they kept going.

Having support is key.

In the movie, both Julia and Julie have supportive husbands and friends.  Having at least one person that can help you remember that you are capable and wonderful despite the disappointments is priceless.  It can be hard to be persistent and patient without a little pat on the back sometimes.

You never know what might happen.

Julia Child didn’t start out writing a cookbook so she could be a well known TV personality and chef, and wasn’t expecting that to happen.

Julie Powell wanted to give herself a gift of creating a goal and finishing it, and while she hoped that people would read the blog, who would have expected that would lead to a book and a movie?

There were so many levels that I enjoyed this movie.  I loved the passion it showed, both with their careers and their husbands, the story of possibilities, the reassurance that dreams don’t always happen overnight, and the wonderful acting, writing, directing.

What did you think?

How can you keep your writing fun and creative?

How can you keep your writing fresh, creative, and fun?

Sometimes it can be tough to have a blog or ezine and figure out what to write on a regular basis.

Create Regular Features or Categories

One thing that helped me with my ezine is to come up with some regular features or categories.

For example with my ezine, each month I write a featured article about living your dream and keeping inspired, a quote of the month with comments, a resource or two a month, and a Dear Sally column from clients and subscribers where I answer questions and give some suggestions.

For this blog, I’m going to play with some categories like Living Your Dream, The Art of Everyday Living, Creative Ideas and Brainstorming, Marketing Masters with ideas and tips for your business, and Nurturing Your Soul.

Use an Acronym

My sister is starting a home and organizing blog and we talked about ideas for her using an acronym of HOME, with each letter standing for a category.  That was a very helpful way to come up with some fun categories that will help stimulate ideas.

You can have a folder or pile or keep a journal and make a note of which category it fits.  It makes it easy to come across things and save them for later.

Find Pictures and Images that Speak to You

Find images that you are drawn to that spark some ideas.  Play with brainstorming anything that comes to you when looking at the image.

Tell A Friend – Resources

You know how natural it is to share with a friend something great you’ve found that you think they might like too?

Whether you realize it or not, you are constantly using and seeking resources for yourself, your business, and just for fun. The things you find that help you or that you enjoy might be things that your readers would like to know about.  These can be blogs, websites, services, people, businesses, books, places you go, things you buy, or music you like.

Random Thoughts

Of course, many people have random blogs about whatever is happening every day.  I suspect I won’t always have everything fit into a neat little category but it doesn’t really matter.  It is just a starting point that can be fluid and change as I go.

Please comment about how you like to come up with fresh material and ideas for your blog or ezine.
P.S. If your blog needs some help or if you are new to blogging and would like some advice about creating content or getting more readers, you may want to check out:

Blog Triage: Maintaining a Healthy Artist’s Blog

Next operation scheduled for August 19-September 16

with Alyson B. Stanfield, who writes a wonderful blog called ArtBizBlog for the last 5 years and resident blog doc Cynthia Morris . . .

During this month-long operation, you will take part in the following procedures:

* Healthy writing habits and content for great blog posts
* Blog cleanse: Fixing your About page, categories, sidebar, and more
* Visiting hours: How to get more blog readers
* Feedback: How to get more comments and be a better commenter
* Health maintenance: Create a blogging schedule, conduct regular checkups, balance your priorities

Hurry, there are only 30 spots!