Build Your Email List Before You Think You Need It.

I started the Ready Set Go! blog to encourage and inspire people to go after their dreams and live a passionate, purposeful life. It’s not a writing blog even though I’m a writer. That said, according to every marketing guru, if you want to build a business, brand, or marketing venture you must concentrate on building an email list, even before you think you need it. A successful list is the only way to let customers or clients know when you have a new product or service to offer.

You’re probably thinking; What if I don’t have a product or service on my horizon? What do I mail my list? I don’t want to annoy potential clients. How do I engage and entertain without alienating them?

I found the answer in an article by Tim Grahl; What Do I Send to my Email List? By providing my email, I also accessed a wealth of resources about nearly any other topic a writer can use. Since I’m currently revamping my website—take a hop over there if you dare, to see how desperately mine needs an overhaul—I clicked on another training about what writer’s should include on a website. Very helpful trainings available, which I look forward to perusing after I create my bigger and better website of course.

Did you look at my current one? Isn't it hideous? With social media like Facebook and Twitter making writers so easily accessible do you even check out websites anymore? Do you buy from websites or go directly to Amazon?

Cajun Navy 2016

I first heard of the Cajun Navy last week on Sean Hannity's radio program. Media outlets were ignoring the situation in Louisiana. The President was too busy doing who knows what to go down. Rescuers were busy helping others so a group of people got out in their own boats to help out their neighbors, friends, and even strangers.

Now lawmakers want to implement regulations & fees on the Cajun Navy & other like-minded Good Samaritans before they're free to help out in future disasters. Bigger government. Yes, that's the answer to all America's problems. Good grief.

Please check out & LIKE Cajun Navy 2016 & share some of their videos. Neighbors helping neighbors in time of disaster. Don't forget to offer your prayers as well.

Misplaced Anger--Whose Fault is it Anyway?

Have you ever noticed how people get really angry when they make a mistake? They get mad and defensive that they’ve messed up and often take it out on the first poor slob they see.

This happened to me recently. Someone had spent too much money on car maintenance. The situation did not involve me at all. I didn’t recommend the mechanic. It wasn’t my car. I wasn’t responsible for paying the bill. The whole matter was none of my business. Yet while discussing what happened, the person ended up getting mad all over again and yelling at me.

I didn’t get offended. I knew he was mad at himself—and maybe the mechanic—not me. But it made me wonder why we behave this way when we mess up. Especially when the matter involves losing money or losing face or getting hurt.

I’m a writer so I think about these things. I like to understand why people behave the way they do. If you’re going to tell me a story, I want more than just the Who, What, Where, & How. To me, the most important consideration is the Why.

I guess the most obvious explanation about why people get mad--furious even--at others when they mess up is it’s easier to get angry at the person who saw us fall on our face than it is to blame ourselves for not watching where we were going.

Occurrences of domestic violence often happen when the violator has a bad day at work or some similar experience. Maybe he made a mistake and got yelled at by the boss. He sure can’t yell back so he goes home and takes his frustration out on the weakest target in his path. Most of us can't relate to that situation. But we have seen someone stub a toe on a chair and then kick the chair. Maybe you were the one doing the kicking. I’m sorry to say I’ve kicked plenty of chairs in my day.

Why? Probably the most plain and simple explanation is mistakes make us feel bad. We feel stupid when we make a financial decision that ends up costing us money. We feel clumsy or awkward when we trip over own feet. We feel inferior when we realize we missed a payment and now we’re going to get hit with a thirty-five dollar late fee. The only thing worse than making a mistake is for someone else to witness it. Whether it’s anger or embarrassment at getting caught, no one wants to look bad. So we get mad at the one who caught us rather than laughing it off and realizing everyone messes up sometimes. Everyone looks dumb or clumsy or silly or like a jerk now and then.

That’s life. Years ago, I heard a song or something that basically said: Never the windshield, always the bug.

My last post was about choosing to live a drama-free life. As I wrote in that post, there is so much in life beyond our control. We’re going to mess up and there will probably be someone around to see it. Instead of getting mad at the witness to our humiliation—or getting mad at ourselves for being human—we need to get up, shake it off, and move on. Learn what we can from the experience and try not to repeat our mistakes.

How we react to nearly anything is one of the few things in life within our control. It’s a choice we make every day. Now, I need to choose to get to work on my novel or in the next post I’ll be complaining about how I never complete any of the tasks on my to-do list.

In the meantime, leave a comment about the last time someone got mad at you over a mistake they made. Or better yet, the last time you were the one kicking the chair after stubbing your toe.

Happy Monday!

We Do Drama--Choosing to live Drama free

What makes for good TV does not make for a good life.

Living a drama free life generally begins with us. I know what you’re thinking. “Easy for you to say. You don’t know the garbage I put up with every day.”

You’re right. I don’t. I just know the garbage I put up with. And most of our garbage isn’t that different from the next person’s. I’ll bet someone you know and love is battling a terminal illness. Someone lies to get what she wants. Someone else isn’t a good parent. Someone just lost his job. Or should lose his job because he’s a terrible employee you can’t depend on. Someone in the family steals from your house every time they know you're out of town. Someone doesn’t respect his parents and takes advantage of their devotion to him. Someone is cheating on her husband. Someone else is cheating on their taxes. Someone is deep in debt and facing bankruptcy, foreclosure, the end of a relationship, or just embarrassment.

The other day a friend told me if everyone put their problems on the table to exchange with someone else, they would end up taking their own problems back.

At first glance it doesn’t seem likely. I would love the opportunity to exchange my problems with someone else. I don’t want them back. But after considering for a moment the potential problems of another…well, I guess I’m better off with what I have.

All this brings us back to my first assertion that our drama begins and ends with us. How is it possible when so much that goes on in our lives is outside our control? Few of us would choose to have our spouse cheat on us. We never asked for a loved one—or ourselves—to get cancer. Or for our adult child to lie to us to get what they want.

We can’t help most of the stuff that happens. However, we can help the way we react to it. I don’t want drama in my life. I hate it. I don’t like the affects of stress on my health, my complexion, my sleep patterns. I want to finish each day knowing I did the best I could with the last twenty-four hours and pray for God’s grace to help me handle what the next twenty-four will bring.

I don’t want to toss and turn and worry about who said what, and why did she say that, and how can I get through to so-and-so who is throwing his life away and why don’t people listen when the solution is so obvious.

There are others, though, who seem to relish the drama life brings. They get into fights and post pictures of the damage on social media. They broadcast family squabbles and then wonder why the other person isn’t rushing to them to make amends. They pick and pick at a scab and never figure out why it won’t heal.

For me, the key to living a drama free life is to not dive into a mess that often isn’t my mess. We can’t control so much of what goes on around us. But we can control the way we react to it. Much of the drama in our lives is drama we had no business picking up. We let ourselves be pulled into situations that are either none of our business or we can’t change anyway. Or the person really doesn’t want help; they just want someone to commiserate with their anger or indignation.

Keeping out of the fray is tough, especially when it involves someone we love who is being taken advantage of or going down a wrong path. Much of the time, the drama does directly affect us. We can choose to let it consume us and ruin our day or accept the way things are and deal with it in a rational, adult, drama-free manner.

Lair, Lair Pants (or Pantsuit) on Fire

Don’t you hate being lied to? I can’t think of anything I hate more. Yesterday someone from the “IRS” left a message telling me they were suing me and I needed to call immediately or suffer dire consequences. What made me madder than the message was the way the non-English speaking man answered the phone with; “IRS. How may I help you?”

I’m not a violent person by any means, but I really wanted to smack him when he said that as if I believed for one minute he was who he said he was. I played dumb until he asked for my name and number so he could access my case. In hindsight, I wish I had told him I was Lois Lerner and I was surprised he didn’t know me since I was the former director of his bureau. Instead I started yelling, demanding to know how he slept at night lying to people and taking advantage of vulnerable seniors and wasn’t he ashamed and on and on until I got tired and hung up.

I know he didn’t care, but I wanted to give him at least one unpleasant call for the day.

"These six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
a proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren." Proverbs 6

Nothing rankles me like dishonesty. Now that the Presidential election is upon us, we’re all getting a face full of it every day. I don’t expect politicians to be completely honest. I would be surprised if they were. I know they suffer from amnesia when confronted with the lie they told last week. They flip flop, backtrack, or conveniently “forget to tell the truth” like Archie Bunker said about Richard Nixon so many years ago. (Still funny)

But the blatant, unapologetic, in-your-face, even when the truth is irrefutable, form of lying is what really turns my stomach. Is it too much to ask that the leaders of our country at least tell part of the truth? Or after they’re caught in a lie, not say, “That’s not the way I remember it.” (How you remember it is irrelevant when we have you on tape telling your big whopper.)

"Honesty is not the best policy. It's the only policy." --Myles Munroe

I wonder if this election will be won by the candidate whose lies are the easiest for the American people to stomach. Or if every election has been won this way, and it’s gotten too glaringly obvious to ignore. The whole situation makes me sad. America used to be the nation of the world for all others to aspire to. We had a government every citizen of the world wanted to be a part of. Now, if they do, it’s only because of how easy it is to lie and cheat or bypass our laws and escape unscathed. By November I pray one of the candidates will prove themselves worthy of my vote. Or worthy of anyone's vote.

You Have Plenty of Time

Lately I’ve been writing a lot here about time management. Maybe because I’m so terrible at it. After a very slow workweek and more than enough time to work on some writing projects, connect with my Scentsy customers, as well as my usual summer gardening and putting up all the peaches my trees have produced this year, I still managed to waste much of my week. My peaches are still on the trees & I didn’t complete a single writing project.

I’ve also been convicted to amp up my Bible reading and study. I love words and writing & am seeking a way to implement those loves into my Bible study, but I haven’t done any of that either. The answer came to me today as I was driving to church. I don’t know if it was the Lord speaking or my own reminder that you make time for whatever is important to you. (Haven’t I said that already in another post?)

“You have plenty of time to do everything I’ve given you to do.”

If I’m not completing all the chores on my list, it’s either because I’ve given myself too much else to do that isn’t really necessary. Or, I’m wasting too much time doing absolutely nothing.

Women, and men too, maybe, often say yes to requests when we need the nerve to say, “No, I can’t.” We shouldn’t feel compelled to babysit every time someone asks unless we have an ironclad excuse. We don’t have to agree to clean the church on our one free weekend. Or help our sister move. Or mow the neighbor’s grass. Or make brownies for our nephew’s baseball team fundraiser because his mother’s been sick and it’s her turn and she hates to let everyone down…

None of these things are wrong. In fact, they are admirable and we could probably be more giving and charitable with our time and resources. That said, there are also times we need to say no. Just plain no without feeling guilty or caving at the last minute. As women, we hate to let anyone down so we agree to help out just this once. Then we’re stressed and overwhelmed and stretched too thin, and we lash out when Hubby simply asks, “What’s for dinner?”

Or maybe that’s just me.

Today, I really believe the Lord was reminding I have plenty of time to do the things He’s given me to do. Before I jump in with a “Yes.” to every request for my time, I need to check with Him first. Life isn’t predictable and we can’t schedule every moment. Things come up, and friends need our help. But He’s given me a story to write. He’s given me grandbabies to spoil. A yard to mow. Dogs to walk. A husband to love. Peaches to pick. Books to read. Neighbors to visit. Cool breezes to caress my cheek.

Heavenly Father, help me, this day, to prioritize. Not to waste a moment. Teach me to steward my time the same as I do every other gift you’ve freely given. Not to squander time on self-pity or anger or laziness or petty grievances or unfair judgments of others. Help me to love as You love and serve those You’ve put in my path to serve. Remind me not to take on more than You would have me to do. And to do all I do with love & worship for Your glory.