What do you have to offer the world, or just one person?

Most of us don’t really think of ourselves as an expert in any certain field. We haven’t discovered anything or cured anything. We haven’t built a business that employs millions or solved any great problem facing humankind. We downplay our abilities since they’re not that impressive. After all, almost anyone can balance a checkbook or raise kids or even write a blog post. We keep our heads down and try not to sound like we’re bragging in our abilities.

Recently I was asked to speak at a writers’ conference. It's been a long time since I've talked about writing. To be honest, it's been a long time since I've written much since I haven’t posted on this blog in two weeks. I like to think I have something to offer writers. I’ve been doing it a while and have met with some success with my published novels. But an expert…I don't know if I want to go that far.

I almost didn't accept the invitation. I worried I might not have anything to offer they didn’t already know. Actually I was afraid. Afraid of looking dumb in front of seasoned writers. Afraid I’d fall on my face. Afraid I’d say something stupid. Afraid everyone would see me as the fraud I thought I was.

Aren't those stupid reasons for not doing something you love?

We all have something to offer someone else. No matter your interests or abilities or experience or natural talent, you have something to offer that can benefit or impact someone else. Don't let fear or the thought that you're a phony or not as good as you think you are keep you from doing what you enjoy and from being a being a blessing to others. We tell ourselves we’re not that funny or talented or experienced. Consequently, we do nothing. Who suffers when we make that choice?

Not only do we hurt ourselves by not stretching our wings and doing what we enjoy, we hurt those we don’t help. Vanity is sometimes disguised as fear. The fear we experience when doing something outside our comfort zone is vanity. We don’t want to risk looking like a dummy when we attempt something we might fail. None of us want to fall on our face in front of witnesses.

No matter how minimal you believe your talents, someone can benefit from learning them. Even if you think everyone knows how to bake a chocolate chip cookie or housebreak a puppy or sew on a button, you will come across someone who needs your advice on the subject. I am sure there are plenty of bigger things in which you have experience.

What are you good at? What are your interests or natural talents? What have you been doing well most of your life? Parenting. Baking. Organization. Writing. Graphic design. Woodworking. Money management. Animal training. Crafts. Mechanics. Health and beauty. There is at least one area in which you could help someone else. Probably many, but for the sake of this article, let’s focus on one. Name one thing you could teach someone else. If you share your knowledge & experience with one person, you have possibly enriched them…and yourself.

Stop Avoiding what You Want Most

Time is a commodity we all think we don't have enough of. However, we have the same amount as everyone else. I know authors with forty, fifty, a hundred, or even two hundred books on the market and I still have only a handful. In what areas am I failing while they are wildly successful?

Yes, I have a full-time job. Yes, I’m working to build a Scentsy business as well as carve out time to write. Yes, I have a family. But doesn't everyone? We all have obligations. We all have lives and people we want to spend time with. Somehow, though, successful writers manage to accomplish scads more in the same 24 hours a day than I accomplish. What am I doing wrong that I can't find time to work on my books? I can't find time to edit and polish and format and market and network and stay abreast of trends and techniques in the industry that other authors are utilizing to create their books.

Apparently they’ve learned something I still struggle with. These people know how to utilize every moment while I fritter away my day. I legitimize much of what eats up my time because it’s stuff that must be done; like walking the dog and washing dishes and scrubbing the inside of the refrigerator (okay, I don’t do that one very often) and sweeping the floors and running errands and folding laundry. Productive people do the same things. They have dogs to walk and litter boxes to clean out and breakfast to cook and kids to get on the bus. They do these things and still achieve their goals. Where am I missing it?

That's the question, isn't it? That's what each of us has to figure out if we want to accomplish anything. For me, the key is deciding how important my goals are. If something is important, I will give it priority. If I have a doctor’s appointment at 1:45, I give that appointment priority and won’t let anything keep me from getting there on time. If I have a conference call at 9:15, I set an alarm and leave a post-it note on the bathroom mirror to make sure I'm on the line at the designated time.

Often, the things we say we want to do are hard or scary or uncomfortable, so we let other things take precedence. We put them off until we barely even think about them anymore. Recently I read this quote.

“In any area of your life that you want to change, adopt this rule. Just do the things that you don’t want to do.”
― Mel Robbins, Stop Saying You're Fine: Discover a More Powerful You

If I want to lose weight, I need to say no to the cheesecake. Of course I don’t want to. I love cheesecake. But I should love to fit into the new dress for my reunion more. I might want a beautiful landscaped front yard, but I keep putting off the work. If I want a beautiful front yard badly enough, I will do the thing I don’t want to do, which is getting down on my hands and knees and moving dirt.

What area in your life do you want to change? Now, what is the thing you need to do to change it, even though you don’t want to? You owe it to yourself to do it anyway. You may find passing on the cheesecake wasn’t that hard, especially when you see the changes in your body. You may find the beautiful yard was worth the sacrifice of getting your hands dirty.

Figure out what you want to change in your life, and then pinpoint what you’re putting off doing. My challenge for you this week is to do that thing anyway, no matter how much you dread it. Just once. Then stick with it, and each subsequent time will get easier. And probably more rewarding. Few things worth having come easy, and easy things seldom get us what we want most.

Beauty in a Tadpole

The best thing about working in southern Ohio near the West Virginia border is getting there. When I first got the job, I spent the nearly two-hour long drive staring out the window at the rugged hills, green pastures and tree-lined ridges overlooking the Ohio River. Winter revealed a whole new world out my window as rocky outcroppings, cliffs, and endless valleys, that had been hidden when the leaves were full, came into view. That was four years ago.

I still take the same route to the jagged southeastern tip of Ohio just before you cross over into West Virginia. The trees and cliffs and valleys carved by a relentless river are still there. Suddenly, though, I realized I was no longer as amazed by the splendor laid out for my pleasure as I had been when I first started working there. Instead of noticing the beauty and glorious creation around me, I focused on the work ahead of me.

What a shame. When did I get too busy to notice I was in the middle of God’s wondrous creation? Regardless of where any of us are today, there is beauty & wonder all around us. Sometimes we might have to take a moment to find it. But it shouldn’t take long. My grandson just called me outside to see the tadpole he caught. He’s been gathering them out of my rain barrel all day, and he found an amazing specimen with front and back legs and a translucent tail. Even toes. In the history of little boys, I doubt a finer tadpole has ever been scooped out of a rain barrel.

May I always view Creation with the same bright eyes & childlike wonder. The earth is God’s to do with what He will, yet He chose to let us enjoy it and marvel in it for the brief span of time we’re here. Whether it’s a child’s laugh or a blue heron lifting off the water, or a hummingbird making quick work at my feeder, or even a tadpole about to lose his tail, may we never get too bored or distracted or busy to recognize the beauty of the world we live in. A world whose wonders will never cease to be revealed as long as we take the time to notice and be appreciative.

May we never be too busy to hear: “In the rustling grass I hear him pass. He speaks to me everywhere.” This is My Father’s World by Maltbie D. Babcock


When is the last time you've marveled at creation? What glorious wonder took your breath away and reminded you God sees you and loves you and delights in the things you delight in?

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.