“The Secret to Strength, Determination, and Endurance?” by Joan Y. Edwards
Bjorn Secher said, “The secret to your strength, determination, and endurance is your attention.”
Copyright © 1988 BSAS Bjorn Secher Achievement Systems.
Ask yourself or your characters these questions.
What gives you strength?
What makes you more determined than ever to keep on going?
What gives you so much encouragement that 50 obstacles do not stop you. Each obstacle seems to make you even more determined not to give up?
What keeps you alive and helps you endure when others in your same shoes bit the dust years ago?
Not everyone’s answers are the same.
My mother, Ethel Darnell Bruffey Meyer, said many witty things. Here is one thing she used to say: “If all the women in the world liked my Johnny, there would be a lot of hairless women running around.”
What sparks a woman to say something like that? Love, jealousy, confidence, and determination plus physical, mental, and emotional strength.
Physical strength comes from using your body in exercise or in work using your muscles. Mental strength comes from using your brain to think. Emotional strength for endurance comes from self-confidence, love, and support of others and successful experiences and accomplishments.
I believe that God is the source of all energy. Energy comes from the sun, from an electrical power plant, and from every cell in your body.
Where do you focus your thoughts? On your bad experiences or on your good experiences? Choose to focus on what you want as if it is already true now. Because what you focus on will become your reality.
Where do you focus your words? What kind of words come from your mouth? Pay close attention to the words you speak. They are powerful. They speak your present and your future. They let you know your emotional interpretation of people and events.
You become what you give your attention to – attention is thoughts, words, and actions.
Joel Osteen said, “Do what you can and God will do what you can’t.” If the key to reaching your goals is down the street three miles, you might not get it unless you walk, ride, or fly there. Take the action that bubbles up from your heart, your “gut” feeling. Your belief in yourself and your goal will give you physical, mental, and emotional strength to “git her done” as Larry the Cable Guy would say.
Just keep on going, even though your humanity takes you on a few detours along the way, revamp your focus, run a video in your mind of you crossing that three-mile marker to find the key to your goal.
Please leave a comment. It makes me smile to hear from you. Good luck in reaching your goals.
Celebrate you.
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Never Give Up
Joan Y. Edwards, Author
Copyright © 2014-2019 Joan Y. Edwards
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Joan,
I enjoyed your post very much. Motivation–an essential ingredient in our writing and in our lives!
Dear Linda,
Thank you for writing! I am glad you enjoyed my post very much. It is great that it served as motivation-an essential ingredient in our writing and in our lives! Sometimes I do not like the detours but realize they give me more strength in an area where I need it before I’m ready to handle the next big blessing of God.
Celebrate you
Never Give Up
Joan
Powerful
Dear Sharon,
Thank you for writing. I am glad this post was filled with power for you! You have an abundance of power! Some of it is hidden by human nature. Take a look at yourself with God’s glasses and you will find just what you need to take your next step towards your goals.
Celebrate you, Sharon.
Never Give Up
Joan
All things seems to come to you when you need it. I needed to read this today. Even with multiple books, educational videos, journal articles, etc. already published, I sometimes run out of steam and wonder why I’m doing all this. Then, something deep inside wells up and throws me onto my desk ball (I sit on an exercise ball not a chair) so I can write what’s burning in my brain. I believe it’s a God thing. Too many ideas, other writers, publishers, people in general, including you, have showed up in my life to spur on a project just when I needed it or them.
Even so, my motivation sometimes still wains when more than a couple years have gone by without another contract. I try to stay positive even in the down times. My critique partners help tremendously. When I’m really down, I wax philosophical and give it all back to the man upstairs. I really believe if you’re on your given path, doing what you’re supposed to be doing, it will happen. That doesn’t mean the path will be straight or easy to navigate.
There is a Ziggy cartoon that comes to mind that shows Ziggy looking ahead to a very twisty road up a mountain. Along the way are many toll booths. The caption says: The Road to Success. Stop and pay the tolls.
It would be wonderful if we were perfect beings, able to stay focused and positive all the time. That’s not me. So I’l continue to rely on my other writer friends and blogs like this to spur me on.
Thank you!
Dear Sandra,
Thank you for writing. Send me a link to your exercise ball that you sit on! I’d like to experience what it’s like to use one while at the computer. A built-in way to exercise your body and your mind at the same time sounds wonderful! You are right God seems to send people and circumstances to inch us a little closer to our Goal, enough that we feel empowered to keep on going. It’s sometimes little things that touch us inside and help us move mountains of debris from our minds that seem to have us frozen for a long time, but actually we’ve been moving along. I can only describe it as like being on the Branson Belle paddle boat – similar to the boats before the steamboats that sailed on the Mississippi. When I rode it, I didn’t realize the boat was moving. Even when it seems like you’re not going forward, you are.
Good luck with your next publication. Believe in you. Your belief will get you where you want to go.
Celebrate along the way.
Never Give Up
Joan
Joan,
You were an early bird this morning! 5:14 A.M. is not in my repertoire! You are so right. You may set a goal, and that is worthy, however, you must think, breathe, see , and do to actualize that goal. Active involvement with what you want is needed.
I also think this post is a helpful reminder for us to check the time spent on thought and action to create what we want in our lives. That is a daily wake up call!
Thank you, Joan, for this post.
Love,
Janis
Dear Janis,
Thank you for writing. I was an early bird this morning. You are right. Active involvement with what you want is needed to reach your goal. I’m glad you liked my blog post.
Celebrate each step to your goal.
God is so proud of you.
Never Give Up
Joan
Joan, I don’t think I have a lot of any of those. But I do love writing (fiction and poetry) and I do really love to help other writers avoid some of the pubiishing pitfalls I fell into. Thus I get a lot done, or at least enough. (-: Don’t you think it’s the love of sharing that keeps most writers going?
Best,
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Multi Award-Winning Author of the HowToDoItFrugally series for writers including the second editions of the Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromo and The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditorKind )The latter is e-book only.for the time being.
Dear Carolyn,
Thanks for writing. I believe you have a lot of strength, determination, and endurance. I see much talent and modesty. It is fun for me to share with others. I also love to teach. Seeing a person’s eyes light up when they see an awesome connection with a way to get to their goal or when they understand fills my heart with joy.
Celebrate you and your willingness to share your knowledge and talents with others.
God loves you very much.
Never Give Up
Joan
Joan, this is a great post! Your mother sounds like she was a wise woman with a great sense of humor–which I believe she passed on to her daughter:)
Dear Kathleen,
Thank you for writing. Thanks for the compliment about my Mother being a wise woman with a great sense of humor and saying that she passed this on to me.
She was very witty, wise, and kind.
Celebrate you today and all the wonderful traits that you learned from your Mother.
Never Give Up
Joan