Live in the Now, not in the Then.

“The only use of an obstacle is to be overcome. All that an obstacle does with brave men is, not to frighten them, but to challenge them.”~Woodrow Wilson

Two weeks ago I asked you to Make a List of Your Negatives, while last week I said to get rid of one of those negatives. Two problems with that last one. One, the article was long and few people read it. The other problem, for those who read it I imagine you were expecting me to tell you how to get rid of those negatives. By the way, there was more to the article than ‘get rid of one of those negatives’.

Today I’ll attempt to be brief and tell you how to be rid of negatives.

X Out the Past and 0 Out Your Future

Let’s take your list of negatives in their nice columns and for every negative that comes from a past event place an x beside it. For every negative whose source lies in the future, in other words something you are wanting but can’t have yet or may never have, place a little circle beside it.

Now realize you are looking at things that cannot be reached or dealt with in the present. Wait before you start yelling about controlling what might happen in the future.

Those Past Negatives are in the past. Unless you want to apologize to someone or forgive someone, you are most likely out of luck. Drop those Past Negatives. And if you haven’t apologized or forgiven in all these years and are having problems with it, that’s called Regret. You can visit my Regrets are where they belong, in the past from this past Wednesday for some good quotes about regrets.

Know You Are In The Now

Expecting anything from someone else is a Negative you will never control. That’s one Negative you are to never allow to take a rest in your mind. It’s time to live in the now, not the yesterday, not the future, but the now. Here. Now. Not in the what you wished you had or what you hope to have, but in the what you have. You can work toward what you want to have some day, but that’s some day. That’s a goal, not a Negative.

Take your list, do the x’s and o’s and start working your way through those x’s. And really, if you are strong enough, you can toss them all, but if you haven’t already done that, then you most likely will need to take the baby steps I’ve talked about previously. There is no hurry, no race, no trophy.

You need to:

  • Think about why that Negative happened
  • What you had to do with it
  • Why it is still hanging with you
  • What can you do about it
  • What it has done to your life
  • Then realize it is over

That last part is the most difficult. Read through the article again and you’ll see why you are to let it go and let it be over. You’re in control of it all. Don’t ALLOW anything, especially a memory to control YOU.

Live in the here and now, and enjoy life.

“When faced with a challenge, happy families, like happy people, just add a new chapter to their life story that shows them overcoming the hardship. This skill is particularly important for children, whose identity tends to get locked in during adolescence.”~Bruce Feiler

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Quotes of Motivation.

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”~Aldous Huxley

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.”~Helen Keller

“Begin to be now what you will be hereafter.”~William James

“Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with what it is still possible for you to do.”~Pope John XXIII

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.”~Maya Angelou

“Quality is not an act, it is a habit.”~Aristotle

“We are taught you must blame your father, your sisters, your brothers, the school, the teachers – but never blame yourself. It’s never your fault. But it’s always your fault, because if you wanted to change you’re the one who has got to change.”~Katharine Hepburn

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Regrets are where they belong, in the past.

“Those who enjoy their own emotionally bad health and who habitually fill their own minds with the rank poisons of suspicion, jealousy and hatred, as a rule take umbrage at those who refuse to do likewise, and they find a perverted relief in trying to denigrate them.”~Johannes Brahms

When you go through life you end up running across people who, for some reason, think you are a threat to them. It has nothing to do with you having done anything wrong. I’ve seen examples of a lot of what Brahms spoke of above.

I watch interviews with these old professional wrestlers I watched when I was a kid. I do so in part because they were part of a time when I lived with my grandmother, back around 6 or 7 and when we visited her later on as well. It’s amazing how jealousy turned people you thought of as good guys into such bitter old men.

You have those types in every type of profession and every walk of life.

“Always Do Your Best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.”~Miguel Angel Ruiz

Ruiz speaks the truth, right to the core of my thinking. Regrets are like a disease, a virus that spreads though your body. The more you feed it the more it will grow until it is all consuming. You abuse others for your regrets, your jealousy of those who did what you regret you didn’t do.

Regrets are easy to let go. Much like those memories of the first grade you can’t think of, regrets are in the past. I know, some regrets you have might be in your face every day.

“Regret is an odd emotion because it comes only upon reflection. Regret lacks immediacy, and so its power seldom influences events when it could do some good.”~William O Rourke

“Acceptance of what has happened is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfortune.”~William James

The above two quotes explain exactly what purpose regrets serve and how to move on from them or even avoid having them. The quote by William James goes along with something I said recently.

“Recognition of truths in your life is a big step toward a happier you. A bigger step is taking action upon that recognition.”~Me

We all have disappointments in our lives, those missed opportunities that we brought about by our own action or inaction. Nothing can be done about them now. Well, at least most of them can’t be changed. Looking forward is always the best thing to do, even if there are no regrets in your past.

For an article I wrote about a luncheon with a top executive and self-made woman with Coca-Cola visitDo your best…or not at all…advice from success”.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

 

#100WordWisdom Haters Gonna Hate.

Haters are going to hate no matter what, sometimes they just spin their tales in an attempt to make you look bad. I found that out recently. As I fumed for a few minutes I slowly let it go, made sure their attempts were futile and carried on with my positively motivational positive day.

Not every day will be pain free of pain in the necks showing up. Having lived with it for so long I know to deal with it and move on. I had to deal with it quickly because of my son. We’re having a good day.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

 

Smiles are medicine and more.

How often do you hear the phrase “live life like it’s your last day on earth” as a motivational gimmick?

Um, yeah, that sure motivates me. Think I’ll go write that book I always wanted to, or go and get married and have a kid. People have different reasons for using that expression above but hopefully you’ll never read those words from me as a way to attempt to get you to do something.

Instead, I want you to live each day to be the best possible person you can be on that day of your life. Today, smile at people—it freaks them out. Here in the South we expect smiles. It’s a cultural thing. A “nod and a smile” is what I’ve called it in the past. No, we’re not flirting, we’re saying you’re good, we’re good, just don’t either of us mess it up. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you look like, or what economic level you are “a nod and a smile” is expected.

I imagine there are things like that all over the world. Maybe in some places a nod and a smile is the equivalent of “let’s throw down and kick some hind parts”. When you wake up each day do so with the plan to nod and smile to some people you meet. No, I’m not giving you a number of people. That’s self-help mumbo jumbo and although I like to help people, I avoid things like that as much as possible.

You can’t help but feel something good when you smile. There is something scientific about it. Smiling actually releases dopamine.

“Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them. Dopamine deficiency results in Parkinson’s Disease, and people with low dopamine activity may be more prone to addiction. The presence of a certain kind of dopamine receptor is also associated with sensation-seeking people, more commonly known as “risk takers.”~Psychology Today

Not only will you increase your social network and reputation as a nice person but you will be making yourself healthier as well. I watched a Ted Talk not like ago which stated one smile is like eating 1000 bars of chocolate. Give a smile a try right now, a big one and notice that feeling you get. There is a change. Crazy as it seems, smiles are medicine and more.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Be Honest for Yourself, NOT the World.

Do you show the world the real you? Do you hide? Are you afraid of the real you? Are you ashamed of the real you? Why?

There is a lot that goes into being the real you. You ever think about who you are and then think about who you were born as?

You know that jerk that lives next door or maybe in your own house? Guess what, he/she didn’t start out that way. Jerks are made, not born. That means who you are now, is not who you were born as, it’s who you were made into. And if you were made into something then you can be made into something else.

My Honest Self

I don’t present my honest self to the world because I am concerned with the world’s opinion of me. I present my honest self because I care about my opinion of myself. The world’s opinion can be swayed by mood, a word misunderstood, a lie spoken about me, or any number of other things I am certain you may think of.

Being my honest self does not mean I am a rude, intolerant, jerk of a man about things I don’t agree with or believe in. If asked I will say I don’t agree with something if I don’t agree with it. I do not have to be rude about it. I wanted to make that clear as some people are that way when they consider that as being what a person can be honest and true with about. Please refer to what I spoke of at the beginning of the article.

Today I want to be honest about who I am. I am a positive man, which has taken time to bring to the forefront of who I am. I am a positive man who is currently at battle with negatives. We are all at battle with negatives, however in my case I believe I am facing some extreme negatives because I am putting forth a message of positivity in hopes people will be helped and in a small way, a small step at a time, the world will change.

This sounds like a grandiose idea. Where else does every change of the world begin but with an idea of some sort? There are a great many problems in the world that could be solved with people starting by being positive about their own lives. By doing this, they can then be positive about others and for others.

My Honest Future

I love writing fiction. I do it for young people I know. Usually they are written as presents because I cannot afford anything else. I have written some for adults as well. I have written novels and submitted them, to only end up rejected. Rejected rightfully so.

Over the years I have come to terms with my writing and have improved as I have done so. I have not given up on my fiction. I have great story ideas, it’s the execution of those ideas I am working on. And I realized recently that I don’t need to be in a hurry and put out something that is garbage.

However, there is a part of me that I have been denying although it is obvious and throughout my writing here on my site. I am a teacher. Above and beyond anything else, that is what I am. That is what I was born to be. How I teach is up to me. What I teach is up to me. I choose to teach through writing. What do I choose to teach?

I keep returning to things ultimately leading to positivity. Therefore, I am going to teach on positivity. I have been doing that quite a bit of late, and I hope some of you have benefited from it. Moving forward I will be doing it in a, hopefully, better way now that I have accepted what I am doing. Fiction is not gone from my life. I love history and there will be historical fiction related stories from me. Some I believe need to be abandoned in order for me to become focused on what needs to be.

recognition-action

That being said, there may be some changes here on Ronovan Writes, nothing drastic but perhaps a feel or a focus. I do hope you stick around to find out what happens as I explore a new path in this fork in the road I’ve arrived at. Poetry will remain, of course. Expression of feelings and thoughts through poetry is a way for one to deal with those feelings and thoughts in an artistic and useful form. Poetry is therapy. Much of my poetry, if not all of it, is therapy to me and it is honest and truthful.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Positivity: Increasing Your Positivity Percentage

Last week I asked you to List the Negatives in Your Life under different headings:

  • External Negatives
  • Internal Negatives
  • Temporary Negatives
  • Constant Negatives

I Know of What I Speak

I want to go ahead and get something out of the way here. I am not writing about this from an outsider point of view. I’ve been through life events, young and old, that some would never want to go through. These events could make me into a Negative, bitter, angry man. If you’ve been reading my blog you probably realize I am not any of those things. Therefore, as I talk about things remember I have been there, I am there, and I am doing these things myself.

Negativity is a Perception

One of the first things I want to explain to you this week is how something impacting your thoughts about you and life is a perception. Yes, I know, bad is bad. I’ve been there. Perhaps you were physically abused as a child or worse. That being a Negative action is not in doubt, but how you ALLOW it to impact your life is now up to you. You can change your perception, your moving onward, about it.

One of the first articles I ever wrote here on the blog was called Don’t ALLOW people to control YOU. That was over a year ago. If you’ve read that article you might understand why I am going to say your External Negatives category list should be empty.

My definition of External Negatives is “negatives that are outside your control. Things you are not able to personally control your long term reactions to or veer away from being influenced by.”

However, if you mentally perceive the event or influence as an event, an occurrence, it then has no lasting influence on your mental and emotional life. The External Negatives are in actuality only Negative on your mental and emotional Positivity because you ALLOW them to be.

Ultimately it is about you determining how you will handle something, no matter how bad it may be to other aspects of your life.

An example might be a divorce. It’s possible for a lot of baggage to come out of a divorce and one piece of baggage might be not allowing you to trust someone enough to love them or get in a relationship with them.

The new person has done nothing to you. But what YOU have done is ALLOW an event, whatever the cause of the divorce, to keep you from loving again. Caution—yes. Total shut down—no. You can learn, teach, train yourself how to look at things as being events, passing moments in time.

An Increase in Your Positive Percentage Brings Success

Now, move all those External Negatives you may have to the Internal Negatives list. Why, because you have control over what they are to you. We all want to decrease the Negativity in our lives. Positivity leads to happiness and also to success. Success? Yes.

I am not talking about you becoming a millionaire. I am talking about relationship success, friendship success and your happiness success. If you are Positive, people then see an upbeat air about you which leads one to interpret you being happy and Positive.

You are successful if you’re Positive Percentage is high. You have overcome the perceptions of Negativity in your life. You are upbeat because you are confident. “I can do this.” “I got this.” No, those are not mantras. I’m not into those.

One Baby Step for Positivity is One Giant Step for Happiness

Regardless of what your Negatives are, you can overcome them. Remember, Negative is a perception, an opinion. However, ALLOWING it to be a Negative on you and your life? It’s a matter of time and attitude as to what it does to you.

You may have 20 things on your lists, but can you overcome all those Negatives at once and keep them away? Some of you just said or thought, “Yes I can.” Go for it if you like. For the rest of us who have been through up and down battles with so many things in our lives, we are going to do what it takes to be a success at life.

What we are going to do is not the typical increasing your Positives, but increase your Percentage of Positives. How do we do this? By ridding our lives of the Negatives. What will this do? The first and most obvious will be making for happier, more satisfied selves. That in turn will create environments of improvement, of Positivity. With numerous people doing this and spreading the idea, you then have people focusing on Positives and on taking ownership of their being Positive and not relying on others to give them opportunities for Positivity.

You might have read books, watched videos, or even attended seminars and workshops on how to handle Negativity. Many of these options attempt to have you basically ignore the negatives of life by using meditation or various stress relief techniques as a magic pill, which they are not intended to be.

I have started meditating, but not to rid myself of negatives. I see meditation and the various stress relief techniques as maintenance tools. Do not take this as a knock against any of the mentioned techniques. They all serve their purposes for their purposes. But when people try to say this or that is the key to a successful happiness life my alarms go off and I want to tell people who get pulled into it to wake up.

The only way to a successful happiness life is you taking an active role in getting there.

We are going to do something that makes people achieve goals. We’re going to take baby steps, not giant leaps that will skip over things we need to handle. We are not going to ignore our Negatives, we are going to face them head on and then flick them off like pieces of lint in the future.

What are we going to do?

So what do I want you to do? I want you to learn to deal with the Negatives in your life, those that have happened and those that will happen. The idea of you never having Negatives again is a bit insane. And I will not even remotely tell you differently. If you ever see a method who says that, walk on by.

But here is what you can do to make your life more Positive Percentage.

By learning to handle the Negatives you have, you will be able to immediately rid yourself of the future Negatives as they come in. You will recognize them as they arrive. You will even learn how to avoid certain situations that lead to Negatives.

As you’ve gone through and made your lists you have experienced the feelings attached to those moments again. You have recalled how and when they happened and with whom they happened. Remember all of that. If you have that type of feeling in the future stop and realize what is happening, then handle it.

Don’t look for Negatives to happen. We self-fulfill a great many things in our lives and Negativity is one of them. I have told many people, many young people, “Don’t worry about something, don’t stress about something, that hasn’t happened.”

Easy to say, right? It’s how I live. I am the calm in the storm. I am the one that sits for half hour to an hour or more while others vent about the world and then give them their chill pills to bring them back down to reality land. They blow things up to monster levels when in reality they are Smurf level.

Setting an Attainable Goal

Today you will pick one negative from your Internal Negatives to rid your life of. Look at all of those you’ve held onto and decide what you think would be the easiest to get rid of. Once this happens, work on thinking that Negative through and realizing what you have ALLOWED it to do to you. Then get rid of it. Think it through. Look at it as a problem like any other problem, because in reality it is just another problem. One for the next week. No pressures here to race. Once you have that one in hand, move to the next less easy one.

Why the easiest? You want to learn how to handle Negatives. As you learn to handle each one that you perceive as being a little more Negative you will build up experience and become a pro by the time you get to that big one. If you start out with the big one first and you fail you won’t try the others. Also if that big one involves a person, you want to be prepared and confident in yourself and your abilities to face that Negative.

There is no hurry. You were doing nothing with these Negatives before, but now you will be doing something.

Ultimately you might be asking yourself why do all of this. You’ve spent a long time avoiding these parts of your life. It’s time to face them, and take back control of your happiness. Do I have Negatives in my life? Oh yeah. But they wash over me and I am cool with it. I realize what they are. I realize they are often times attempts to bring me down.

While you work on your list keep an eye out for the next part of the series Creating a Positive Environment. This is going to be an incredibly difficult thing for some to do. Again, baby steps. I am not a giant leap kind of guy, even though I may be kind of tall. By taking smaller steps, I don’t pull a muscle and get hurt. The same goes for creating a better life.

The actual next article is Live in the Now, not in the Then. The article you are in, I felt after thinking on it a bit, is too long, thus I wrote something that is shorter and to the point for those who might prefer that if you didn’t quite get something out of this one.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

#100WordWisdom Your Negatives are Good For You.

Negatives in your life are good. Okay, wait, recognizing you have negatives is good. Negatives are your way of coping and realizing things aren’t right in some way.

The only thing bad about a negative is what you do with it. For one thing, you don’t hang onto a negative. Let it go.

Secondly, you retain the wisdom of the negative in order that the next time something similar happens, you are prepared and are able to push through it with greater ease.

Keep a Negative Journal. Note how you worked through each one. You will be wiser and happier.

Remember, if you have a #100WordWisdom, ping back or at least copy and paste the link to it in the comments below as well as tweet it with the hashtag so I can share it on Twitter with my Friends.

Much Love, Success, and Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Listing the Negatives in Your Life.

I am going to ask you to make lists today. Not lists to share with anyone. These lists are to be made of negatives of your life. I want you to give the lists the following headings:

  • External Negatives: These are negatives that are outside your control. Things you are not able to personally control your long term reactions to or veer away from being influenced by.
  • Internal Negatives: These are negatives you are in control of. Things you personally can control your reactions to, your thoughts about, and being influenced by.
  • Temporary Negatives: These are negatives you see as one time events.
  • Constant Negatives: These are those things that seem to be always there to cause you stress and bring you down.

I would give you examples but these are Your Negatives and Your Thoughts of which list they fall under.

Don’t do anything with these lists yet. Simply take the next week to, take your  time, and think about filling out the lists. It’s okay to move one thing from list A to list B during that time as your thoughts become accustomed to what is what in your life.

I am sure you have had people tell you to make lists of the positives in your life, but I have another idea. Next week you will find out what it is and it will make so much sense. And no, fire will not be involved in regards to the lists.

Join me next week in an article tentatively titled Positivity: Increasing your Positivity Percentage.

One helpful article I wrote a while back might be beneficial. Don’t ALLOW people to control YOU. It speaks of the advice I received from an executive with Coca-Cola and self-made woman.

making-list

Much Love, Success, and Respect to All

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Don’t ALLOW people to control YOU.

Check this article I wrote back in May of last year. It was one of the most popular at the time and considering the few followers I had then, it has a good number of likes. It will come in handy to have read as the weeks pass here on the blog with some things I have planned.

Ronovan's avatarronovanwrites

Don’t ALLOW people to control YOU.

by: Ronovan

 

Why are you not a success? You know why, because everyone is right about you. You give up every time.

Sounds a bit harsh doesn’t it? It does when put like I just did. But that’s the way we are told or the way we think it.

I wrote recently about Female Executivea lady executive from Coca Cola that I heard at a business luncheon. In that article I wrote about doing your best at whatever you are doing at a given time. Well I mentioned she gave two pieces of advice that day. I actually typed those pieces of advice up and saved them on my computer. What? You think I remember all this stuff?

As important as doing your best always is, controlling you is even more so. What do I mean by controlling you?

You LET others cause YOU to…

View original post 526 more words

10 or maybe 11 Quotes of Positivity.

I wanted to share some quotes about positivity today. You know, sometimes people read what you write and get kind of bored with it or get into that hearing you drone about something. I thought instead I would let others drone today, just to show this isn’t simply me talking about some self-help to a better you thing.

“Positive anything is better than negative nothing.”~Elbert Hubbard

“In order to carry a positive action we must develop here a positive vision.”~Dalai Lama stated as he pointed to his head. (2010 visit to the US)

“Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier”-Colin Powell

“My dear friend, clear your mind of can’t.”~Samuel Johnson

“I really struggle with that feeling of helplessness. That’s why I really try to get my blogs, and even myself, to point to the positive and look at all the inspiring things that are happening.”~Daryl Hannah

“Love yourself. It is important to stay positive because beauty comes from the inside out.”~Jenn Proske

“There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative.”~W. Clement Stone

“I’m a very positive person. My grandmother taught me that happiness is both a skill and a decision, and you are responsible for the outcome.”~Helen McCrory

I thought I would end my Positive 10 with two more from the Dalai Lama’s visit to the US back in 2010.

“Smiling throughout his interview, the Dalai Lama said that evil will always be with us, but that’s not news.

“Some mischievous people always there. Last several thousand years, always there. In future, also,” he said in his distinctive idiom.

Like so many others, he wagged a gently chiding finger at the news media for highlighting the negative.

“The news, the media highlight these negative things. Positive things take for granted; not news,” the Dalai Lama said.”~From the Today Show.

 

Much Respect

Ronovan

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

Your Ordinary is My Extraordinary. #BeWoW

Ordinary and extraordinary, two words with different meanings and words that kind of confuse me at times. I see a lot of saying this is an ordinary this or an extraordinary that. Perhaps even I say those things at times, but for real, what is the deal?

Do you want to be extra ordinary, which basically means remarkable, exceptional, or special? What? So being ordinary is sort of being remarkable?

Now we come to what I want to talk about. What really is meant by ordinary? I see people say this about a poem or a book or a picture they drew and to me whatever it is seems awesome.

None of us should ever sell ourselves short on whatever we do. At that moment in time that is what you are doing and can do. “But I could have done better.” Maybe so but at that moment you did what you did and can’t change it so why dwell on it? Like I’ve said many times in my writings, dwelling is a house made of wood or brick, not a place to live in made of your past mistakes or missed opportunities.

Ordinary to you may be extraordinary to me. By changing how you look at what you do perhaps you will change how you do. Just consider every moment as your best moment. No matter what it is, it is the best at that moment you can have. And then that moment is replaced by the next best moment.

I don’t dwell in the past, I can’t. I know some of you may be thinking since Ronovan has amnesia it’s kind of a given that I can’t dwell there. But I don’t dwell on what I miss. I can’t. If I do then I miss out on what is happening now, what can happen and what may make me better as a person and maybe one day make everything come back to me. If I dwell on the negatives and the stress of life I will never accomplish anything.

I am working on cartooning right now. With my hands, body, and mind it is probably one of the worst things I could be doing, but it is something I WANT. I could tell myself it is impossible so give up and lie in bed all day and stop doing anything. But I don’t. I push and push until I get to where I want to be or at least continue on that path.

Today realize your ordinary is extraordinary. The foundation of exceptional is based in your everyday life. Keep moving forward and fill your life with special.

Much Respect

Ronovan

be-wow-blogger

 

 

 

 

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovan 2015

The secret to a positive day.

I wanted to do a Throwback Thursday Post, but I have so many I found it difficult to sort through them all to find one to share again. I did find this one in my folders on my computer. I didn’t find it in my posts and thought why not share it now. This is a favorite topic of mine.

How do you start your day? Yeah, I know, we all hit the bathroom first usually, but let’s say everything is set and good to go, what do you do?

More than likely you are beginning your day the wrong way. The way you start your day has an impact on the way you live your day.

“Bull, Ronovan. Other people dictate my day!”

I don’t want to hear it. When I wake up in the morning, I am the one in control of my thoughts and actions. I am actually in control of my reactions the entire day. If I begin with a positive and centered self, a truly focused self, then I can be positive in my interactions for the day and stay positive throughout the day.

If you don’t start out focused then you are simply reacting the rest of the day and often times with negative emotions attached.

“So how do we do this, oh great and wise Ronovan?”

Yes I hear the sarcasm in the voice.

It’s different for everyone.

What get’s you calm and focused?

Here are examples:

Mediation

Prayer or Reading the Bible

Exercise

A cup of coffee and:

  • watching the sun rise
  • reading the newspaper
  • listening to music
  • looking at the birds in the bird feeder
  • reading the next chapter in a book

Listening to podcasts, music, or talk radio

Mentally going through a checklist of your day

Just knowing what you have planned for the day, even if a routine day, makes it easier on you.

Beginning your preparation for the day the night before can help

I like having my clothes ready, and an idea of what my breakfast will be and if I am needing to prepare a lunch or not. I like to think about people I will come into contact with, that I know about, and if I have an appointment and be mentally ready for that.

There are little things we can do to take care of the parts of life that are in our control, so why not do it? If I can start my day off calmly then I am not beginning it running around already hectic and in a bad mood then that’s a great start.

There are numerous ways to become calm and centered for the beginning of your day. The point is to do it.

I have had to take control of my life more lately. Even being in the physical and mental state I am in, my life is hectic with two blogs running and basically life in general. I have felt life crashing lately, with the crashing even seeping into my writing, so I have taken control of it to the extreme for the moment. Do you know what happens to your life if you are not in control of it? If you don’t start yourself off focused? You lose it, and you could lose your friends. Before that happens I decided to refocus, like I once did, every day. I am prioritizing and organizing.

Some people may not understand it, as it’s difficult to explain, but I am fine with that. This is me, the most important person in my life. I am the most important me in the life of the people I know. I want to be here for both them and me for a long time.

Here is a quote from an ancestor of mine.

prepared

Looking at this post I wrote back in September of last year, it seems I need to once again refocus. I’ve lost a lot lately. And I lose more every single day. I received an email, an understanding email from someone, then they stopped following me on Twitter. Not certain I understand that, but I am coming to terms with something. I don’t have to understand everything. The best thing I can do is try to understand me and what I am about to do, whatever that may be at the time.

Preparation. Starting my day off the right way. It’s not only the secret to a positive day, it’s the secret to a positive life, a successful life. A successful life? That’s for another post.

Much Respect

Ronovan

 

2015 © Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovan

The Unity of Humanity My #BeWoW article.

I’ve been very concerned about the racial tensions in the US. I’m not concerned for myself personally as my relationships are fine with all walks of life. As I’ve said before, I don’t see races not do I treat people as races. I’m not sure if my song got that from me or not but he’s friends with everyone.

As everywhere I look I see these almost indoctrination like attempts by media and politics to force on all of us the idea we ARE different I become incredibly angry.

Why do people allow others, others who make money through ratings on fear, dictate how we think and live?

Smart is smart, funny is funny, talented is talented, and beautiful is beautiful. Those are things we have in common across the board of humanity. Oh, and yes, ugly is ugly and dumb is dumb. I know, not nice things to say, but I know I’m not good looking, and I’m not the smartest new kid on the block. I’m okay with it. I know there is another person in another country with the exact same ugly and lack of smarticles that I have but with a different skin tone or regional facial features.

Having completed the A to Z Blogging Challenge using a comic book creators around the world as a theme, I discovered even more how much alike we all are. People from different countries inspired to do something for the same reasons, and some giving almost identical answers to questions that are very personal.

My positive message today is through everything always remember we are all the same, just in different situations. Don’t listen to and allow constant bombardment of negativity make it a reality.

 

Much Respect

Ronovan

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

My Blog Anniversary post of Choice.

If you were around a few days ago, you may have noticed I did a Guess Who game. I put up a profile photo of one our friends, she had changed it, and I thought it would be fun to see who could guess who it was. It was a bit obvious. In fact it was probably taken on the same day as her previous photo but this would looked all cool and movie like with the wind blowing her hair and all.

The winners, incluguessding her if she were reading, got to select a post to be reblogged here on RonovanWrites.

Melissa of The Aran Artisan, the lady in the photo of the game, decided to choose the post of a friend instead of one of her own. So I give you her choice.

yellow-bicycle-retiringLife With a Yellow Bicycle is a blog by Stephanie .

“My blog is about an ordinary woman with an extraordinary yellow bicycle and how together as a team, they overcame one of life’s dreaded obstacles. It is also about my thoughts and philosophies and stories over the course of that time.”

That’s only the first paragraph of an extraordinary story about an extraordinary woman and her extraordinary yellow bicycle that may have saved an extraordinary life.

yellow-bicycle-beachThis is Yellow Bicycle at the beach, the photo from the article you will be going to read today.

steph-and-bike-dunlaoire-002This is Stephanie and Yellow Bicycle. Yellow looks to be the most amazing bicycle. And looks so strong. The picture itself is great. I love the images. Old and new together. An Ireland lady on an adventure called life.

Now it is time to visit Stephanie and Yellow Bicycle in what turns out not to be a reblog but a request.

Today is the one year anniversary of RonovanWrites.

anniversary-1xI wasn’t going to do anything because it’s just another day of meeting people for me but I changed my mind after reading this. I have chosen this post as the one I wish for all of you to visit as a present to me. Why? The story is a reason for one. Another reason? Blogging, for me, is more than simply writing about me and my creations. Although that is what you see most of. Blogging for me this past year on RonovanWrites has been about meeting Extraordinary People with Extraordinary Stories who believe themselves to be Ordinary People with Ordinary Lives.

After reading the story Melissa had suggested, I could not think of anything I could write on this day that could come close to telling something similar to what I have been going through since that day a year and a half ago when my life was literally taken away.

It is called Je ne regrette rien ( Heading in a different direction). A story of, well it’s one you are going to read about now. I am finished speaking.

 

With Greatest  Respect to All Who Visit Here,

Ronovan

Ronovan-profile

A writer with class is who influences me.

A lot of people influence us in many ways. Some are good ways, some bad. These days I hope I’ve gotten past allowing people to be bad influences. At some point you know better. Then if you are honest with yourself, the only influence on you is you because you should be mature enough to know what to allow into your world of decision making and judgment making or not.

Who have I allowed into my world to be a good source to draw upon?

I suppose it all depends on what aspect of my life I am considering. I’ve been doing a lot of research on artists and writers in the world of what I call Graphic Literature. I have found one that has shown to me he is a class act.

His writing is world class. He can write any form from the comic book to the novel and sell millions of copies of either. But that talent is not what I look at for inspiration.

I’ve watched several videos of him speaking in different venues and audience situations. And in every instance he remains a class act. He is always helpful and engaging with the audience. He never acts as though he is anything special, although he must know his talent is or he would not do it.

His sense of humor in various social media is entertaining and he likes to poke fun at himself at times.

His most famous comic creation is a title his boss told him one day to go and create a new version of this comic with this name anyway you like.

Sandman made Neil Gaiman a sensation. He has not stopped since that day. No matter the number of sales, the amount of fame, he stays the same. When meeting a comic book legend who created Spider-Man, a man named Steve Ditko, he came out of the building like a fan boy in awe and giddy. It was the coolest thing I had seen.

Talent? Yes, but others have talent. Gaiman has class.

ronovan writes copyright

 

 

 

 

Let’s connect.

https://twitter.com/RonovanWrites

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ronovan-Writes/630347477034132

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+RonovanWrites/about

ronovan-profile-bw

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

 

18 Quotes to Inspire Writers, Bloggers–Everyone.

The guy that came up with the Positivity campaign has a problem as he sits here and begins typing. He needs to think of something to write about. Part of the beginning an article with an idea yet to be developed is 18-quotespressure to write an article that is specifically about a certain topic. I gave ideas for others involved to do if they wanted help thinking of something. I am contrary to myself at times. I wanted to do an article instead. I think I like to hear myself type. Now, here I am—writer’s blocked.

As I typed those last two words, the idea came to me. There is something that gets in the way of all of us at times. It keeps us from being positive as often as we could. Did you see the words be positive all of the time in that last sentence?

I may attempt to be positive all the time, but there are life’s lessons that will come my way I need to wade through. Those are the moments that make me healthier mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. They are the moments that make my positive moments stronger. And they help me be more helpful in a positive way to others.

There are things we need to keep in mind. Pressures are often things we put upon ourselves. In reality they are all put upon by us in that we choose to accept the pressure moments. Yes, we have responsibilities, but within those responsibilities there should be an acceptance of reality; things will happen we need to work through, work with, stay calm through.

As I write whatever piece I am writing, those moments of stress come to me quite often as I attempt to capture the perfect voice, word, or phrasing. The books I am an author of are filled with pressure moments I have worked my way thorough. Only recently have I discovered a way to deal with them that may actually be a breakthrough for me.

With that in mind I have several quotes to share, to keep in mind.They are in the order in which I discovered them. I felt an order would negate perhaps the reason I found them in the way I did. Enjoy.

 

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.”~ Orson Welles

 

“We do not quit playing because we grow old; we grow old because we quit playing.”~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.”~ Mark Twain

 

“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”~ Oscar Wilde

 

“Before you can win, you have to believe you are worthy.”~ Mike Ditka

 

“It’s the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting.”~ Paulo Coelho

 

“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.”~ Anna Quindlen

 

“The man who doesn’t relax and hoot a few hoots voluntarily, now and then, is in great danger of hooting hoots and standing on his head for the edification of the pathologist and trained nurse, a little later on.”~Elbert Hubbard

 

“Men for the sake of getting a living forget to live.”~Margaret Fuller

 

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.”~Ovid

 

“One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important.” ~Bertrand Russell

 

“Stress is an ignorant state.  It believes that everything is an emergency.”~Natalie Goldberg

 

“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”~Mohandas K. Gandhi

 

“Slow down and everything you are chasing will come around and catch you.”~John De Paola

 

“Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries.”~Terri Guillemets

 

“Tension is who you think you should be.  Relaxation is who you are.”~Chinese Proverb

 

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths.”~Etty Hillesum

 

I hope you found a quote that made sense to you in a way.

@RonovanWrites

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

 

 

Encouragement as a Norm not an Exception.

Yesterday I spoke about The Importance of Being You. Thoughts were expressed and it’s a good topic, thus I thought to give it more space today.

There are many situations where people are afraid to be. Some are obvious and I will go ahead and mention them. There are homosexuals in less than accepting communities. There are ethnics in white communities that are not accepting. There are people of religions who are frightened in non accepting communities.

I think all of those are self explanatory. Even I, a white male  Christian can be concerned in certain situations. Surprising to some. I know there are probably a great many people that think I should never be concerned about being me. Yet here I sit. A long story I shall not go in to at this time. I have done so on my Christian site.

What other people might be afraid in situations to be who they are?

  • Intelligent people
  • Intellectually challenged people
  • Wealthy people
  • Poor people
  • Physically attractive people
  • Less than physically attractive people
  • Every ‘race’ of people
  • Every color of people
  • Males and Females
  • Every age
  • Political opinions
  • Thin people
  • Overweight people

And a whole lot more.

Seems a bit odd when you look at some of those and wonder how in the world they could be afraid to be them. But it happens.

What do I mean by afraid?

  • Outcast
  • Disowned by family and friends
  • Loss of job
  • Loss of life
  • Humiliation
  • Bodily harm

And more.

What people don’t understand is we cause those concerns by our actions. Even if we aren’t aware of what we do, we may still be inadvertently suppressing someone extraordinary.

I’ve mentioned before about how we should make a habit out of doing things to bring positivity to our lives. Get Positive: Sorting Your Junk talked about the sorting everything into files/folders. In Being Positive to See the Positive I talked about just that, recognizing the positive things around you by knowing what positivity is. How do you know what it is unless you are practicing it yourself?

Learning and habits are things that come in to play when we talk about fear and suppression. As anyone who has read my articles for any length of time will know, my faith guides a lot of how I do. Yes, I said how I do.

One thing I do is just go with it. You be you, and I’ll be me. As long as neither of us are doing harm to one another or to society then we’re good.

But one thing my faith leads me to do is constantly learn and be aware of others. Not every Christian takes that from the Bible but I do. You have all flavors of every faith. Makes for interesting conversations. And some whacked out ones too. Had to go ahead and say it.

I had to learn to be a Christian and am constantly learning more every time I open the Bible. You never stop learning.  When you are accustomed to constant learning and the acquiring of habits like prayer every morning and Bible study every morning and evening, your mind begins to work in habit forms.

I have a habit of encouraging others. I listen. I advise. I coax people out of their shells. I turn people into writers and bloggers. Why? Because I want people to have a chance to be something great and to share their world so others can benefit from them and what they have experienced and learned.

There are people all around us with amazing gifts that are being held back because of oppressive parents, abusive spouses, and I mean both genders, teachers who aren’t encouraging, a community that isn’t accepting, a government that promotes anti whatever a person may be.

We need to stop being negative norms and become positive norms. Look at the world today and just think if each person were encouraged to use their gifts and talents in a positive way, what would the world be like?

But you know what? If you don’t want to be encouraged by me, that’s okay too. I try, you say no, then we’re good. That’s a part of positivity, not forcing on to others.

I encourage. I encourage positivity. It’s my habit. Won’t you make it yours as well?

Share this article today with someone who needs to know it’s okay to be who they are. Show them you want to encourage them.

Ron_LWI

 

 

 

 

@RonovanWrites

on Facebook

on Google+

on GoodReads

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015

 

 

I Am Awesome. Empowerment. Women. #BeWoW

Everyone go and view this video. This is a must for every woman and every man as well. Every woman needs to hear it and every man needs to learn to say it. Go now! Please.

Crafting with Kate's avatarDazzling Whimsy

Join me and several other blogger friends for#BeWoW Bloggers. BeWoW means Be Wonderful on Wednesday and was create by Ronovan at RonovanWrites.

From his page:
Be Positive, Encouraging, Inspiration, and Uplifiting. If you like something positive you read somewhere, or you write something yourself, Tweet it with the hashtag of #BeWoW on Wednesday and we see it and ReTweet it and visit it ourselves to be encouraged. If you don’t like to Tweet, then share the link to that article you have or you found in a comment here so people can find it that might not normally do so.

My entry for today:

be-wow-blogger

View original post

Being Positive to See the Positive

Last week in Sorting Your Life’s Junk I talked about how the way to being a positive and wonderful me, well a better me, was how I like to place events and thoughts into  Mental Folders. I called them:

  • Awesome
  • Needs Work
  • So Not Worth It

By doing this, I am able to sort through things quickly and move on. It’s a habit. A reflex, if you want to look at it that way. Just like driving a car. You see  something brake in front of you, you don’t have to think about it, you hit your brakes to stop something bad from happening. This is the same thing. By sorting those events or interactions into folders, those emotional/mental energy vampires/leeches/parasites don’t have a chance to latch on.

But you are probably thinking to yourself there are still things in the folders and you are likely to thumb through those files at some point. Ignoring the negative things doesn’t work. I like the adage or phrase “You got to own it.”

Accept it and Deal With it

Eventually whatever it is must be taken care of. Due to a concussion I’m not allowed to drive at the moment. I’ve driven 7 minutes in the past 18 months. And that was an emergency. Am I happy?

I guess you need to take a look at happy first. Everything that needs to get done in my life gets done. So in the grand scheme of things, not driving is not a major problem for me. I have filed it and dealt with it. I’m okay with it.

Does being okay with it mean I don’t miss the ability to get up and go whenever I want to? No, of course not. But I own the situation, I understand it, and I handle it. It does not get me down.

But what about REAL problems?

I knew you were thinking that. I’ll use my Fibromyalgia. It was discovered that the debilitating pain that I had been having for more than a decade was Fibromyalgia, which runs in my family. Walking is difficult. Sleeping is difficult. Sitting is difficult. Lying down is difficult. Maybe you see where this is headed. Combine that with migraines that are 24/7 and things are bad. By 24/7 I mean they never stop, just vary be intensity.

So what do I do about that? What do I do because I miss ball games and school events of my son? I deal with it. I have a son and one to be proud of. So I can’t do everything I would like, I am still proud of him and tell him that and show him every chance I get. And he knows it. Does it get me down at times? For a moment, then I shake it off.

It’s Not All Sunshine and Peanut Butter Cups

That’s one thing we have to remember, positive doesn’t happen 100% of the time. It’s just like anything else, it’s what you do with it. I had an old pastor friend say to me once that you can look at a woman and see she’s beautiful, just don’t turn around and watch her walk away, that is where the bad part comes in.

What’s in your folders is the same way. You see it, and you deal with it. Sure, it will hit you and you might have a moment of problem but then move on and don’t look back. It’s done. It’s over.

As time goes by and perhaps the problem comes up again, you will eventually have developed the habit. File, deal, and begone. The most positive people are the ones usually who have gone through the most junk.

The Positive Results of Being Positive

Being positive has its advantages. You begin to see the positive in many situations you never saw before. You see beauty where you only saw ugliness before. And you give words of encouragement when you at one time yelled or ignored.

I’m positive positivity will bring positive things to your life.

For the next in my Positivity Day series, it’s not really a series but just me focusing on being positive, you may want to read The Importance of Being You. It’s kind of neat to see how someone grows and where their thoughts carry them on a subject in order. Do they grow or not?

Join me and several other blogger friends as we start #BeWoW Bloggers. BeWoW means Be Wonderful on Wednesday. Be Positive, Encouraging, Inspiration, and Uplifiting. If you like something positive you read somewhere, or you write something yourself, Tweet it with the hashtag of #BeWoW on Wednesday and we see it and ReTweet it and visit it ourselves to be encouraged. If you don’t like to Tweet, then share the link to that article you have or you found in a comment here so people can find it that might not normally do so.

Much Respect and Much Love to You,

Ronovan

Ronovan Writes

@RonovanWrites

FaceBook

GoodReads

Google+

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

© Copyright-All rights reserved by ronovanwrites.wordpress.com 2015