Signs, signs, everywhere are signs

"I am delighted to invite you to a special evening for Pearls of Wisdom. Please join me and a group of like-minded women to explore your life and the connection of mind, body and spirit," the invite read. I'd never heard of the event before, or the woman who was running it. But last night I attended this women's workshop with a friend (the one who bought me the bike ring). It was a last minute invitation she forwarded to me that I wouldn't have otherwise known about if it weren't for her. I said yes.

To top it off, I didn't know they gave out prizes at the end, either. But they did. And I won!

Talk about being in the right place at the right time. I won the opportunity to get my message on video, so I can better market my services. FREE! Why, is this another sign that I'm heading in the right direction? Why, yes, I think it is. The universe is lining up the signs as if it were a freeway exit into a big city. Metaphorical rest stops keep appearing exactly when I don't think I can hold it any longer. It makes me feel very lucky. And relieved.

I am ready to receive.

What signs have been speaking louder than usual to you lately. Maybe it's time to listen.

3 ways to elicit or solicit the support of your friends

When women go through transitions stemming from the start of a new business, the breakup of a relationship, or starting a new exercise regimen, we turn to our friends for support.

There's good reason for that. They want to see you succeed. And just maybe they want to succeed right along with you. We're like lemmings, we want to go where we think the winners are going. And the more, the merrier, right?

If you're in the midst of one of these transitions -- or something else entirely -- I ask you: Where are you getting your help? Are you're friends stepping up in ways you hoped they would? If not, maybe they don't know what you need. Or maybe you're not opening up to them. If you're unsure how to solicit support from your friends (Maybe you learned that's weak. It's not. It's actually showing you know how to access your Inner strength and use your Expressive voice.), here are a few ways to let them know how they might aid you in your transition:

1) ASK FOR IT
It's one of the oldest tricks in the Holy Bible. Seriously. Not to get all church-y on you or anything, but Matthew 7:7 in the King James version says right there in printed word: "Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Just like I've always told my children: If you don't ask, you won't get. It's that simple. Just ask your friends for what you need. They might not be able to provide it, but they might be able to tell you who can.

2) ASK FOR REFERRALS
I wasn't always great at this, and sometimes I'm still not, but I have a friend who includes in his email signature the following line: "Referrals are always welcome." You know what, every time I see that, I think, "Smart guy." I haven't yet copied the line in my signature (Have you seen my signature? There's enough there already. One more line? Probably too much.), but I do consciously work at remembering to ask for referrals where I think it's appropriate or might lead somewhere. And almost any referral can lead somewhere. You never know how your carpet cleaning guy might be able to help. Mine cleans a lot of carpets, so he might know someone who knows somebody. You know? Refer back to 1) and ask for it, especially when you run into someone who cannot provide what you need at the moment. As long as you're aim is accurate, they are in the position to refer. For instance, a writer who pitches an editor an idea she liked and would have bought if it wasn't already publishing soon is likely to refer you to someone they know might be looking for a similar idea, so ask for it. 


3) SHARE YOUR STORY
Your friends are the people who will listen to your ideas about starting that new business. They are the ones who care enough to hear for the 100th time about the scumbag boss or the lowlife boyfriend, as long as you're taking proactive steps to move on. Your friends are the people who process what you tell them. They remember what you're doing, and they relate to the struggles you might be having. They care enough that when they're out in the world, just going about their business, they buy you something thoughtful -- something they know will help push you if they think you could use the support. Last night, a girlfriend of mine handed me the ring pictured above. We were celebrating her birthday, and yet she bought me a gift. She'd been reading about my renewed enthusiasm with the BIKE on Facebook and wanted to help. By buying the ring and giving it to me, she was showing her support. It's the way humans connect. So share your story. Tell your friends what you're doing. They may not directly help you. But they will pat you on the back. They'll give you the high-fives. Or they'll present you with a gift -- a token that will remind you that your friends do care about your success.

Friends are the people who want to support you, who want to help lift you up, even when you don't ask for it directly. But if you tell them what's going on in your life, if you share, they will hear you. And some of them (Not all of them. So don't be too hard on those who don't. It might not be something they're particularly good at. One can't be faulted for that.) will intuitively know how to respond. You will both be the better for it.

Can you think of a time when you didn't ask for help, when you kept your worries or concerns to yourself? That's a form of isolation. How do you think it affected you? What could you have done differently?   

Are you motivated by visuals?

If you're the type who, like me, is motivated by visuals, then you will appreciate this post. On the Google listserv, some bloggers participating in this year's Blogathon were discussing how many hits their posts or blogs are getting. One of us was so excited that a controversial post she wrote netted 1,000 hits in a single day. That's so amazing! I would be thrilled as well. One thousand hits for a single post! Need to spark some controversy, don't I? LOL.

No, seriously. I'm happy to get my 230, more or less, hits per day here. It's consistent, and consistently growing, as you can see from the graphic above. My readership (or at least site hits) has grown considerably since May of 2008, the year the WordCount Blogathon challenge began. The graphic shows me I am capable of taking nothing and turning it into something. The picture shows me what success looks like, and I like that. It motivates me to keep at it.

But are you also motivated by visuals? Would it help for you to see your stats in picture form? Do you use graphics to chart your success? In the early days of my blog, which I started in 2007, when I wasn't posting regularly, I wasn't tracking anything, either. I didn't understand how to add the analytics. It's only something I started maybe two years ago or less. But it's something I learned how to do because of the Blogathon. When I embedded the plug-in for analytics, the total number of hits for all-time here was recorded at 0. That number, which is calculating as we speak on my home page, said 75,000 when I started typing today's post. I'm finishing up with this post, and the calculator has already recorded 12 more clicks. That's exciting! The amped up activity that surrounds the Blogathon is exciting.

I hope you're feeling it just as much as I am, because we're in Week 2 now. If you're in need of motivation to keep going, to keep posting your daily thoughts and pictures, think about what that might be and pull those tools out. If it's a graphic, consider posting one from your stats. If it's participating more in the listserv, by all means, ask your questions. If it's spending more time than you have been updating your social media with links to your blog updates, do that as well. Whatever you need to push yourself through this next week, I hope you'll do it. If you do, post a comment here. Let us know how it's working for you.

5 movies that have inspired my writing

Today marks our first theme day. The 250+ bloggers participating in the WordCount Blogathon this month were asked to blog about the "five movies that have inspired my writing." Of course, there will be variations, as bloggers were told they can stray from the theme, stick to the theme, or not follow the theme at all. It's merely a suggestion, and I accept the challenge.

There's an additional challenge for me, though, because I don't watch movies with that much intention (meaning, I watch them merely to wind down and don't spend too much time analyzing them), so I had to cheat for this theme day. I visited a list of 100 inspirational films I found on Belief.net to find out what stood out to me. After coming up with a short list of four -- "Big," "Miracle on 34th Street," "The Sound of Music," and "Forrest Gump" -- I decided the films were probably favorites of many, a bit cliche' and not very original. So what to do?

Well, bikes, of course! So I searched Google.com for movies about bikes, looking for a connection of some sort or another, large or small. I wanted to see if that might inspire me to write something. Here's what I found:

5 movies that could have inspired my writing if...

• "E.T."  Who could forget the scene in the movie that introduced us to Drew Barrymore where the cute and adorable E.T. is taken home into the night sky on a bicycle! Isn't the little alien sitting in a basket? Ah, the stuff that fantasy is made of. I don't write fantasy or science fiction, but if I ever do, maybe this scene will influence me then. And you know what? It reminds me of the scene in the "Wizard of Oz." The Wicked Witch of the West does something similar. She rides off on a bike, for sure, but then disappears into the tornado.

• "Napoleon Dynamite"  "You got like three feet of air that time," says Napoleon to his new classmate Pedro. Napoleon's such a nerd, and so angst-filled, but his dry, whiny personality makes the movie for me in scenes such as the one where he asks Pedro to show him some "sweet jumps." I do not do sweet jumps, nor sour ones. I'm not a jumper at all, and it's not likely bike jumps will show up in my work. But you never know...I have written fiction before.

• "The Day I Became a Woman"  This one is an Iranian movie about three woman, one of whom risks divorce so that she can take part in a bike race. The brave woman is willing to give up her husband rather than her freedom. If I had seen this film, I think it might have inspired my writing in some way. In fact, I bet it would inspire my life!  Maybe I should see this one.

• "The Muppet Movie"  I couldn't remember that Kermit the Frog rode a bike in the series starring The Muppets. But he did. In the 1979 movie, he rides from his home in the swamp to Hollywood -- on a Schwinn bike. Very stylish, don't you think? Of course if I knew more about animation or puppetry, I might have been inspired. But I just prefer to sit back and enjoy a film that anthropomorphizes little green frogs who can sing "Rainbow Connection" while strumming a banjo. The bike ride is just a plus.

• "The 40-Year-Old Virgin"  Andy Stitzer rides his bike to his job at the Smart Tech electronics store where, when his co-workers learn he's still a virgin at age 40, they to help him get what they think he needs. Hilarious events unfold on the bike and elsewhere. If I knew how to write scripts, maybe this movie would have inspired my writing. But probably not, because the bathroom humor (albeit, really funny) isn't something I intend to master.

What movies would have inspired your writing, or your creative work, if...?

Slow down and smell the...saguaro

It's Sunday. I wanted a day of rest from the bike theme so decided to post a picture of something Arizona tourists love to see -- the stately saguaro.

I "made" this picture (as my photographer friends like to say) yesterday while on a hike with a girlfriend. We had gone off-trail and were fooling around with our cell phone cameras, taking pictures of each other, the saguaro, and other scenery. We were getting in some exercise and taking advantage of what might be the last of the cool mornings here in Phoenix. When the Arizona summer sun heats up and takes over, it'll be too hot to hike the desert trails -- at least at the time we were out there, 7-ish. We'll have to get out at 5 a.m., or earlier, and we'll want to get our hike done quickly. But this morning, we had time to dawdle.

When you have time to slow down, what do you like to do? Can't think of anything? I found some websites to help you out:

• Daily Dawdle  Just some fun stuff that will surely waste your time, like learning how to feed your dogs their drugs. I don't know about you, but I always used peanut butter. Anyway, I kind of like these different staircase designs. Warning: Visit this site ONLY when you have enough time on your hands. 

• Boone Dawdle  Who knew?! An event that celebrates the idea of taking one's time, and, okay, it involves a bike ride. But darn it, you know how obsessed (see link above) I am with bikes!

• Article on toddlers and dawdling  It appears we start this habit at a young age. Too bad parents can't appreciate slowing down like toddlers can. Seems to me we can learn a lot from a 2-year-old.

• A how-to site  So you're saying you don't know how to pronounce the word, dawdle? No problem. There's a site for that -- and more. Just type in a word and click on the audio arrow at the top of the page. Great for your non-English speaking friends.

• Pointless Sites  A site by any other name...You'll definitely waste a lot of time here. I spent about an hour here trying to create sand designs or alter the flow of sand at Falling Sand, learn a llama song, getting dizzy watching a can of Heinz baked beans about to explode (I couldn't wait long enough to see if it did), and more. My favorite game was Avoiding Tangerines. Too funny. 

You're welcome.