Archive

Tag Archives: Duolingo

Working Hard Preparing For This Month’s Events

August 7, 2015
Total LIfe Makeover
2 Comments

What should I do now?

What should I do now?

During the past week I have been working twelve hour shifts at my job that keeps the cash flow going. In addition, I have been starting to seriously market my book as well as letting people know that we are starting a writer’s club at the end of the month just two days after the book launch.

Preparing for the Book Launch

This may see sort of crazy, but I did not have a mailbox before last week, so last week on Monday I had to put up the mailbox. That done, I was able to get my home phone put in so that I could take calls about both the book launch and the writer’s club.It took me most of the whole week to get the phone put in. It was a long frustrating story that I do not care to repeat. Let’s just say that I doubt I will get internet or television service through them.

Another thing that I have done is had a flyer made for the book launch. I decided to invest a bit of advertising money into this project so that I have a professional looking poster for the launch. At the same time I am having a poster made with blank location, time and date so that I can use the same design for future author events. Yesterday I checked into the flyer’s progress.

In addition, to all of this, I have been thinking about other places that I can do author events in the future and one idea that I have is that I would like to speak at senior citizen centers around the area, then the state, and then the nation. Although some seniors like the e-book, others still prefer to read real books.

Last Thursday I ordered books for the book launch and I formatted the book to put on Kindle and is ready to add to other e-book sites later. I still haven’t thought a lot about my online book campaign. That will happen once I get a better handle on this book launch

Final cover for A Cowards Solace

Preparing For The Oregon County Writer’s Club meeting

I am not made of money, so for the flyer for this event, I went extremely low tech. I designed a black and white, text only flyer that I had copied for ten cents per copy and made fifty copies. So far I have only handed out three of the fifty. when I get my flyers for the book launch, I will hang them up around the county at the same time.

Wednesday I worked on contacting newspapers and radio stations about this writer’s club meeting.

As soon as the flyer for the book launch is done, I will be putting both flyers up around the county. I should have had them up at least a week ago, but  not everyone is as dedicated to my projects as I am. I guess.

Time On Duolingo

since i finished the second draft on my second book, on the days that I was working at my job, I spent much of my early morning and evening time on the internet doing my language courses on Duolingo. I finished all the lessons in the Spanish course, and I have been reviewing what I have learned.since I finished the lessons last month. On August first, I started French and have been doing really well in that. I studied French in high school (and failed it), but I am surprised at how much I still remember from then. (I was in high school 40 years ago!) I haven’t worked in Bubblews in several days.

So overall, most of my time has been spent preparing to market my book launch, announcing the book club, and studying Spanish and French, oh, and yes, working too. Today for a change of pace,  I will be going school shopping with my daughter, and  then tomorrow it is back to marketing.

IMG_8330 final copy

 

Donna Brown is an ordained minister. As Author Cygnet Brown, she  has recently published her first nonfiction book: Simply Vegetable Gardening: Simple Organic Gardening Tips for the Beginning Gardener

She is also the author of historical fiction series The Locket Saga. which includes When God Turned His Head and Soldiers Don’t Cry, the Locket Saga Continues. Her upcoming book A Coward’s Solace will be available soon. Click here for more information about Cygnet Brown and her books.

January’s Affirmation: I Am Organized and Productive

January 8, 2015
Total LIfe Makeover
2 Comments

Affirmations are Statements of Faith

Romanian Monastery

Romanian Monastery

Some Christians believe that affirmations that people set in front of them and meditate on are new age concepts that Christians should not participate in using them. This however cannot be further from the truth. The Bible tells us to meditate on scriptures. Scriptures which are statements of truth. That is all that an affirmation is, a statement of what we believe should be true. An affirmation directly out of the Bible that individuals who are sick should read is from Isaiah 53:5: “by his stripes we are healed.”

Another word for affirmation is intention. This affirmation or any affirmation says something about how I intend to grow in character. I use the statement rather than putting this affirmation into a desire. Rather than saying  I will be organized and productive, I say I am organized and productive.This statement is in the present tense rather than the future tense because I intend to reinforce  this affirmation  with action today.

Affirmations like Bible memory verses should be meditated on throughout the day. The first thing I do in the morning is read the affirmation. I have the affirmation posted in numerous places and read them at various times during the day. I have a card that I carry with me in my purse. Before I go to bed at night, I read over the affirmation. Sometime during the day I do at least one (often small) action that reinforces the affirmation.

Affirmations Are More Effective if Backed Up with Action

Faith if it has not works is dead being alone. Yes, a man may say you have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. James 2: 17&18

I have read studies that state that affirmations on their own do little to change an individual’s behavior. I know that is true with me. If I read an affirmation, if I do not really believe it, I cannot make myself read affirmations until I believe what I am reading. No matter how loud or how many times I read the affirmation, there’s still that little voice in my head that says that there is no substance to the affirmation.

Other studies, however, say that when affirmations are most effective when backed up by actions. Actions give affirmations are given substance. For instance, since the beginning of the year, every day,  I have been putting action to this affirmation. I wrote out the affirmation card (organization). I cleaned my closet (organization). I wrote a Bubblew for every day so far this year (production). This is my third Blog for this year (production). I have worked on the final edit of my newest book A Coward’s Solace. I write down all the action that I have done so that I can visualize what I have already done. This also adds substance to the affirmation.

Using Streaks to Maintain Momentum

Jerry Seinfeld said that when he was writing jokes, he would write so many jokes per day. As soon as he had written that many jokes that day, he would put an “X” on his calendar. Once the “X” was on the calendar, he determined that he would then be done for the day. He knew that it was more important to write jokes every day than it was to spend a lot of time on one day writing his jokes. When he looked at his calendar, he knew that the streak of “X”‘s on his calendar indicated that he was being productive and was making progress. He would get bummed if he had to start over because he broke his winning streak.

I have a couple of .projects that I too am using streaks to move ahead. One way that I am using this method is in learning the Spanish language. I am using Duolingo as the program that I am using because for one it is free and  two it is easy for me to use. I don’t have to do anything accept do one ten point lesson per day and I have a streak some days I do more, but all I require myself to do is one lesson per day. To this date, my winning streak is 33 days. For more information about this program, check out my article Learn a Language for Free.

The other way that I use it is for keeping track of the days that I am working on current work in progress in The Locket Sage Book 3: A Coward’s Solace. I have to admit, I have not been as successful with this because my streak is currently only 3 days long.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles Begins with a Single Step

As was stated earlier, it is not as important to do a lot every day as much as it is important to do at least a little every day. By focusing on the affirmations and the consistent daily action, My goal this month of being organized and productive is being realized. It is not even as difficult as I thought it would be. It really does take a goal and the determination and faith to do the work required to make the goal a reality.

%d bloggers like this: