Choice-Chance-Change – Transforming Your Life

                                                          Earth in Hands of Potter by Dan

Such simple words and yet they can be so powerful. Have you ever been faced with choices but you were afraid to take a chance? Sometimes, being brave enough to take a chance can change your life for the better. If you really think about it, these everyday words can hold such sway over whether we succeed or fail. Let’s take them individually, starting first with the definition from The Free Dictionary:

CHOICE: The power, right or liberty to choose (make a selection)

The ‘power’ to decide what to do, how to act: Isn’t it a great thing that you can wield this power and that you have the ‘liberty’ to make a selection about your life? This is by no means easy for everyone, but just thinking about it can be real heady feeling. Of course, no one is saying that all choices are easy, but you should not shy away from making choices, even if they are hard ones.

Sometimes we are reluctant to make choices because of the unknown, so we stick with what we know even if it makes us unhappy. Many of us stay in jobs that we hate simply because we are afraid to start over, especially if we are of a certain age.

CHANCE:  A force assumed to cause events that cannot be foreseen or controlled; luck

A chance is a risk, but you need to remember that risks can be both positive and negative. This is the first challenge that we need to get past, thinking that risk is always negative. What can come out of taking a chance is is an unpredictable outcome, but this may be the outcome that could change your life for the better.

 CHANGE: A transformation or transition from one state, condition, or phase to another

 By making a choice to take a chance you can put in motion the events to cause a change in your life. If you are unhappy or feeling unfulfilled, why not take the leap of faith?  The adventures that can result from taking this step can change your life for the better. Think it through, weigh the pros and cons of a choice and if the positives outweigh the negatives it may be time to take that chance to change your career, your job or to simply start living the life you desire. 

Remember that the power is within you!

Coming Up Blank – Combating that Feeling of Not Knowing What to Write

As a writer, it is never a good thing to come up blank – nada -nothing to put down on paper or the computer screen. When this happens, it does not mean that I have no ideas, sometimes, I have too many and nothing is coming together. Finding a way around this jumble of thoughts that make writing difficult is not always easy and the same solutions don’t always work either.

Steps in Beating Writer's Block

Some of the ways I deal with coming up blank are:

• Stepping away from the writing for a while; it doesn’t always make sense to push it
• Sometimes I just start writing, like now, and the words begin to flow. At times like this I don’t always know what I will be writing about, but I just write. When I am finished, I may have an article down or have fleshed out a story. Sometimes it’s just ideas to use on another day
• Change the focus of what I was writing, so if I’m on a research heavy article for a client, I may switch to one of my novels or a poem
• Reading or watching a movie or even one of my favorite game shows is just the break my mind needs. Sometimes I sit with pen and paper close at hand so I can jot down any thoughts or ideas that pop into my head at these times
• A spot of gardening gets my circulation going, which helps to clear my mind and gets me ready to start writing
  
• Going to sleep can sometimes provide just the break I need to start over refreshed and ready to start doing what I love – write

So, what about you – how do you deal with those days when the words fail you?