Take 2 Steps Toward Success – Learning And Taking Action

A willingness to learn new things is the first step to success. The second step  is to turn what you have learned into actions. 

Finding information and the willingness to learn new information is important, even if it can be overwhelming. Thanks to the internet, and instantly available ebooks, there are not many true excuses anyone can have for not finding the answers to a problem you have. There are facebook groups, forums, and networks on just about every subject. Peer support is a click away, courses on every subject are available, in many instances those are free. Gathering information is time-consuming, yet easy and possible.

Taking action, however, even if they are laid out in front of you, in workbooks, course assignments, daily assignment threads, or action prompts are often ignored, or “postponed” until a later time. I have heard so many excuses, real or imagined why someone could not follow through upon what they learned – from, lack of time to kids, to other responsibilities. Yet, we find time to talk about our favorite television shows, follow our favorite sports team, or leave comments on funny youtube videos.

If you want success you have to take both steps. 

There are no short-cuts around that fact – no one will learn what you need to learn for you, and no one will turn off that television or gaming console that distracts you from taking action. YOU have to make that commitment, YOU have to make that choice, between continued stagnant existence or success. Those two steps are the prize you have to pay, in order to become the person, I know you want to be.

Take those two steps and you will find, that the harder you work for your success, the less competition you will come in contact with. You see, too many choose the couch, the video game, the excuses, leaving a lot of opportunities open for those who are willing to work for it. They choose convenience over success.

Which one will you choose?

Blessings!

Claudia

P.S. If you are interested in growing now, and taking action now, join me at Wealthy Affiliate Network for free. Taking the first step to creating a first-rate online presence takes knowledge which can be sometimes elusive and confusing. Wealthy Affiliate has created free step-by-step lessons on how to build a website, how to find your niche, how to create great content and more. With incredible peer support, you can ask for as much or as little help as you need. What are you waiting for? Join now! 

 

 

8 Tips To Spring Clean Your Pinterest Account

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Spring will hopefully be upon us soon, and during this time of the year, spring cleaning is on the mind of many. Why not extend this sentiment to your social media presence? Today, I will be talking about getting your Pinterest account ready for ultimate performance by doing some simple spring cleaning.

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Before we talk about cleaning and organizing your boards make sure your profile has been optimized:

1. Make sure your website/blog have been verified
2. Make sure your description contains your relevant keywords
3. Update your profile picture, preferably using one that features your face.

 

 

 

Now to the eight tips to spring clean your Pinterest boards:

1. Move your seasonal boards into the correct order according to your season, for example, your spring and summer collections should be pulled forward while your winter collection should be on the very end of your boards at the moment.
2. Combine any boards that have only a few pins
3. Delete boards that either have too little amount of pins and can not be consolidated with another board, no longer fit into your website/brand/blog niche or do not have a large following.
4. Move your most popular boards to the front – use Pinterest analytics tools to see which boards are the most popular/ active at the moment, and display them as the first two rows. Remember that when looks at your profile, those are the only ones they initially see.
5. Edit board descriptions – make sure all of your boards contain relevant keywords and updated information to make them easy to be found in the search results.
6. Split large boards into two boards – narrowing down some boards to a separate subject matter makes it easier for the followers to find your individual pins.
7. Update your boards featured image – move your most popular pins to the featured position, in order to draw in more followers. But most importantly make sure that the featured pin describes your boards content well.
8. Check your pin’s URL’s. Make sure your pins go the actual post or merchandise with the correct link like they are supposed to. If not, change that immediately.

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A few more tips to keep you sane during the Pinterest Spring Cleaning

1. Choose only one or maybe two specific tasks to complete every day
2 Be clear about what you want to accomplish with your Pinterest presence – what do you want your boards and profile to say about you – do this before you start any spring cleaning, so you have a clear mission in mind.
3. Keep the amount of the group boards you are a part of to no more than 15 but no less than 5. Make sure they are all relevant to your brand and mission.

Have a great day!

Claudia

Words – Typography On My Mind

 

You Make Me Fearless by Claudia H. Blanton

I decided to try something new this week, venture outside of my artistic comfort zone and embrace the creation of some typographic posters. I do this every once in a while, move my focus upon a subject matter or a creative technique I have never tried before, and dive in. Sometimes, I find myself completely lost and drop it like a hot potato, but other times, like this week, I find a new creative outlet I actually enjoy. I enjoyed it enough to open a printable only Etsy store “No Plain Paper”.

Coffee By Claudia H. Blanton

These designs, like all of my other art work, are still available in my RedBubble and Zazzle stores, so you can purchase them on the many applications available there, like mugs, or as gratitude journals.

What do you do to push yourself outside of your comfort zone?

Spread Kindness Like Nutella – by Claudia H. Blanton

This week is the first time I am participating in the To-Know-Me Tuesday, where we are asked to post 10 things about ourselves.

So here they are:

1. I was born in Germany
2. My Dad was an organic gardener, in charge of our local gardening club, teaching green gardening techniques. I learned a lot from him on that subject.
3. I speed read – not as fast as I would like, yet – but I can get through a full-size novel in about 2 hours.
4. I am a fan of Chase Charvis, Gary Vaynerchuk and Tim Ferris
5. I can not dance – at all. Neither can my husband, so that works well.
6. I wrote, directed and performed in my first play when I was 10
7. I want to write the script to a featured film
8. I am a published Author. One of my books is available on Amazon
9. I can lip-read in two languages  – German and English
10. I wish there were 36 hours in the day – then I would probably find a way to fill them all, and wish there were 48 hours, lol.

Your turn!

This blog post is a part of the following blog hops:

Be Inspired Link Party

Amaze Me Monday

Inspire Me Wednesday

Tuesdays With A Twist

Manic Monday

Staying Positive And Staying Motivated

As artists, creatives and writers, we often do not see an immediate or obvious result from our efforts. We put ourselves out there, our art, in whichever form it presents itself, hoping that someone will connect with it as much as we have connected with it.

At times, this can be a long wait, through which staying positive and staying motivated can get really difficult.

In times like those, I tend to grab everything positive I can find. May it be a nice comment I receive, an additional follower on a social network, or simply the beauty of the designs my fellow artist put forth. Other times these efforts are a lot more deliberate, which is one of the reasons I participate in the weekly gratitude list on Fridays, and from now on will also participate in this positive blog hop: “Reasons To Be Cheerful”. Maybe the appeal is writing it down and sharing, maybe what I like about those hops is that it includes lists – and I am a list person – but the result is the same – it brings back some of the state of mind that keeps me going, keeps me motivated, and positive, an expect and state from which it is so easy to create from.

Here are my reasons I can be cheerful this week:

1. I finished another floral design!
Despite the fact that this week has been hectic, I managed to create another floral design last night. Considering how dark and dreary it had been outside over the last few days, I craved something bright, and it manifested itself into this very bright yellow flower. It is a digital manipulation of a picture of a flower I took quite a while ago. Adding the dark green background really made the brightness of the yellow come forth. Here it is:

2. I am getting used to my part-time job
I started a part-time job this week, helping in building a friend’s business. My husband and I are working on that as a team, and while it has been challenging, I am beginning to get to hang of it. New programs do not look as foreign anymore, and I do not feel like I do not know what I am talking about when I make necessary phone calls, which are a part of my job.

3. I was able to make a fellow artist happy!
I posted an interview with a Zazzle designer and author yesterday, and her reaction to the post was really cool! It was fun to talk to her about her work in the first place, but knowing that I made her happy was just wonderful.

What reasons do you have to be cheerful today? Why not join this blog hop and share your list with everyone!

Blessings!

Claudia

And Action! The Show Must Go On

We are a family of creative people, of artists, who need an outlet of some form or another to not go stir crazy. Creating is in our blood, so today’s daily prompt question made me smile:

If you were involved in a movie, would you rather be the director, the producer, or the lead performer? (Note: you can’t be the writer!).

Photographers, artists, poets: show us CELEBRITY.

Ah, the movies – the beauty and artistic expression of cinema! I spent many hours of my childhood within the confinements of a movie theater, which took me out of the bounds of a rather harsh childhood and transformed my life into something magical.

I still love the movies, the small artistic pieces as well as the big productions such as anything created by Marvel (so sue me, I am a Geek). It is not to my surprise that my daughter is two years away from embarking on a journey to study Film and a son who wants  to study Video Game creating, and song writing. My husband is itching for the day when my writing will make enough money for him to hand over our business to someone else, and he can devote his time to artistic photography. So, like I said, art is in our blood, it is who we are with every inch of our being.

But which role would I take within a movie, if I could not be the writer? Well maybe, in the midst of writing scripts, I will be one day as lucky as one of my personal heroes Joss Whedon and be able to direct, not just write cinema. I have no need to be in front of the camera, but I have to be in the middle of it, get my hands dirty, put together the pieces that make the stories come from paper to the wondrous creations I have been so lucky to see.

Maybe one day, one of you will be watching one of these movies, with my name at the end of the credits. If not, that is okay too, because writing is, and always will be my first and biggest artistic love. But it would the icing on the cake.

See you in Hollywood

 

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