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Date: 16th January 2017, Posted by mollie
As the new year kicks off it’s a good time to take stock of the memories deeply engrained within your heart and memory. It’s so affirming to look back over the last 12 months and take an inventory of all the things that happened—the good and the not so good—and reflect on successes and lessons learned.
New Year’s resolutions often involve taking something away from your life. This year, I’m encouraging you to add something new instead. As well intentioned as they may be, fortunately New Year’s resolutions often end in disappointment. The trouble is, they’re often short-term, rely on willpower and lack a inspired solution focus.
Which is why I’m sharing my new year solutions (not resolutions) with you on my blog. I hope they spark an inspired change and encourage you to dream big.
Last year the new year (2016) passed in a dizzy drunken blur of bad music and false friends. This year I was with my lover (and best friend) sober in Fiji. It was magic. Dinner barefoot on a sandy beach beneath a kaleidoscope of fireworks. 2017 is my year of living magically – and beautifully.
If you’ve read, The Italian Billionaire’s Christmas Bride you’ll know Fiji intimately. I began this book when I will holidaying there three Christmas’s ago. It was so blissful to return there. Fiji is my happy place. Have you been?
Albert Einstein once said, “‘If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or objects.’ I took his advice to heart last year – big time! Mostly I set aside more time to do what I loved.
I fell back in love with fiction. After spending much of my adult life in business roles and writing about careers—how to survive them, change them and thrive in them—I’ve become a ravenous reader of all things escapism. I love immersing myself in new worlds…especially if there is an element of history and/or the books are art-related in some way, like one of the books I read in 2016 – Jessie Burton’s, The Muse.
Inspired by my love of escapism I wrote two art-related romance novels in 2016, and indie published them under one of my new business lines, Blue Orchid Publishing. It has been heartening to receive wonderful feedback from readers, like one Amazon reviewer who posted a five-star review and said, “Beautiful. Resonated in my soul, gives me hope that I will meet my Prince one day and he will love me for who I am.” The two books I wrote are:
The Italian Billionaire’s Christmas Bride and The Italian Billionaire’s Scandalous Marriage.
The awesome feedback I’ve received is particularly encouraging as, like many successful authors, I had to ensure rejection – and worse the silent treatment from a New York agent who asked me to send her my books and then never got back to me. On the upside this experience lead me to create a new business and new brand – something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I read a book about New Zealand romance writers over ten years ago, The Passionate Pen.
It’s been my absolute joy to have heard from so many people who have told me how much my stories resonated with them and who have posted feedback on Amazon. I love hearing from you.
Last year, as a result of my books going out into the world, I was contacted by many people in American, Europe, Australia and Asia and asked to share my experiences on podcasts, and in their books, including (appropriately) Write Your Book at Fifty by Jeanette Martin. Yesterday I received an email with another request to share my story in a new book which will be released later this year, called Thrive: Finding Space to Live a Creative Life. As the author, says, “It’s about connecting with your creativity (or a neglected passion), creating the time/space/lifestyle to pursue your creativity, and building habits to live a more creative life. I wrote it because for so long, I was stuck on the hamster wheel of being a workaholic and completely ignoring my creative side. I hope to help others who may also be unhappy,” the author wrote to me.
Amazingly the theme of this book sums up last year (and my intention for those that follow) perfectly. To live and work with passion, creativity and joy you need to make space.
So anyhow’s onto my new year’s solutions:
A few quotes that are inspiring me this year:
Do NOT sit there like ‘Oh I don’t feel like it today. I don’t feel like it tomorrow.’ Feel like it! Do it! Force yourself. —James Patterson
“Know what you want and try to go beyond your own explanations. Improve your dancing, practice a lot, and set a very high goal, one that will be difficult to achieve. Because that is an artist’s million: to go beyond one’s limits. An artist who desires very little and achieves it has failed in life.” ~ Paulo Coehlo, in his book “The Spy.”
“Art is the queen of all sciences communicating knowledge to all generations of the world.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
There—I’ve declared my intent for this year. Writing it down and sharing it with you makes it feel more concrete and me more accountable. It remains to be seen whether I achieve any of these, but I’m going to give them my best shot. Meanwhile I wish you a very Happy New Year. May it be beautiful, prosperous, interesting, productive and joyful
p.s.
Posted in: Mollie's Blog, Romance