What Punctuation Mark Describes Your Life?

I am almost always looking for ways to keep myself uplifted. Yet often during a day, my energy lags behind my ‘to do today’ list and I find myself fizzling out. One way I pick myself back up is to put an exclamation point behind my name, particularly on e-mails. I’m not just Vivian; I’m Vivian!

My lifework is to uplift others and remind us all that we make a difference every day. It can be a positive or negative difference but every day in every way, we make a difference! And we must do that for ourselves as well. In addition to putting an (!) after my name, I also take these eight actions almost every day:

Right away in the morning while still in bed:

1) List 10 things from yesterday that I’m thankful for. (It’s also a great way to keep track of daily events).

2) Complete my ‘Fabulous Five Focus’ sheet (see below).

Upon rising:

3) Say ‘thank you’ three times as soon as my feet touch the floor after I get out of bed

During the day:

4) Act on something that comes to my mind to do for someone else.

5) Organize my day by asking myself, ‘What’s the BEST THING I can do right now”?

6) Another way to getting a sense of direction when I need to make a decision is to ask, “What Would Love Do?”

7) Ask myself, “What’s good about what’s happening right now?” That’s not always easy to answer with great positivity but most times, there’s another perspective that can improve my attitude.

8) Ask Life for a lovely surprise and watch for it! It’s fun to live expecting something positive.

When interacting with others:

9) Say ‘thank you’ instead of “I’m sorry.” “Thank you for reminding me; thank you for sharing your opinion/perspective; thank you for thinking of me; for explaining that to me; thank you for taking time to…”. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you!

10) Ask a question instead of making a blanket statement. Instead of “I need you to go to the store and pick up…”, how about, “Would you be able to” or “I would so appreciate it if…”.

My husband’s punctuation would be a question mark. He’s always asking questions, especially “Honey, where did you put my LALALA.” I don’t usually know what or where his LALALA is because I didn’t do anything with it. Still, he’s inquisitive about everything which keeps life fun and moving forward.

Thanking you for the difference YOU make to Life each and every day!

Vivian!

How Do I Know If My Story is Complete?

I’m probably the last person you want to ask. After all, I’ve been at my five-book series, off and on, for over twenty years—The Woman Who Forgot Who She Was. But I’m glad you asked because I’d like to say that you’ll know. If It Takes Forever I Will Wait For YOU, comes to mind.

Several of my stories were quick and easy. ‘The Little Black Book for BLUE People’ came to me suddenly while I was in the shower during a writing sabbatical. Presto. The premise was, What if everyone who feels blue, actually.

Death by Roses took five years although the essence of the story came dropped in to visit after am emotional trauma. My sister had passed away from ALS and within a week or two, it interrupted my five-book series for five years. Sometimes in life we have multiple things to accomplish. Perhaps, like me, you have another career, a family, and other commitments that take time. I’ve learned that everything takes time, but it all takes place in exactly the right time. My work is to let it be and and trust that it will occur as it’s ready, not just if I think it should be.

‘The Woman Who Forgot Who She Was’ has marinated longer than any of my other books, but I’ve learned to accept that. Even now as I finish Book Two, I’m getting more details that will make the story even more compelling. For a writer it’s quite rewarding to know you’re not waiting without purpose. Something wants attention, so it’s best to wait it out.

Some of you can pound out a story in ninety days, like I’ve been taught in ‘Self-Publishing School’ of which I am a devoted member. But if that’s not you…if, like me, you are knitting an afghan that’s much bigger than you are, it’s because it’s supposed to wrap more people into it so that we can snuggle together in ‘once upon a time,” honor that because you’ll be glad you did.

Let the story take you where it wants to go and enjoy the journey.

Bye for now.

Vivian Probst

*Probst likes to write in what she calls ‘WEnglish’, an inclusive form of English that respects all gender preferences. To do that, she extracts approximately 30,000 unnecessary ‘man’ words from her writing. More at vivianprobst.com/WEnglish. ‘THE” is our most common word in English. Probst takes ‘he’ out of ‘the’ and spells it as it is most commonly pronounced, THA.

Vivian Probst is an award-winning author. Her latest work, ‘The Woman Who Forgot Who She Was’ is a fictional five book series (so far). Book One, subtitled ‘Dissolving Her Despair’ is available as an e-book and as a paperback book on Amazon. Book Two: ‘Waking From Her Weariness’ is expected to be released by April 30th. Probst is writing each book in both English and WEnglish™, her linguistic attempt to make English more gender inclusive for all. More at vivianprobst.com