Finding you in 2012...

Who am I really? I want to be authentic.

I'm a curious person - about everything. I look for meaning in every aspect of this world. I think about how my life is interwined with every other person on this earth and how each of us can help the other in small ways every minute of every hour and how this fits into where I am in the world. Technology has made connecting with others that much easier which is why I believe a world without technology would be just plain boring.

A HUGE thank you to Bill Gates! For not only has Mr Gates changed the lives of most people in the modern world, he reaches out to the darkest corners of our planet to help people who have no access to the basics we take for granted: clean water, medical care, a house to live in, the right to earn a living, peace and much, much more. I applaud him and am so humbled by what he has achieved in his life this far.

He has inspired me to move out of my comfort zone and challenged me to get outside my own skin and change the world with all I've got. I believe change will only happen in this world if each of us look within and admit we have weaknesses to ourselves and admit those weakness to others. It is by sharing the weaknesses with each other that they become strengths. We begin to admire the strengths in others and ourselves and forget about the weaknesses.

The Bible is a book that has been read by millions throughout generations. It is a book of hope, a book to live your life by, a book that tells you how to behave and how to care for your family. It is a book that gives you self-confidence and helps you see the real you. If you don't want to discover the truth about yourself or you don't want to improve your lot in life, don't read it. It's a book you can get hooked on. The more you read, the more you want to read to help solve the mystery that is really you. We are a mystery to ourselves, only God knows who we really are and why we've been put on this earth. The Bible is a great place to start if you want to find the truth about you.

In 2012, I encourage you to get a copy of this guide to personal freedom and see how it will change your life. You will begin to understand yourself and the reason you are on this earth in this period of time. Does knowing you are here for a purpose sound scary...too much responsibility? Be courageous, take hold of the truth in the Bible and understand your purpose.

You just might be the next Bill Gates.

Love, peace and blessings be with you during this festive season.

The Joy of Getting Started

Without innovation, nothing can be improved.

In my last blog I talked about perfectionism. I haven't blogged for a few weeks so that you could take time to think and meditate on your view of what it means to be perfect. I hope you've resolved to put perfection behind you and grasped the spark of creativity and stepped out with new confidence and enthusiasm to work toward your goal.

For me, the beginning of a project is the exciting part. An idea sparks out of the dark void of nothingness, dancing behind my eyes tantalising me and staying there until I accept or reject it. The spark teases me and dares me to take hold of it and make it mine.

'That happens to me, too," I hear you say. Great!

But you have doubts swirling in your head that the project is too large and that you'll never be able to finish it. Yes, a project worth doing is big and the task can be overwhelming. However, if you break it down into stages and work on it one stage at a time, the pieces will begin to come together to make the whole. A creative work can't be completed overnight. The idea needs time to be in your conscience, baking away until it is ready to be brought out and inspected as to whether it is worthy of your attention. It usually is. My encouragement for beginning your projects isn't just about writing, but any creative endeavour you want to explore, whether it's art, inventing a new product, or starting a new business venture. I'll use my writing as the example here today.

When I write my novels, I break the project down into scenes. I may not know all my scenes, but I have a starting point. I choose a scene that is strong in my mind and begin there. This scene may be in the middle of the work, at the end or around chapter two. It doesn't matter where you start your project so long as you begin. Take those first tentative steps, give your creativity freedom to take you wherever it wants to go and then choose the strongest image or idea to begin.

Yes, I'm giving you permission to daydream. It's fun and something I like to do all the time. My family and friends often find me staring into space. "Laura's in her own little world again. We won't get any sense from her today." We laugh. It's who I am.

Give your full focus to this creative process. Make notes; talk to the project out loud; play music while you're thinking about it; go for a walk or other exercise you enjoy; sing, mmm, I better be honest here: I make noise to mimic singing (yes, I'm a little weird sometimes); or talk about it with a trusted friend and explore new ideas that come to mind during these out loud moments. It's a great idea to have a large white board in your work area. Before long you'll have more ideas than you know what to do with. Record each of them so that you can come back to them. Soon you will see a common thread throughout your notes. This thread is the basis of your project. Explore it some more and you'll come up with even more ideas.

Say goodbye to your doubts forever. Delight in your project, believe in it, and the product of your creativity will unfold under your hands and grow to more than you could have imagined. The fun part is getting started.

I enjoy hearing about how you tackle your projects. Please leave a comment so we can discuss this together.

Achieving The Dream

Have you ever come to your latest project and no matter how hard you try to get started, you can't?

Many authors and aspiring authors have signed up for the National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), which is into day six as I write this blog. For those of you not familiar with NaNoWriMo, the challenge is to join an online community of writers all striving for the goal of writing the number of words they want to write in November. Most writers strive for 50,000 words, which means 1,667 words per day to be written for the full thirty days. This sounds easy until you have to find the time to sit in front of your computer; ensure your creativity is going to kick in when you want it; and giving time to your spouse and family. When taking all these factors into consideration, you suddenly discover writing a novel of 50,000 words in a month is a major project. A project of this size tests your creative ability; your discipline to sit at the computer each night, especially if you have a day job that takes all your energy; and your patience with your family who love you to be with them after dark. However, NaNoWriMo is great way of getting started on a project and creating the habit to get the work done.

What if you're someone who has a dream to learn to play a musical instrument, to invent a device that will make human life simpler and easier in the future, or paint a masterpiece that's going to hang in the National Gallery of Australia, or any other project that's imprinted on your heart you want to achieve. There's no such thing as NaNoWriMo to keep you focused. So what are you going to do?

Firstly, let me talk about an attitude that can destroy any dreams you have as quick as thinking of them if you let it sneak into you psyche: perfection. Perfectionism will cramp your style and strangle any hopes or ideas you might have in achieving a dream.

I speak from experience: when I first started writing I thought every word I typed into my computer or wrote on a piece of paper had to be perfect. This ridiculous attitude delayed the publication of my first book for years. I thought every word I wrote was rubbish and wouldn't mean a thing to a reader. My work sounded so different to all the other published writers' work. I tried to emulate the great authors, but still my work wasn't getting published. It wasn't until I realised every author had their own distinct voice and that they wrote from their hearts that I understood where I was going wrong.

Achieving my dream wasn't about perfectionism, it was about understanding who I am as a writer and writing about issues that are important to me so that my writing style and voice began to develop.

Walk the path and see where it will lead you.

So, it is for anyone achieving the dreams they have in their heart. Be yourself and take hold of the dream and never let go of it. Forget that the word 'perfect' has ever existed. This is your time in history, take hold of the life given to you and step forward to achieve your dreams.

Toss this word out of your vocabulary now, practise the skills that will enable you to fulfill your dreams and in little steps reach out and take all that's meant for your life.

Have you let perfectionism cripple your life and your dreams? Let me know how you overcame this attitude that has the power to destroy the person who we were meant to be.

The Next Chapter Unfolds...

Life in the tropics.

It's happened, before I thought it would!

Almost twelve years ago our family left Townsville to live on the Gold Coast so that our son, who is an IT guru, would have opportunities to work in that field. Our time on the Gold Coast was an interesting time full of challenges but a fun place to call home. Our son is now an adult and well on his way to an interesting career in IT.

Knowing he was settled, left me wondering where my future lay. Yes, of course, I'm a writer that was obvious, but where do I feel the freedom to write with no distractions. Part of our travels around Australia was to find the place where we were meant to be. Leaving my life behind on the Gold Coast was quite a challenge, but I also found it exciting to work out where the next chapter of my life was about to unfold. Living down south was exciting, but it wasn't for me climatically, so we headed north to the warmth, and discovered we belong up here in the tropics with humidity, balmy nights, open spaces, palm trees and the beautiful Great Barrier Reef at our doorstep. We were scuba divers at another time in our life.

Extended family living here also strongly influenced my decision to live in Mackay. In my adult years I've never lived in the same town as family, so Mackay has offered this wonderful opportunity for me to connect with them.

Another bonus was meeting author, Rose Dee, whose first book will be released in mid-November, 2011 by Even Before Publishing entitled Back to Resolution. It's great to meet and support each other on our writing journey.

So, it's official, we've decided to make Mackay our new home. Our house on the Gold Coast is on the market and we're searching for our new place to put down roots. We've lived in Townsville on three different occasions in the past, so it's no surprise we've returned to north Queensland. Mackay has regular flights in and out which are relatively cheap with lots of flights daily. The hour and a half trip to Brisbane means our son can visit often when he needs time out from his busy schedule, or I can return to the Gold Coast when I want to catch up with him and old friends.

My change of lifestyle isn't as dramatic as Gina's in my book, African Hearts. Gina was a woman with courage, understanding her strengths and moving forward to grasp new experiences. I learned from Gina that fear is real, but it can be overcome and there are many advantanges to going places that seem way too scarey.

Travelling in the van has given me the opportunity to meet many people throughout this vast country; connect with my readers and other writers; and to give me new fodder for my future projects.

I haven't been to Western and central Australia, but those places are still on my list of places to visit. It's time for me to be still for a while and focus again on my next work which is almost complete. When the time is right, I'll step out and seek all that the great central and west has to offer.

Where are you in your journey of life? Are you in a time of being, or are you caught up in the excitement and stress of change? If you're in the latter, hang in there, you'll soon be in that new place. I encourage you to hold on tight and enjoy the ride. You'll grow from the experience and have new resources to call on in the future when you next take a leap of faith.

Changing Direction

Is your life feeling a little stale?

You're kind of bored and thinking there's got to be more to life than what you're doing? You're not alone. There are many people who want to change their lives but they're caught in a place they can't see their way out. It's time to make a decision, empower yourself and take a leap of faith.

Gina Messina, the heroine in African Hearts was at the same place. She had everything she wanted: a penthouse in the middle of the Gold Coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean, world travel to seek out new import products for the business she inherited from her parents, and more money than she knew what to do with. But Gina's conscience niggled her she should be doing more, but she wasn't sure what that 'more' might be.

African Hearts by Laura O'Connell

Life has a strange way of taking us places we'd never thought. Gina received a letter from her brother's doctor in Africa advising her Marco was dying in a remote Ugandan village. Gina's ordered life was thrown into chaos. She desperately wanted to see him before he died so she had no choice but to step out of her comfort zone and take a leap of faith. Her decision to go to Africa changed her life.

If you were in Gina's situation would you have taken the leap and travelled on your own to Africa for your dying brother?

The last time Gina had seen her brother he'd been a drug addict and had left a trail of unpaid bills behind him. He didn't tell her where he was going and hadn't contacted her for the ten years he'd been away. Marco's life was a mess. He was hurting and he wanted a new beginning. He plucked up the courage to make change and he felt he needed to do it on his own, which is why Gina hadn't heard from him.

Gina had a lot of courage to drop everything and go to the remote village on her own. It was her only opportunity to see him for the last time. That wasn't an easy decision for her to make. If you were in Gina's shoes would you have had the courage to go to Africa? Are you in a similar place in your life where you're sensing you need to make change, but you're not sure where or how?

When I wrote African Hearts I was hoping it would inspire my reader to take hold of all that life has to offer and not be afraid of making change. Even though the future looks scary, be brave like Gina and take a leap of faith. You just never know where that will take you. Let me know what you decide to do. I'd love to hear from you.