Learning to become who I was created to be
Hi, I’m JR “Jack” Heimbigner!
I have been writing for four years and have published hundreds of posts. This year, I am getting ready to do something completely different than ever before. In fact, I’m scared to death to do it because it's a major change for me.
Before we go into that, let me share a little more about where I have been. I find it helps to understand where I am going when I can take a quick look backward.
Chances are, you found me by reading one of these two posts:
These two stories have had a lot of readers stop by and over the last few years, I have written on a lot…
And I thought 2020 sucked
Death. Heartbreak. Sadness. Marginalization. Frustration. Worn out. Exhausted.
All words I have used to describe this year. In fact, the list goes on and on. I find myself feeling years older than I did at the beginning of the year. Sure, I’m 36, but this has been one of the toughest years of my life. If not the toughest.
I keep trying to reconcile it. Maybe something good is going to come out of it or maybe I will find some important lesson. I’m an eternal optimist after all. But I honestly struggling to be optimistic whatsoever these days.
The…
The wisdom of God spoken to us through Proverbs
The Book of Proverbs is one of my favorite books of the Bible.
Yes, I have said this about The Gospel of John too, but that's because each book has a special place in my heart. You see, Proverbs gave me a place where I could learn from the Bible and apply it to my everyday life.
Once I started to do that, I started to see major changes in my life.
Now, that is not to say there are some strange things in this particular book of the Bible. There are. …
An example of finding an opportunity where you least expect it
I hate the articles that say you can start a side hustle by blogging.
They make sound like you are going to make millions of dollars by creating a blog, putting some ads on it, and then hiring a bunch of Fiverr workers to fill the web pages with subpar articles. I mean, you can do that, but your chances of success are slim.
Yet, the advice for passive income by ads and affiliate marketing on blogs is saturated in these types of articles it's like swimming through mud. You think it might be fun, you want to make that…
When an opportunity looks us in the face we need to take it
We can easily fail to capitalize on opportunities as writers.
I have seen this over and over again. Whether it is a change to an algorithm on a website, social media making it difficult to share our work, or a writing client who turns out to be a dud. We find ourselves discouraged and fail to capitalize on the opportunity that might be on the other side of that loss.
I was reminded of this when I came across this quote by Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki, the quote goes like this:
“Opportunities are all around you, you…
Capture them, organize them, and accomplish more
You have a lot of fantastic ideas. Yet, you may be wondering how to keep track of them so that they aren’t forgotten or lost.
In a time when information and ideas could change your life and the lives of others you need to have a way to capture these ideas. Yet, we seem to forget some of the most basic principles of capturing ideas and making them work for you.
Capturing an idea is simple.
We are inundated with notebooks, apps, and different techniques for writing down and capturing ideas. Yet, it doesn't have to be complicated. …
Yes and no, but you have to do it right
When I first started writing I had a blog called The Adaptations of Life. It's no longer on the internet, but it was my first go at blogging. It was a funny thing because I literally wrote about anything and everything. No one visited my blog or read my content though.
My next blog was more specific. In fact, it was my first jump into writing about my faith. When I worked as a missionary, it was one way of connecting what I did with the people who supported me financially. This was actually helpful and it grew quite dramatically.
…
Why you need to be writing more short blog posts
Why do we insist on writing long posts?
Is it because we want more read time, so we think a longer post will get us there? We do know that longer posts packed with keywords can get us picked up on Google, so that could be it? Or is it because that seems to be what everyone is doing?
I have been finding that the longer the posts, the harder it is to keep writing momentum. Especially if you are like me. You have a family, a day job, and a lot of other things you need to be doing…
It’s so simple it hurts
I think you are working too hard.
That’s right, coming up with 10 ideas a day, writing a new draft every one to two days, and publishing those different ideas and stories every day is probably wearing you out. I know it does for me.
So, why not simplify your writing life?
What if you could do a lot of front-end work and then simply do a little bit as the week goes on. Or, maybe you do it all in a day or two and then you can focus on other creative pursuits.
In fact, I have a strategy…
It’s time to add by subtraction
“Life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” — Confuscious
We have all heard this quote before. Yet, we continue to make things more complicated. Whether it is with our work, family, or other relationships we find ourselves making things harder.
This morning, I deleted four posts that I had written. They were extremely complicated, long-winded, and not within my scope of typical writing. So, I deleted them and went back to the blank page.
