The Pain Of Closing EVERY Door

Published on September 19, 2019September 27, 2019 by Roshonda BLeave a comment

Featured Image: Courtesy of Bing

Hey, What’s Up! I know, I know – Long time no hear from, right? I miss you too!!…but hey, I’m all over the place everywhere else such as FB & Here >> my new business website! The only blog post that’ll be posted there are posts in regards to business for the “business parent” in which is my new name and tag for anyone who has a business or just starting a business. Your business is your BIG or little baby and you have to nurture, take care and even “defend” it just as you would a natural child.

So there’ll be tips for the Business Parents in which the subscribers will get as well as discounts, specials or news about any services offered. I might even do some webinar stuff down the road, so that’ll be a treat as well. Anywho, this post is NOT about the business, but an FYI, just in case I go M.I.A again – you’ll know where to find me (wink 😉

Sooooooo, how have you been? What’s been going on in your life since we last chatted. I’d love to hear about it, so please leave it in the comment section (I promise to bring the coffee and the tea 🙂 Well, it’s been a minute since I posted, outside of the book reviews in which I’ll be doing more of those, so be on the lookout. I’m grateful for Amy’s post, hopefully, you’ve been enjoying those while the cat’s been away. You know LIFE and yes, it’s capital for a reason. Is so CRAZYYYYY, that’s capital for a reason too. Just when you think everything and EVERYONE (another capital for good reason) is in the right place and everything’s a go and just when you’re about to switch that gear shift from “P” to “D”. You have to abort the mission and let someone out or put something back. They or it have to be axed from your good trip of up and onwards – FOR GOOD!

Let’s get right to the nitty-gritty, life has many open and closed doors. Some you’ll walk in and others you’ll walk out. Some you’ll open to new faces and others you’ll have to close on old faces. That’s been my summer. I’ve had to CLOSE some doors that pained me to close, doors that I thought was open for my good, but realized – it wasn’t for my good at all. Not to say that people or things were bad. It’s just that in life when God gets ready to move you to another level (and it’s very cliché what I’m about to say) he has to shut some doors in order to open some new ones, but what if the doors he’s trying to shut is being held open by a doorstop, that you put there… There are some doors that God will not close, you’ll have to close them on your own.

I didn’t realize that God was trying to tell ME to close those doors. As a matter of fact, he specifically said: “Close Every Door” that means that no door was to be opened, but every door had to be completely SHUT with no #doorstops to keep them slightly open. It’s almost like going down a dark hallway and feeling your way through. At least a cracked door offers a glimmer of light, so while the hallway may be dark – that glimmer helps you to see somewhat of where you’re going until you can get where you’re going. But God said close every door, so, therefore – NO LIGHT, NO SIGHT!

You see, God had been dealing with me and telling me to close these doors for quite some time, but instead of truly shutting them. I was placing doorstops in the doors so they wouldn’t shut completely. Most of it was out of comfortability with the person or thing. The other reason of hesitancy was because, for some reason, I always feel a need to explain why I’m doing a particular thing or acting a certain way, mainly because I don’t like people feeling ill about me and I despise hurting people’s feelings. I knew God had a reason but I felt if I didn’t talk to them or indulge that much, then that would be like the door being closed because I’m not giving them or it my full undivided attention.

Ever Been There, Done That? But those weren’t his instructions…

I’m a firm believer that MOST of us are truly in the same place we’ve been in for SOOOOO LONG because we have those door stops sitting in between doors that should actually be CLOSED! The bible says it’s the “small” foxes that destroy the vine. So, it’s not those huge things that we’re surely aware of, but those little itsy bitsy spider things that we don’t pay attention to, such as a doorstop.

There’s a great pain that comes with closing doors – I mean, it’s not meant to be easy. However, when God tells you or you get the feeling that you need to close a door on something or someone. I don’t know what unnecessary doors you have open in your life today but we have three more months until the end of the year. This year, right now – determine to close that door for once and for good.

It’s true, we all don’t know where that dark hall is going to take us and that’s the scary part, but we have to walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT. Sometimes, that’s what God is waiting for you to do, to walk by FAITH! – Faith opens the right doors and opportunities, sight keeps the wrong ones open. As much as it pained me, I closed ALL those doors – some closings pained me more than others. I was scared and yes, I cried but nothing is to be compared to the many doors, I’m walking in expectancy for God to OPEN!

What Doors Do You Need to Completely “CLOSE” today?

#NODOORSTOPS!
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P.S. I know I have A LOT of catching up to do with blog post reads from my fellow bloggers, I’m definitely going to be doing that, so please don’t think it strange if you get a lot of likes on something you wrote a month ago. I’m trying to play catch up! See ya Around 😉

A Business Break, True Inspirational Stories from Roy & Some Amazing New Followers

Published on June 6, 2019July 30, 2019 by Roshonda B8 Comments

Phew, that title was A LOT but it was well needed as this post will have a little bit of “Everything” in between. Last Thursday If you read my posts “Letting it All Hang Out, Part Deux (2)” – then you might have saw me mention that I will be taking a break. As a matter of fact, just in case you missed part Un (1) then let me save you the time from looking them up in the search engine – Here you go!

Have You Read? >>>>>>>> Letting It All Hang Out, Part 1
Finished One?, Well you gotta read >>>>>> Letting It All Hang Out, Part 2

No need to thank me, I love giving the people what they want (says my head space =) Okay, so now that I’ve gotten you caught up just a little bit. I’m taking a blogging break this summer. Don’t cry as I know you’re going to miss me (head space again =) but I’ll be back! Who am I kidding, you probably could care less but I’m in my head space so let’s just pretend for now. Anywho, this is probably WELL overdue but I thought I’d take time to work on and build up my business; gracefully entitled Roshonda-B Creative – A writing and creative design publishing company. I talked about it in depth in this blog post right here >>>> It’s Your Business, So Set the Tone!

**A little creation from Roshonda-B Creative**

And that title couldn’t be farther from the truth, your business is like your newborn baby. If you don’t nurture it, feed it and take care of it – it’ll die. So that’s what I’m taking time from blogging to do, to take care of my newborn baby – i.e. My Business! I’ll be getting things in order for it such as creating a website, getting my services in order and talking with seasoned business professionals (Have you heard of SCORE?, Check them out!) on what my next steps should be and what I should be doing at this time.

SCORE offers business mentors (for free!) that can and will help you in your business goals, they also offer free WebEx and educational materials. I’m sure you have a SCORE branch in your location so if you’re a little confused about what you should be doing next in business? Reach out to them to get the process started on getting you a mentor today, because everyone needs someone that’s smarter than them…right?

“Just wanted to throw this out there -No, this is not a sponsored post for SCORE and I’m not getting paid or compensated in any way for my comments or thoughts. Just like sharing good Info, Okurrrr!!”

Now back to me taking a break, I do have someone that you all may have read quite a few things from and that’s Amy Temple!!! She’ll be back and taking over the blogs while I’m away, so please be sure to show her some LOVE. I’m not sure yet as to how many times she’ll post, but it’ll be something here for your to learn, read and get inspired from, so don’t shut us out until I return as there will be a little somethin, somethin here.

Another person you can visit while the cat’s away is Roy Lee Barrett – Roy writes short, true inspirational stories and he’s working on a book entitled “True Inspirational Short Stories” right now he’s in the process of looking for individuals to submit their true but remember “short” stories to him, he’s also a ghost writer. So if you have a true story to tell that could potentially get published just send him the story here: TrueStoryTeller@mail.com.

You can read a true Inspirational story every single day at Roy Lee Unchained I promise you, you’ll be inspired by it just as much as I was. Roy is 75 years young! A street kid who once roamed the street for 2.5 yrs before being placed in a orphanage. You’ll have to read the rest of the story yourself (no giveaways!) Go show him some incredible LOVE!

And last but certainly NOT least – The Followers!

I have millions of them (my head-space again =) I can’t control it…any ways, these are the A-MAZING people that followed this blog recently and I’m grateful for it! I may not always get back to you or even go and read the blogs because, well – LIFE (no excuse) but it’s crazy sometimes, so please charge to my head and definitely not my heart. However, I hope you feel my heart when I say, go and view these bloggers posts!

As a blogger myself, it takes a lot of work to put time aside to write as well as post your thoughts, tips, materials and so forth and who doesn’t want it to be read. I mean unless you’re just posting to be posting but I believe deep down we all want our work to be seen as well as heard and commented on. I’m working on doing this more although some days are better than others in this feat but we have to support each other, even if it’s just giving a shout-out, in which is what this portion of the post is all about THE MIGHTY SHOUT-OUT!

(In no random order, here they are)

(P.S. This post was scheduled so if you just recently followed me (like yesterday or the day before) then you won’t be on this list – However; I’ll get you next time (pinky promise ; )

Okay, so there you have it – I must admit, there were some followers that were free money online type gigs or maybe they were very “salesy” if that makes sense, so I didn’t add those. However, check out the one’s above and leave them a comment if you can.

Well my friends, colleagues, loved ones and followers I bid you a sweet Adios…

keep me in your prayers – I’ll see ya real soon!

Blog Recognition & My Tips for New, Upcoming or Seasoned Bloggers

Published on November 1, 2018April 18, 2019 by Roshonda B10 Comments

The photo above and below courtesy of pexels and bing

Okay, so I’ve tried to hold off on this for a while because I guess I’m the type of person where I don’t like to keep bringing things up – so let me be transparent here: Over the last couple of months I’ve been getting recognized by different bloggers and the blog has received several awards in which I’m very grateful (you can see all of them including this one now, on the side over there…

(to the near bottom – there you go =)

But have you ever felt like, things just kept coming and while people are excited at first – afterwhile, you start getting a side-eye like REALLY??? okay, you can stop now. You know, sort of like those award shows where people just keep winning and suddenly the people in the audience’s reactions are something like this:

Yeah! the awards were coming so often – I was for sure I would be getting one of those reactions…lol, could’da just been me, soooooo – I thought I’d let this one sit for a while and take a little break, know what I mean?

However, I would really really like to thank my sister from another mother Rakkelle of Racquel Writes for nominating me for this recognition – I truly appreciate you girl and so sorry it took SOOOOOOO LONG!! I love Rakkelle’s blog, it’s filled with so much insight, thought and I have to say – it’s one of the blogs that I look forward to reading every….single….week, no doubt! So go check her out and follow her pleassseeeee – you won’t be disappointed and that’s a BIG/HUGE – I PROMISE YA!!!

So, the rules of this award are very simple all you have to do is:

Thank the blogger who nominated you and provide a link to their blog
Write a post to show your award.
Give a brief story of how your blog started.
Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
Select 15 or more fellow bloggers for this award.
Let each nominee know you’ve nominated them and leave a link to your post.

Well, numbers 1 and 2 are good so it’s story time (a brief story that is) and here we go!

HOW DID A BLOG, A MAGAZINE. IT’S JUSTSUMINSPIRATION START:

If you’re an avid follower of mine or if you’re not. I’ve mentioned this in a couple of blog posts such as this one – but if I can be honest, blogging honestly started as a hobby. I had never thought of starting a blog before until mid or late 2014 when I was scrolling around on my phone and seen the WordPress advertisement “Start your own blog today!” and I was like, hmmm – so I looked into it but didn’t start right away. After that instance, the thought seemed to come to me more and more and more about starting a blog. I had no idea as to what I would write about or if I even had enough in me to keep it up with consistent writing.

I’m the type of person that can be very good about starting something but a failure at finishing what I started. I went on and didn’t give it much thought until March of 2015, I was sitting at my desk and seen that annoying WordPress advertisement again but this time I heard a voice say “DO IT NOW” I was so shocked and scared.

I knew that voice was God and I knew at that moment that he wanted me to start the blog. The awkward urges I was feeling in those past months were urges signaling me to do what I felt like I was called to do and that is to “Encourage.” So as I sat there trying to figure out what name to call it, that’s when “Justsuminspiration” immediately dropped in my soul and that’s what it’s been ever since. I added the magazine aspect of it to focus on everyday things such as people, movies and inspirational acts of kindness being done in the world by amazing people who may never get noticed by the media. You can find out more here concerning the journey ahead from that start point.

GIVE TWO PIECES OF ADVICE FOR NEW BLOGGERS

My first piece of advice for new bloggers is to be authentic – just be you. Kristi Hill asked this question some months ago and luckily my name and advice were one of the ones she chose. So here’s what I said then in which still stands now for any new blogger and upcoming blogger:

The one thing I wasted a lot of time on was not really focusing on my blog and/or the reasons why I started the blog in the first place. I lost a lot of time watching other bloggers and if I can be honest, trying to mimic their style and verbiage thinking that’s what I needed to do in order to grow my blog and get traffic. My word of advice to any new blogger would be to “keep their focus” on their own blog (at least for the first month or two) trying to make it presentable, thinking of topics to talk about and looking at what will make their blog unique. We all have a gift and we all have something important to say, my blog may not be like anyone else’s and someone else will not be like mine – but that’s what makes the bloggerverse so unique because it’s filled with different stories, genres, backgrounds, colors, and purpose.

My second piece of advice for any new, upcoming or seasoned blogger is to read the advice from Kristi’s post “Blogging Time Wasters” – it’s a really good read that has valuable comments from other bloggers who talk about their experience’s with blogging and the pitfalls they ran into while blogging. As stated before in other posts, I don’t have answers for everything and never feel as though I have all the knowledge in the world on this blog – my experiences are mine and I share them but I also don’t mind sharing good information that I feel could help others as well, even if I don’t have the answers.

So, I would like to encourage get that word…wink, haha – any blogger to read that post, it’s full of information that can and will help you on your blogging journey. GOOD LUCK!!

Now # 5 & 6 states to nominate 15 bloggers and in true form, I normally would – but I’m going to take the high road like my sis Rakkelle did here and I’m going to leave this award open to anyone that would like to participate, please do. I nominate ALL THE BLOGGERS WHO FOLLOW ME for this award. Your comments, love, and readership of anything I write are very much appreciated; especially on those days when I feel as though no one is paying attention, there’s always a comment left that gives me that lemonade to keep pushing through and I’m forever grateful.

Until next time – thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to read this post.

Much Love

Not exactly sure what the month of November will hold but I’ll be here with something =)

Since becoming a Blogger – I wrote my very first faith-based children’s book about bullying entitled:

“Billy Wolf & The Kids’s of Heavenly Hills Elementary”

It’s gotten some really cool reviews and is a book for both a child as well as an adult, in which I’ve had quite a few childless adults to purchase it. I think you’ll like it too. You can pick up your very own copy at one of the retailers below:

NOW AVAILABLE THROUGH THESE MAJOR ONLINE BOOK OUTLETS

Books-A-Million

Barnes and Nobles

Amazon

Purchase your copy Today!!!

8 Blogging Time Wasters, Could One Be You? – By Kristie Hill

Published on March 16, 2018March 16, 2018 by Roshonda B8 Comments

photo above courtesy of Kristi Hill

Are you new to blogging or have you been blogging for quite some time and feel as though you’re not getting the results you dreamed of? Well, my friend – you may be making some time wasting mistakes!

Kristi Hill is not only a blogger but she helps other bloggers in creating an online presence to help them get their blog from “blah” to “WHAM!” – she has helped many, many bloggers achieve success. If you visit her page (Kristie Hill.com) she has everything from A-Z to help you achieve your goals of having the next best blog.

Recently, Kristi reached out to her subscribers to get their input on a very important question. “What are some things you did as a new blogger that were a total waste of time and/or didn’t help to grow your blog?” as you can imagine, the responses were so overwhelming, she decided to compile as much of it up as she could into a blog post entitled:

8 TIME WASTERS MOST BLOGGERS ARE GUILTY OF – ARE YOU?

In the post you’ll read various responses from bloggers all around the world, (including me!) of some of the biggest time wasters they experienced when they first started blogging – while this post was initially meant to be a source to help new bloggers, there was a plethora of information from seasoned bloggers whom still find themselves wasting a good amount of time on unnecessary things that did nothing to improve their blog.

I thought it was a good read and that maybe it could also help some of us new and not so new bloggers. Please read the post and and while you’re at it, follow Kristi as well; you won’t be disappointed! – If you’ve gotten side-tracked or distracted with your blogging and want to stop wasting time – this is the post to read to get you back on track!

I’m humbled as my response was one of the ones in which she picked to feature in her post. You can check that out here – my response is featured in Time Waster #3: The Comparison Trap.