Archive of ‘blogging’ category

Are You a Goal Digger?

goal digger

 

Are you a goal digger? I am.

Lately, many people have adopted a too cool for school attitude about New Year’s resolutions. Some folks think setting goals at the start of the year is a waste of time. You won’t accomplish them anyway, right?

WRONG!

I think it’s a great idea to set goals at the start of the year. It’s such a great way to get motivated and re-energized.

Earlier this month on WriteousBabe.com, I shared some of my resolutions in the blog post “Resolutions for Writeous Babes.”

I also shared my feminist New Year’s resolutions in my January column for B-Metro magazine.

I must confess, though, that there was a time when every December I would compile a list of 99 things — yes, 99 things! — that I wanted to achieve the following year. As you might have guessed, I didn’t accomplish most of these. Many were forgotten by April!

But I have finally developed an efficient and effective goal-setting process that has helped me accomplish so many of my personal and professional aspirations.

Last week on WriteousBabe.com, I shared five mistakes that you might be making when setting goals. These are five mistakes I often made until recently.

This week I had the honor of hosting a goal-setting workshop for some members of See Jane Write, the network for women writers, bloggers and entrepreneurs that I run in Birmingham. I had a blast walking these ladies through my personal goal-setting process. It was such a joy to see them establish lofty aspirations of their own.

If you need help setting your goals for 2015, consider enrolling in my time management e-course How to Write and Have a Life. This course features lessons on goal-setting and drafting vision statements because having clear and specific goals is one of the best ways to make the most of your time.

Write on, goal diggers!

 

The Year of the Writeous Babe

The Year of the Writeous Babe

Happy New Year! 

I declare 2015 to be The Year of the Writeous Babe. 

What’s a writeous babe?

A writeous babe is a woman who writes and lives a life worth writing about. 

A writeous babe is a woman who blogs like a boss. She has an entrepreneurial spirit and is ready to transform her writing into wealth and her blog into a business. 

A writeous babe is not here for the starving artist cliche. She knows she must be a well-fed writer so that she can nourish the world around her.

A writeous babe is a goal digger! She has the imagination to unearth bold and beautiful dreams and the courage to make them come true. 

A writeous babe has some stories and she wants to look good while she shares them. This is not vanity. Her stunning beauty is simply the result of self-care. A writeous babe rejuvenates her body with exercise, replenishes her body with delicious, healthful foods, and restores her body with relaxation and rest.  And everything with which she adorns her body — from the hair on her head to the shoes on her feet — celebrates her unique and authentic style.

A writeous babe believes in women’s empowerment and the sanctity of sisterhood. Thus, part of her life’s work is to help other women and girls find their voices and let them be heard. 

Are you a writeous babe?

Of course you are!

And this year you will begin to live the life of your dreams and I am here to help you do so. 

All year long every blog post I publish, every newsletter I send,  and every e-course, webinar or video training I release will be aimed at helping you accomplish your goals and build a beautiful life. 

Are you with me? 

If so sign up for my new weekly newsletter and for my new Facebook community

Let’s do this! 



Javacia Harris Bowser is the creator of How To Write and Have a Life, a time management e-course for women who write and blog. 

*Cross-posted at WriteousBabe.com.

Currently: The Writer’s Edition

javacia #bloglikecrazy

Currently is a feature Dani Hampton of Sometimes Sweet and several other bloggers I follow occasionally post on their sites. Currently is essentially a list of what you’re into at the moment and is a great way for your readers to get to know you better. Earlier this year I decided to start doing Currently posts with a twist — Currently:The Writer’s Edition. 


Freelancing for Birmingham Magazine. Be sure to check out this month’s issue which includes a profile I wrote on Shella Sylla, the founder of SisterGolf. SisterGolf is an amazing program that teaches women how to play golf and how to use golf to network and enhance their business relationships.  


Brainstorming ideas for business. I haven’t been doing much personal blogging lately because much because most of my attention has been growing See Jane Write. I even have a business coach now. That sounds so fancy! I’m working hard to build See Jane Write into a profitable, but meaningful business that truly empowers women who write. 


Pitching to WBHM. Each month I’m pitching story ideas to my city’s NPR affiliate. Each month you can find a new blog post by yours truly on WBHM.org. And on the last Friday of each month you can catch me on the air at 90.3 FM (or on the website if you don’t live in Birmingham) discussing my latest post. Last month I wrote about how despite the fact that I’m 33, the women who inspire me most are under the age of 21. For this piece I interviewed one of my former students who recently launched her own magazine. Color me proud!

And speaking of being proud, I must say that out of all my writing endeavors the one that makes me most proud right now is my column for B-Metro magazine — Write Like a Girl. Each month I write a personal essay on women’s empowerment and through this column I feel I’ve produced some of my best work. In this month’s column I examine the intersection of feminism and faith.


Blogging about #bloglikecrazy.  Every year I challenge the ladies of See Jane Write to publish a new blog post every day for 30 days in November. I call this challenge #bloglikecrazy. This year, for the first time, I’ll be publishing my #bloglikecrazy posts at the See Jane Write blog and I’m hosting a #bloglikecrazy kick-off workshop on November 1. To learn more visit the #bloglikecrazy page at SeeJaneWriteBham.com.


What’s going on in your writing life?

*Originally posted at WriteousBabe.com.

My Feminist Fingertips

My Feminist Fingertips

 

We ladies who love sparkly or colorful nail polish and other so-called “girly” things are often given a bad rap. We’re accused of being a “woman-child” who is romanticizing youth.  And even though we may be helping our friends start businesses or starting companies of our own we’re not real adults because we’re not knocked up.

Well, this woman child has an aqua green painted middle finger for all those folks buying into that nonsense.

I may have some pastel polish on my nails on any given day but that doesn’t make me or my fingertips any less feminist.

In July these feminist fingertips of mine wrote blog posts about balanceBlogHere-books, and Beyonce –all with the goal of empowering women. My feminist fingertips typed proposals, promotional material and panel discussion questions and I hosted my very own blogging mini-conference on July 19.

My feminist fingertips wrote an essay for B-Metro magazine on feminist fitness and tackled the question of whether or not it’s anti-feminist to want six-pack abs.

And my feminist fingertips wrote a piece for WBHM 90.3 FM (Birmingham’s NPR station) about my painful experiences with colorism.

As my pal Carrie Rollwagen once wrote, this “woman-child” business is just plain old chauvinism dressed up as feminism, because it says that what a woman does (like starting a business, honing a talent practicing a craft) is less important than the way she looks while she’s doing it.”

And don’t get me wrong — I do care about the way I look. As I’ve said on this blog before, I have some stories and I want to look good while I share them.

But don’t judge my work by my wardrobe and don’t judge the depth of my feminism by the color of my fingernails.

 

Originally posted at WriteousBabe.com

Finding Home Again

What made you want to return to Birmingham?

A few weeks ago someone asked me that question and I realized I didn’t know how to answer it.

This question is not the same as someone asking what brought me back to Birmingham. I know how to answer that.

Unhappy with the lack of opportunity for advancement at my newspaper job, I decided to pursue another career goal of mine: teaching. When my husband discovered that the Alabama School of Fine Arts was hiring an English teacher I jumped at the chance to work at my alma mater.

I can say without exaggeration that the Alabama School of Fine Arts changed my life. I left that school not only with a great education, but also a strong sense of self  and the courage and confidence to be true to who I am. I poured my passion for the school onto the pages of my cover letter and within a few weeks I had been interviewed for the job and hired.

I suppose you could say I wanted to return to Birmingham so I could give back to the school that gave so much to me. But when I left Alabama at the age of 22 I had no intentions of ever coming back. And I spent my first year back in Birmingham regretting my decision to return to my hometown.

Why is my water bill so expensive? Why is my rent more than the average house note? Why is Alabama still taxing groceries? Will Birmingham City Schools ever improve? Why does this city still feel so segregated decades after Jim Crow?

Then I found my people.

In my latest post for WBHM I explore my loving yet complicated relationship with Birmingham and how finding my people made my hometown finally feel like home.

Crossposted at WriteousBabe.com.

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