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Are You a 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!

goals The Writeous Babe Project

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.

B-Metro blogging My Feminist Fingertips The Writeous Babe Project WBHM

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 balance, BlogHer, e-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.

B-Metro blogging freelancing The Writeous Babe Project UAB Magazine WBHM

Currently – The Writer’s Edition

At the Vitalogy Wellness Center Open House Party and having too much fun on the job with my pal Tanya.

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. Today I decided to do a Currently post with a twist. And so I present Currently — The Writer’s Edition.

Freelancing for UAB Magazine, along with several other local media outlets. Because I am a teacher, my piece State of Education: UAB Alumni Serve at Alabama’s Top Teachers means a lot to me. This piece for UAB Magazine was one of the first opportunities I’ve had to marry my interest in education with my journalistic work.

Brainstorming ideas for short stories and poems. This is something I haven’t done since college, but lately I’ve been thinking a lot about getting back into writing fiction and poetry. Perhaps it’s because I’m so inspired by my students in our school’s creative writing department. Or perhaps it’s because of all wonderful literature read by the women who participated in Phenomenal Woman, the African-American read-in See Jane Write hosted last month. The powerful prose and poetry read that night reminded me of why I fell in love with writing in the first place. It wasn’t see my name in magazines or on the cover of books. It wasn’t for blog page views either. I wrote because I loved to do so. Last month’s See Jane Write event made me want to write like a girl again. I want to sit in my room for hours writing not because I need to meet a deadline but because I just can’t help myself.

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 explored the meaning of feminism and womanism in a post called In Search of My Womanist Self. You can hear an excerpt of my radio segment here.

Blogging about wellness. Not only am I’m writing about my fitness adventures as I attempt to exercise daily, but on March 6 I had the opportunity to cover the Vitalogy Wellness Center Open House Party as part of B-Metro magazine’s Blog Team. While I was there I even had my first Ashiatsu massage. That’s right; I let somebody walk on my back for the sake of a blog post. It was worth it.

What’s going on in your writing life?

Cross-posted at The Writeous Babe Project.

blogging The Writeous Babe Project WBHM

The Joy of Exercise

Did you catch me on WBHM today discussing my everyday fitness challenge?
If not, hear an excerpt of the interview here.

This morning on WBHM 90.3 FM, Birmingham’s NPR affiliate, discussing my 365 days of fitness challenge. As I announced at the start of the year, in 2014 I plan to exercise every single day. I am a guest blogger for WBHM’s website and for my latest post — Strong Is the New Skinny — I explained why I’m embarking on this challenge and had a chat with fitness professional Kelly Creel for some guidance. Creel, who is the co-owner of Inspire Fitness Birmingham, actually doesn’t think I’m crazy for planning to work out daily.

“The human body was engineered for movement, so moving it every day in some form, even if that’s at a light intensity, is a wonderful goal,” Creel said. She did, however, give me some tips on how to prevent injury during my challenge. She recommended light workouts such as restorative yoga or a leisurely walk outside once or twice a week. She also said I should let myself off the hook and take a break if I’m sick.

At this point I’ve been exercising daily for a month and I’m loving it! If the idea of working out every day sounds absolutely miserable, you probably need to change your idea of exercise. If I were on the treadmill (or dreadmill, as I call) every day or the boring elliptical 7 days a week I would absolutely hate this and probably wouldn’t have lasted one week. But for the past month exercise has meant going for a run on my favorite trail, going for a walk with a friend, and grooving and moving with the Wii game Just Dance. It’s meant Spinning classes and yoga. It’s meant building strength with Jillian Michaels DVDs.

When I was in college I taught group fitness classes and each time I laced up my sneakers and put on that microphone headset I was in a zone. There was no care or concern that my Funk Aerobics class couldn’t dance away.

But somewhere along the way I started viewing exercise as something that I had to do to shed the extra weight I picked up over the years and tone up muscles that were no longer as firm as they were in college.

This month, however, I have rediscovered the joy of exercise. Exercise is a privilege. It’s a privilege to have a body that, for the most part, moves when and how I want it to. It’s a privilege to be able to afford Spinning and yoga classes, running shoes and even $10 Jillian Michaels DVDs. It’s privilege to have free time that I may use to do things I love to make my body feel good. Working out isn’t something I have to do; it’s something I get to do.

If you missed my interview this morning, I believe it will air again this evening around 5:30 p.m. Tune in!

*Originally posted on January 31, 2014 at The Writeous Babe Project.

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How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Name

Last week one of my posts from my blog The Writeous Babe Project was featured on BlogHer.com. Yay! The post is titled “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Name” and is about how being a journalist helped me overcome my insecurities about my name. You can read the post below.

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Recently I launched a portfolio website to showcase my writing and public speaking and I decided to simply call this website Javacia.com. Most people would argue that I should have called it JavaciaHarrisBowser.com, since that is my byline. But I chose to go with Javacia.com as a tribute to my first name.

My first name is the only one I can rely on. Little known fact: my name has been legally changed four times even though I’ve only been married once. Let me explain. When I was born I was named Javacia Nicole Price. Then my folks got hitched and I became Javacia Nicole Harris. But my mom lost the paper work so when I got my license I was Javacia Nicole Price again and remained that way for a year until my mom got the necessary documents to have my name changed AGAIN. Then I got married and changed my name to Javacia Nicole Bowser. Then I decided I missed my maiden name and changed my name to Javacia Harris Bowser. It’s a miracle I even know my name.

Despite its dependability, I haven’t always liked my first name. As a girl, while my friends were thinking of names for their future kids, I would sit in my room jotting down ideas for the pseudonym I would use when I became a published author. For years I hated my name. I disrespected my name calling it “ghetto.” When people had trouble pronouncing my name I apologized as if I and the syllables it took to address me had somehow offended them. When they looked at me as if I were a green girl from Mars and said, “Well, that’s different,” I felt ashamed. And when they turned to me with a furrowed brow and asked “Do you have a nickname?” I just laughed and said, “You can call me J.”

Then I became a journalist. And I fell in love with my byline. I became a journalist and that “ghetto” name Javacia was on the pages of The Seattle Times, The Chicago Sun, USA Today, and national magazines.

I’ve been told that having a name like Javacia is a liability. Let’s be honest, as soon as you see my name you know I’m black long before you see me. I’ve been told that having a name like mine could make jobs hard to come by, that I’d be passed over by certain employers. For years I considered going by my middle name Nicole. But then I thought to myself, “Do I really want to work for someone who would discriminate against me because of my name or race?”

Don’t get me wrong. I’m in no way judging people of color who do alter their names for the sake of acceptance or a job. People do what they have to do.

And I decided that what I had to do was learn to stop worrying and love my name.

That same line of thinking also helped me decide to describe myself, on my new professional website, as a writer, speaker, and feminist. Yes, I used the f-word. Doing so made sense even though I recognize it was a risky move. I don’t want to do any writing or public speaking for someone who is anti-feminist. And feminism is not only a part of my work, it’s a huge part of who I am.

My name is Javacia and I am a feminist. Can you handle that?

*Originally published at The Writeous Babe Project on Dec. 31, 2013.