On December 1st, I began my next 30 day challenge of goal setting and accomplishing. This time I am working on productivity. At the beginning of this year, I set a goal to write my first book. As the months past, I lost sight of that goal. I am picking that goal back up as it is important to me and I feel I have something to offer the world in my writing. I changed the title of my book, but not the overall theme/idea. My goal is now to complete it before the end of this year, therefore my deadline is December 31st to have the first rough draft completed. I also set a deadline of January 31st for having the book fully edited and published. I began writing again on November 20th, I started over from scratch, but I have more than enough material to finish my first draft by the end of this year. I have found I do my best writing when I am in a quiet place to voice out loud what I am going to write down. Lately, that quiet place has been a local park here in Vegas. Since I work from home I have a very open schedule until work comes in. So when I have a few hours to spare, I drive out to the park with my binder, my pen, my 'Letter to my daughter' book by Maya Angelou, and I get down to it speaking and writing in my car. I feel close to God out there surrounded by the trees, the open sky, and mountains in the distance. There's a sense of peace in the air there. It inspires me.
The next goal I am working on is completing and passing the weight loss management certification my fiance and I started a couple months ago. I have to break the habit of beginning projects then stopping when I'm halfway through. I'm going to do an intense study of all the coursework so I can retain as much of the information as possible. Then I will take the test and pass it! If not, I'll take it again after studying some more. There's no failure in trying to accomplish a goal, the failure comes from not trying at all. After receiving that certification, I will begin the personal trainer certification, with which I can become a personal trainer in a local gym here in Vegas. The final goal I am working on is I am creating a "Make Money Using Your Voice" How to Become a Voice Over Actor/Actress Course. I realize most people do not know what a voice over artist is so I will now call myself a voice over actress, which is the same thing. The course will help anyone who wants to become a voice over actor to break into the business. I include many tips and tricks to get started. As a self-taught voice over actress I have tons of advice for those who need it. Becoming a voice over actor is a great way to be more productive in your free time while also making money instead of just lounging around watching tv. I would recommend it as the best way to make supplemental income from home. So as you can see I have a full table this month and I plan on accomplishing all of these goals. Doing this is leading up to a big project my fiance and I are working on releasing next year. I will update this blog weekly to keep myself honest about everything. I stopped working on the first book, I must continue this one for sure. This will be a wonderfully busy month! Speaking of a wonderfully busy month, the voice over jobs have been pouring in, thankfully. This month is on course to be the best month I've had since becoming a voice over actor almost 2 years ago. I realize I was limiting myself by only sticking with one website. Upwork.com has been very promising for me lately. Although, I would still refer people who are just getting started to Fiverr.com to get the first few jobs under their belt just as I did. Before, if I were getting so many voice over jobs I would have wondered if I'd be able to make time to accomplish these goals I have set. Now, I realize that we have 24 hours in a day, 8 of those are for sleeping, 2 of those are for eating, and the rest of those hours are up to us to do with however we please. I am choosing to be productive and work on my goals, that is what I choose. MY GOALS FOR DECEMBER 2016:
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The past couple of weeks would seem like such a roller-coaster because of my migraines but I have managed to remain upbeat and in a happy, appreciative state of mind.
~Migraines return- On Friday November 4th, I had a terrible migraine which ended up happening again that Sunday (6th), Monday (7th), and also Tuesday (8th). After that, things were calm for about 5 days, then again on Sunday the 13th another one came on, thankfully that one wasn't as bad as the first two. The second migraine I had on the 6th was the worst migraine I've ever had in my life. It scared me quite a bit because my fiance was talking to me and I couldn't understand what the meaning of the words that were coming out of his mouth. I've never had that happen to me before, it was as if the pain was so bad that I couldn't comprehend the words he was speaking. I even tried to retain only 3 words of what he was saying to see if I could understand them and it wasn't working. The pain was unbearable, I even had tears coming down my face. My fiance and I don't keep any type of pain meds in our home, so I ended up having to use marijuana to relieve the pain. I now have my medicinal marijuana card and mj is actually my medicine, unfortunately that takes the fun out of using it. It's not so fun having to smoke marijuana to relieve a grinding migraine like the ones I had. I am looking into preventative measures but of course doctors only want to have you medicate for life. My doctor even wrote me a prescription for some meds, but I didn't have them filled, I prefer more natural medicine. I am also looking into CBD oil as it has helped those with epilepsy and even cancer treatment. Through it all I continue to remain upbeat, happy, and thankful. I look at all the blessings in my life and I think about the Father's love and mercy; it is more than enough for me to remain thankful. ~On to the main reason I wrote this post, today I received the biggest tip ever from a client. On Fiverr.com one of my clients sent me a big project which consisted of different descriptions about African American museums in America. There were about 20 short descriptions to be read as a knowledgeable tour guide giving information to visitors. The project itself wasn't cheap and on top of that I received a $40 tip! My orders on both Fiverr and Upwork have been sizable amounts lately and they are part of the reason why I can't complain about my life. I've had multiple orders of around $50 each this week! Of course I'm not saying things are always that great, as an entrepreneur I have an understanding that things can slow down. But I am always grateful when I receive orders like these. I have been a voice over artist for almost 2 years now, I continue to learn how to further develop my craft and I have also been working on other things as well. Lately, I have been inputting captions for client's audio and video, transcribing is another one I've been giving a go. I also offer screen capture videos for website navigation, being an entrepreneur feels pretty great, I love most being able to show my artistic side. A picture says a 1000 words so here are the results of my 30 Day Challenge in picture form, I hope this helps everyone create their own 30 day goal and accomplish it.
~I began the 30 Day Challenge on August 15, 2016 and now it is day 25 of the Challenge and I am so proud of myself for taking this on. The rewards of doing this have changed me, I am more disciplined now than I ever have been. I also know that I can achieve any logical goal if I stick to it and work hard on it. During the past few days of my "water weight days" I did go a bit overboard on eating almonds, but I'm not beating myself up about it. I've also gone from 128 pounds last year to a healthy 104 now so I can't complain. I am still staying away from junk food, dropping my final pounds, and my stomach is forming into a six pack. It feels truly wonderful to set a goal and see the progress as each day passes. I will probably do another 30 Day Challenge after this one as I certainly feel that setting goals and accomplishing them is an important part of life. Life can become meaningless and dull if we aren't achieving our goals. Sitting around watching tv is a complete waste of time. Doing something productive, such as, working on your goals and feeling the pride in knowing you can achieve something, makes life so much more exciting! We only get one life here on earth, don't waste the priceless moments you have by letting life pass you by. We should never stop setting goals and working on them, failure comes from not trying, success comes from hard work, dedication, and sometimes failure. It is much better to say you tried and failed than to say you didn't try at all. After all, we won't know what will happen unless we try, but we do know that if we don't try NOTHING will happen. ~Change begins with you, everything becomes better when we improve ourselves. Easy is to sit back and watch others work on their goals, such as we often do with celebrities on tv, there is no reward in this scenario. Hard is to work on achieving your own goals, and that is where the true reward is. I am learning to become more like MY HERO who is touchingly considerate of all men because he believes in them and loves them. I am learning to love everyone, encourage them, and truly believe in them. My belief in others is coming from my belief in myself, but before I lacked this confidence. Now that I know what I am capable of achieving I want to encourage others to accomplish their goals because I know they can. Encouragement goes a long way, for those of you reading this: I BELIEVE THAT YOU CAN ACHIEVE YOUR GOALS, NOW BELIEVE IN YOURSELF. "He who rules his own self is greater than he who captures a city." -JESUS On August, 15, 2016 I began documenting my 30 day challenge of eating no junk food, becoming more disciplined, and lowering my time in running a mile. I began posting the videos from my challenge on the 29th of August. Today, September 1, I am on day 18 of the challenge and I am truly seeing wonderful results! My 6 pack is emerging, I don't feel deprived of not eating junk food and my mile times are definitely going down! The first mile I ran on day 1, was on the treadmill at 8:49 and my most recent is all the way down to 7:08 minutes. The first mile I ran on day 3 on the UNLV track was 7:49 minutes and my most recent on day 9 was down to 7:30! Last night I ran a slow 9:52 on the track just to get my legs warmed up and to work on my endurance. My fiancé challenged me afterwards to lower my 400m time to under 1:35 (that was the lowest I'd done in a single lap). I was up for the challenge and I ran the 400m in just 1:15! My fiancee was very surprised and so was I. He was probably more excited about it than I was. To keep updated on my 30 Day Challenge videos click here: 30 Day Challenge I will post a new video each day of my progress- or to be notified of new videos just subscribe to my youtube channel: Shenteria Marie I truly give thanks to my Father in heaven for giving me strength and the faith to believe in myself. I have an able body, a logical mind, and a kind soul- and I don't take those things for granted anymore. I am working on becoming the best version of myself to be worthy of the honor of being a daughter of God. This year continues to get better and has been the most amazing year I have ever experienced. As my faith gets stronger, I continue to push myself harder than ever before- and I will continue on that path. They say God helps those who help themselves, and I am certain that the Father is helping and guiding me. Sometimes when I am running either on the treadmill or on the UNLV track I find myself thanking my Father and brother Jesus for their love. When I think about my past and compare it to my present I fully comprehend how they both have looked out for me and guided me to where I am now. Life only gets better, more fulfilling, more beautiful, and more enriching from here. Now that I have awakened to such truths, I have become more self controlled, I am no longer controlled by my emotions, I am more understanding, and I am far more disciplined; even at only 28 years old. This 30 Day Challenge has shown me that I am capable of so much more than I ever thought. I hope to inspire others to take better care of their health. We only get 1 body in this lifetime, so we have to stop abusing it. ~We also have to take full advantage of the great lives we have as Americans and think more in terms of thankful comparisons. Our first world problems pale in comparison to third world countries' problems! What are we whining about!? Has America become a nation of fatties, zombies, and whiners? More people need to set goals for themselves, plan out how to reach that goal, then accomplish them. Then, we need to keep recycling that plan throughout our lifetimes. If you have your arms, your legs, your sight, and an able mind, what is holding you back? Excuses, excuses, excuses- yeah I've had a few of those in my life. As the saying goes "Everybody dies, but not everybody lives." Are you truly living? Are you making a living or are you making a dying? Think about it. Stop wasting time killing your body, and instead, start working on your health, and start achieving your goals. Yes we all die someday. What will be the legacy you leave behind? How many lives will you touch? How will you motivate people to change their lives for the better? What kind of example are you setting for your children? Think over these questions, answer them honestly and if you don't like the answers, then change your life for the better. I know I certainly didn't like who I was before. I didn't love myself and I was very controlled by my emotions. This year I have worked hard to become a better person and the rewards are unbelievable! Take it from someone who has gone through it. YOU can work hard and achieve your goals! Much love, understanding, and joy, Shenteria Marie ~Last Wednesday, I ran a mile on the university (UNLV) track at just 7 minutes 49 seconds. Then this past Tuesday I ran a mile again at the university track in a 10 person race and I got my time down to just 7 minutes 30 seconds! I was extremely excited because I was aiming for that exact time. It was such an accomplishment for me as I struggled hard even when I ran the 7:49. This time it was much easier and my fiancé and I ran with the 8 other runners from the Las Vegas Track Club. I filmed this run as well as my first run. they can both be seen on the website we created to challenge ourselves and others to get everyone running and to get our/their mile times down. Our goal is to get people working towards improving their health, weight loss and self-esteem as running has many surprising benefits. Here is the website: www.milechallenge.org
~I continue to make progress in my 30 Day Challenge as my weight is slowly, but surely going down. For the first week it was fluctuating from day to night in between 107 and 105, now on week 2 it is fluctuating from about 105.5 to 103.5 I am still steering clear of all junk food- and even when we went to the movies on Tuesday I brought an apple and a banana. Disciplining myself feels wonderful! It makes me feel strong in knowing that I don't allow things to control me. I have much more self control than I thought I did. Although self control can be situational, as I have always disciplined myself in terms of working, saving money, being honest, etc. I'd never disciplined myself in terms of eating healthy, going to the gym, etc. My fiancé is responsible for getting me on track when it comes to my health. I do find it sad that our world feels like money is more important than health. What good is money if your body is all broken down? Everyone should work harder at getting their bodies into better shape instead of wasting away overworking themselves. I want to be a better example for my nieces and nephews (as well as for myself). Therefore this year I am working harder than I ever have on my health, my mind, and my soul. Blessings of love, peace, and strength, Shenteria Marie ~On Monday, August 15, I began my 30 DAY CHALLENGE of eating no junk food whatsoever so I can loose the final pounds to get my 6 pack! My fiance is my inspiration and motivation as he has had one for majority of his life and he is also the most disciplined person I have ever met. I have been keeping a video log of each day to document it so I can stay on track and keep myself honest. I am determined with a goal in sight and I have enough faith in myself that I can and will reach my goal. Even if it takes me after September 14, I will still be working towards my goal. I chose September 14 because it is 1 day before my 29th birthday. I will be in the best shape of my life by this birthday and I am already amazed at how much more disciplined I am becoming.
~This month marked 6 months since my "BIG CHOP." My hair has grown 5 inches in those 6 months and it makes me feel wonderful! Embracing my natural hair was a difficult decision to make, but since I have such a supportive fiance who loves me unconditionally I had no worries. I think the main problem women face when going natural is whether their partner will embrace it or whether a potential partner will embrace it. The way I feel now is beauty truly is in the eyes of the beholder, wear your natural hair with confidence and don't worry about what others think. Embrace the beauty of what God gave you, we are all beautifully unique. "Be your own kind of beautiful" says the canvas hanging in my living room. ~During my 30 day challenge I have also begun the MILE CHALLENGE, since my fiance is a healthy runner he encouraged me to start running. We also found out that Mark Zuckerberg also issued a similar challenge to everyone on Facebook at the beginning of the year. His challenge is for everyone to run 1 mile everyday, making it 365 miles they will have run by the end of the year. Since my fiance and I go to the gym on Tuesday and Friday, I decided to run a mile on the days in which I don't go to the gym. Although we have the university track a few blocks away to run on, I will instead opt to run on the treadmill at our complex here. On Monday, I ran a 8:49 mile on the treadmill and today, Wednesday, my fiance and I went to the UNLV track and I ran my first mile EVER on an actual track. We were thinking I would at least get under 10 minutes to be an example to show women that they can get under 10 as well. I actually ran a 7:49 mile on the track! It was very exhausting!!! I couldn't believe I kept going, but I persisted through the pain. My fiance ran a 5:48 mile which is unbelievable at 61! (We may have an age difference, but he is in far better shape than anyone I've ever known, including most young people in their 20's!) He actually keeps me young, I only began working out at the gym when we started dating, he is such an impressive physical specimen! I will begin posting the videos of my 30 day challenge soon, stay tuned! Much peace, many blessings, and endless love, Shenteria Marie It has been close to 2 months since I updated, you have my apologies, my fiance and I have another website: edshay.co which we keep updated regularly. I have to stop neglecting my namesake site though, I will work on fixing that! I mentioned to my fiance recently about changing my whole website to reflect everything happening in my life including health, spirituality, my natural hair journey, voice overs, etc. He seems to think it would be best to stick with the voice overs, so for now I will keep it this way. I mentioned a while ago about my book which is still in production, unfortunately I have put it on the back burner for a while. I have noticed many negative things coming out lately from the Black Lives Matter movement that have been shocking and sad. I was thinking of possibly creating a youtube video about it. My main issue with the movement is the fact that the movement pays most attention to incidents in which black men have been killed by white cops, yet neglect the many black lives that have been taken by other black people. I think addressing both issues would be wise, as there is far too much black on black crime happening in our world. I question the true motives of the movement, do all black lives truly matter to them? Or are they only working to incite racism and violence? They should work towards bringing awareness/justice for the many innocent black lives that have been taken from black on black crime and by cops. Unfortunately, I have seen videos of young black people claiming that black on black crime is a myth, which is so sad it hurts. When people neglect the truth, lies can fully cloud their judgment of what is right and wrong, sadly I have also seen young black people in the movement become racist as well. When we become friends with those of different races, we eliminate any hatred or racism within our hearts, more people need to be open and accepting of others. We are all humans, overly identifying with one's own race is changing how people look at each other. Because of these factors, I have not been writing more chapters in my book, I have now been focusing more on my spirituality. I am learning to make a lasting impression on people by touching their soul, just as Jesus did. Love is the answer. We shall see how this will effect my book, I do have spirituality as the final chapter...
~MY NATURAL HAIR JOURNEY has been coming along very well, I am quite pleased with my curls. Especially now that I am going by the Curly Girl Method which states NO SHAMPOO!! Well no shampoo with sulfates, which is most of them. My big chop was Feb 15, 2016 and it is now Aug 10! I have been natural for almost 6 months now and my hair has grown 5 inches since then (maybe I'll make a new video showing my progress)! I now use a cleansing conditioner (as shampoo), botanical conditioner, and a leave in conditioner. I wash it once every week using those items and wrap it up in twists with bobby pins under a plastic cap. I let it sit for a few hours (usually overnight) remove my plastic cap, let it dry first, then take down the twists. After a few hits and misses, I found that this method worked best for the curls I was looking for. I also realized that wearing my hair up in a pony tail was breaking the front ends of my hair. So, I keep it out now, I am loving my afro and my curls! (See before and after pics) ~VOICEOVERS: My voice overs have picked back up with regularly jobs coming in again. I recently did a book of poems (my first ebook) for a client and also two AT&T promo voice overs. It feels good to have things picking back up, I learned a lesson with changing my gig delivery to 48 hours, I will NOT be doing that again. I've been having a lot of voicemail orders ranging from law offices to debt consolidation services, I am certainly never bored in this profession that's for sure! Today, I have a couple orders due from a client in Kenya, I thoroughly enjoy working with clients from all over the world. ~I must work harder at keeping this blog updated!!!!~ Peace be with you all... |
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July 2017
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