I find it hard some­times (okay, lots of times) to focus and to take action. It’s daunt­ing when you real­ize that your own suc­cess truly lies in your own hands, that you don’t have any co-workers/bosses/corporate/bureaucracy to blame your fail­ures on. Because let’s face it — it’s so easy to blame some­one who’s not your­self. And when at some points suc­cess lies stag­nant, it just makes the process of shoot­ing for that tiny bulls­eye of suc­cess so much harder to aim for.

It’s really the small stuff, the daily reminders, that keep me going. It’s the ran­domly doled com­pli­ments that I get on my writ­ing and pho­tog­ra­phy, even if I have a moment of denial because it’s usu­ally a com­pli­ment from friends. It’s the occa­sional writ­ing job I stum­ble upon, most often unpaid but then some­times for a loot, for blogs and mag­a­zines around this big big big world. It’s the peo­ple that I meet, and con­nect with, that are mak­ing it all worth­while. It’s the women who I encounter who I can’t help but be in com­plete. utter. awe. at their drive, ded­i­ca­tion, and self-made accom­plish­ments, and inspire me to do the same. It’s the blogs that I read that keep me updat­ing my own blog, even though I think my life is a snooze right now. It’s the art­work and the design ideas that I get from local artists and unknown design firms that make me smile, like the image at the top of this post.

This sim­ple lit­tle piece of art­work is cur­rently my desk­top image. I used to have a pic­ture of oys­ters from Maine, but I’ve been need­ing an extra push of con­fi­dence these days so I’ve changed it up a bit. This lit­tle diddy was said by Picasso, I think, but frankly I’m sure any­one who’s ‘made it’ in this world has given this sage piece of advice.

Check out the blog The Fox is Black for more great desk­top wall­pa­pers. The Diplo­man has this fun image on his iPhone.

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