A Wish From the Heart

One day, I just couldn’t take it anymore. Life was becoming too hard to bear. I felt I couldn’t take it anymore, so I prayed a prayer I’ve never said before. It went like this…

“God, things are just too hard for me right now. I know you are there and you know I am here. Please give me a sign. Give me a sign to let me know that you love me and you will take care of me.”

Then the day went on. I forgot I prayed this prayer.

I ended up having an awesome day. I haven’t had a day like that before. My husband took me out on a date, bought us some bikes, and ended the day with ice cream.

We want back home and he took a nap. A knock on the door.

It was my neighbor with a handful of daffodils in her hand. She said she’s been meaning to say hi, but haven’t had the chance out of being busy as well as honestly sharing being afraid to reach out. But today, she said that she just had to knock on my door. She had been cooking and was in the middle of things, but she said she just felt she had to drop everything and knock on my door.

She gave me the daffodils. I shared how I was having a hard time.

Then she prayed for me.

A strong wind came out of nowhere as she put her hand on my shoulder to pray for me.

I was amazed.

She gave me a very long healing hug and at that moment, I remembered my prayer earlier that day.

A prayer answered. =)

My eyes became open to everything around me, and I wrote the song below because I was completely inspired by the situation.

A Love Beyond Compare

Sometimes we need a little help from

Those that are round us to lift us up

From the ground, to the sky, then to the sun above

 

I know that our lives may seem like it’s so full

I know that it seems we have so little time

To give thanks, to laugh, to take a break sometimes

 

Look at the trees they just stand right there

Sway with the wind without a little care

So tall, so strong, so faithful to the world

 

Look all around you there’s a glimpse of

Something beyond the things you think of

From a smile, a hug, a love beyond compare

To love and be loved

Sometimes I just get too caught up in life and forget the things that matter the most.

In the process of moving fast and trying to strive for greatness, I forget about love.

To quote one of my favorite passages in the bible about love: love is patient, love is kind, it is not self-seeking nor easily angered.

I haven’t been living in line with those ideals.

Yes, I am not perfect. I am a work in progress. But I love becoming a better me I can be day after day, especially when it comes down to be loving towards others.

People are so amazing and I don’t want to miss out on that.

I just got back from work and wrote this song. I realized:

What’s the point of life?

To love and be loved

That’s as simple as it gets

Monday Storytelling: Would you risk a laugh or two for me?

“Would you risk a laugh or two for me” is the first line of my song “Do You Love Me.” It’s the question I was faced with when I was deciding if I should pursue my gifts and talents. If I should have faith in the person God created me to be. In today’s Monday Storytelling, I share the story of making the transition and the risks I was willing to face.

You see, I really love to sing, write, and lead. Before pursuing all the things I do now, I was leading a very “normal” life: get an education, get a job, be a good employee, save up for retirement. None of those things are bad, but just like how I explained in my post “Me 25 years ago,” when pursued as the end goal, you’re missing out on way more from life.

In my faith, we believe that God created everyone to be fully alive. That means you being on fire. Not many people know this. And what sets you on fire is when you pursue your biggest dreams by doing the things you love to do.

However, when you set out to do these things, you risk weird looks or getting made fun of. People aren’t used to people being so excited and on fire. People aren’t used to people reaching for their biggest dreams. It’s just not common.

But I say, “Be Uncommon!” and “Take Those risks!” People truly hope that can be alive in their own way, just like you are.

So, would you risk a laugh or two for the things you really want to do?

I would love to hear about the things you really want to do. If leave a reply box is not visible, click on “leave a comment” at the end of the tags below.

If this post inspired you in any way, share it with anyone you know who needs some inspiration.

Thank you and as always…

Live your best life and love what you do.

 Sincerely,

Jamie @LnLRevolution

Inspired again!

I just got the book Platform by Michael Hyatt, and I am inspired again. I started to settle on my big dreams and he reminded me to remember what my original vision was. I created this video just several months ago. Rewatching it helped me remember my passion and clarity. I’m gonna get back to making it happen exactly how I envisioned it.

Here’s the description of the video I posted on YouTube several months ago:

My talk is about inspiring people to do the one thing they are passionate about and being strategic about it. The way I do that is through my music. My set is called Wake Up and Live with Jamie and I’ve been performing this for a little over a year now. I inspire people by sharing my story, struggle, and success. I start with talking about living a life that I wasn’t excited about, then sharing the moment when I decided to pursue my passion, then I end with how I did it and what success I’ve achieved so far. The framework I use for my talk include information from 3 books that have been instrumental in guiding this new venture of mine. “The One Thing” by Gary Keller, “The Charge” by Brendan Burchard, and “Uncertainty” by Jonathan Fields. Gary’s book focuses on talking about the importance of cutting through all the clutter of information we have by focusing on the one thing you’re passionate about. Brendan’s book focuses on the need to be strategic about pursuing your passion. Jonathan’s book guides people on how to be relentless in pivoting your passion until it’s a viable course of action.

My life started when I finally let myself admit to the one thing I’m passionate about…music. I took the leap of faith and started putting in the hard work it takes to become successful in it. Brendan’s book helped me learn the need to be strategic about success in music instead of hoping I succeed by chance. I’ve created a 5 year plan, yearly plan for each of those years, and then monthly and weekly plans. I’ve already completed by first year’s plans; for this month of October, completed the first several weeks; and just two days ago, checked off another goal for this month to book and play at my first Kalamazoo gig by October 31st.

In the end, I talk about how some people may get turned off because of misconceptions that pursuing your passion shouldn’t be hard work and should just be fun. I turn that around by saying that:

“When you put in the hard work and intentionality towards your passion, you come to life and have the best time of your life. @LnLRevolution” (click to tweet)

What’s your one thing? Wake up and live and go after it.

Monday Storytelling: I took a road trip

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I believe there is a constant war going on in our soul. It’s the war between shrinking back or rising up to the challenges that come our way. One day I took a much need road trip because this war was just becoming a little too much for me. I needed to get away and figure things out.

You see, I’m normally someone who doesn’t have the best habits or discipline; however, lately, I’ve been doing really well. I have a couple of awesome jobs I really like. On top of that, I’m pursuing my dreams and using my gifts and talents. Things are going great. When things go great, I notice that I sometimes I want to change things up. I don’t get this.

I’m also someone who likes to control things and I wanted to figure out why I do this so I can eliminate this problem in my life. In essence, I wanted to figure out a formula to control life. Because truth is, life can be messy. If you don’t experience struggle or hardship in life, you’re probably living life in a bubble and not growing, challenging, and reaching your potential.

The thing is: “There is no solution to life. The only way to go through life is to live it. To go through the ups and downs and learn from it. @LnLRevolution.” To grow into knowing more and more of yourself, so you can learn to master your weaknesses and capitalize on your strengths.

I wrote this song, War, after my road trip. Once I realized I couldn’t figure out how to avoid the struggle, pain, and drama in life, I realized that’s just life…we experience struggle, pain, and drama. However, I’m not going to leave it there because that’s not the main point.

The main point is that we can decide to either shrink back or rise up to the challenge to whatever life throws our way. We are more powerful than we think and if we decide to use the powerful spirit and mind we all have, we can win this war in life by becoming stronger and wiser and becoming exactly the amazing and talented person we were meant to be.

Lyrics to the song:

Another day the sun is rising
Hit the road
Turn on my tune
On the radio

Wide open space feel like I’m free
Hit the gas
No place to go
Just drive to anywhere

Taking time
Need a break from myself
There’s a war inside
Ready to break out again

This war
Will last all of my life
Need a way to getaway
From the insanity

Woah…there’s a war inside my very soul
Woah…constant drama for the rest of my life

I’ve wondered what is wrong with me
Am I going crazy
Losing it
Or acting out

They told me it’s all in my mind
Go to bed
When you wake up
It will all be fine

But all hell broke loose for me
All my guts
Spilled on the floor
Could not contain myself

I said there she goes again
Here’s to the cycle
Of the circus
Playing in my mind

Monday Storytelling: Hope in times of hopelessness

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Today I wanted to share the story behind my song Things Will Change. I wrote it about a couple of months ago when I was just going through a rough patch. We all go through those, we all get through it, yet when we’re in that moment, it’s hard to think that things will change.

During that time, I believe I was just struggling getting through the everyday. I pride myself in being someone who is positive and let’s nothing get her down. I do allow myself moments to just let it all out when I need to, and then I try to get back to the swing of things. I let myself do that and then I needed to remember how to get back to things.

I realized that I just had to get up, go to work, and keep on going even if I didn’t feel like it. Feelings come and go, they don’t last, so they don’t have to have the last say. Another thing was I had to exercise my ability to have hope. I take things like having hope and faith for granted sometimes, and I realized I just needed to believe that things will change. So in the meantime, I wrote this song at that time to help me get through the moment, let my feelings out, and have hope at the same time. Hopefully this story can help anyone going through a rough patch.

Here are the lyrics:

If it means anything
I keep on going
Even if I don’t want to

If it means anything
I try to smile
Even when I don’t feel good

Cause I know
Things always turn around
When you least expect it to

Even when I doubt
Without a doubt
Things turn around eventually

If it means anything
I hold onto hope
When hopelessness sinks in

If it means anything
I find my hands together
Praying for a sign

Things will change
I’ll feel good

Monday Storytime: Magically Collide by Jamie Pennelly

I write a lot of songs. They are all based on an experience I’ve had whether it was an actual situation or just a feeling. I love that process. I’ve decided to start this thing called Monday Storytime to give me some space every Monday to share the story behind one of my songs.

The first story I want to share is how I came to write my song Magically Collide. I decided to share this one because just today, as I arrived home and got out of my car to go into my house, I caught a glimpse of the sky and the stars. They were so beautiful. In just that glimpse, a sense of peace came over me. I just got back from work and felt a bit stressed and my stress went away even for just a moment.

There have been so many instances where the sky was able to give me that feeling of healing. This song shares that experience. This specific song, “Magically Collide” was written on a day where the sky had colors I don’t see too often. It caught my attention because it was a mix of like a soft peach color on top and then it blended with some light purple, then ended with a nice darker purple. Those two colors are actually some of my favorite colors, so of course seeing it put a smile on my face. =)

Right when I had a break in between jobs, I penned “Magically Collide.” The first part of the chorus goes “Let the skies above light up. Put a show for us to see. Let us see the colors magically collide.” I went on an awesome month long road/camping trip with my husband and we stayed at a campground. One night, I woke up in the middle of the night and again caught a glimpse of the sky and was in awe. It was so clear, so blue, and filled with so many stars. I think of nature sometimes putting on a show for us.

Despite all the craziness that can go on in our world or in my life, pretty skies have the ability to bring me back to a good place. I like that.

Awkward Beginnings and Proving Them Wrong

My dream is to see a world where the norm is for people to pursue their life’s work. This is my dream because I’m a very observant and sensitive person and I see so many people who are stressed out and unhappy. This really makes me sad. Working in customer service where I talk to so many people and come across so many people, a common observation I have when having small talk with people is that many of them had similar things to say. In response to “What are you up to today?” A common response is to first sigh and then say, “Oh I have work.” Or a response to how are you doing is something along the lines of sarcastically saying, “Living the dream.” I know it’s just small talk, but being a sensitive person and person that hopes so much for people, this isn’t okay for me. Something needs to be done.

Fear of beginning

So the dream I wish to see…I’m taking on the job to make it a reality in the world. I just recorded my first training video ever and I was extremely afraid to do it. I didn’t understand why I was so afraid because I have been on a roll in doing what I love to do and not feeling afraid. I realize now that was the case because I started getting in the habit of doing what I was doing. Now, I was doing something for the first time again. I had to get back to the knowledge I learned on how to do something you’re afraid of for the first time.

Fear is a good sign

I went back to the framework I wrote. In terms of fear, learned from Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art, fear is an indicator that that’s the next work you need to do. In my Make The Switch Framework, I write that you will always know the next thing to do. This video was it for me. So remembering Pressfield’s advice and my framework, I decided to just do it. Looking back, I realized I was afraid because I thought I had to wait for someone to give me the permission to do something I really wanted to do. I quickly learned that that permission wasn’t coming and that I have to give myself the permission to just begin. Another reason I was so afraid was thinking, “Who am I to do this work? I’m a nobody…what am I thinking.” Wrong, I am a somebody with a specific set of gifts and talents that I’m meant to give to the world.

You can figure it out

There’s this belief that holds back so many people that when you start off you should be an instant success, that you shouldn’t have unpromising beginnings or awkward starting moments. This is untrue because upon 2 years of studying people who do their life’s work, almost every single one of them had to begin unknown, awkwardly, and figure it out. So the most common way of realizing your dreams is actually just beginning smack dab where you are and figuring it out. In my framework, I write about how people have a powerful mind that can figure anything out. The majority of people just don’t know this though because they haven’t used their mind in this way before. You’ll surprise yourself. You’ll be able to figure everything out step by step. The process is begin, learn, and grow and then fail, learn, and begin again. In this way, failure as we knew it is no longer an end, but a beginning to the next upward step towards realizing your dreams.

Prove them wrong

With the end of Super Bowl, Seahawks QB Russell Wilson totally inspired me. In reading about his story, he could’ve gone pro in baseball. Everyone advised him to do baseball, but he had this fire in him that wanted to do football. Being 5’11, it makes it very hard to succeed in football, let alone convince a team that you would be an asset, but against all odds he did it. He said he went for football because he wanted to prove everyone wrong.

Don’t let anything stop you from pursuing that burning desire in your heart. There is no type of work that is better than the other. The best work that helps you and the whole wide world is only the work that in your heart you really want to create in the world. Don’t listen to anything or anyone but your heart. You have a powerful mind, you can figure it out. You have strength of character that you never knew you have, you can stand against fear and all other things that get in your way.

I want to see a world where people fulfill their dreams and do their life’s work because it’s so possible. It’s my job to spread the awareness of the limitless possibilities.

Jamie Pennelly is the founder of Live and Love Again Revolution that spreads the message to “Live your best life and love what you do.” Her newest work is the Make The Switch Framework on how to make the switch from “just getting a job” to “doing your life’s work.” To learn more about the work she does and social media platforms visit: https://liveandloveagainrevolution.wordpress.com/about-me/.

What’s your dream?

There was a time where I didn’t enjoy going to work. A time where I didn’t enjoy life. I just felt frustrated and negative all the time. I spent my time numbing the pain from it all by overeating, overworking, and overspending. I had to do it over the top because that was the only way I got the effects of being able to get to a point of no longer being able to feel.

And then through the drama of my life, I realized that perhaps I was ready for a different way of life. The things that I thought made me happy were no longer making me happy. I grew up a little and realized that maybe I wanted to do something real.

It took some time to relearn how to live life and relearn how to feel. After a couple of years, I am at a place I have never been before. I feel healthy, strong, and confident in who I truly am.

I hope you enjoy the new and real me. =)

http://jamiepennelly.bandcamp.com/album/make-the-switch-framework

I love to sing! Make The Switch: Framework on how to do the things you love

Hey Everyone!

I love to sing and write songs. Here’s one of my recent songs called “The Best Thing.” At the end of the video, I talk about a framework I used on how to do the things I love as my life’s work. We’re coming across a time where the time has come to do your life’s work. “Just getting a job” no longer applies.

Every single person has a specific purpose to fulfill in their life

Each and every single person, no matter their background, past failings, or level of confidence, has a specific purpose to fulfill in their life. The easy part is that you’ve already been given the gifts, talents, and mind to accomplish that purpose. You’ve had it all along ever since you were born. The hard part knowing that and then making the switch. In the framework, you will learn about the truth of how important your hearts desires are and how to make that switch. I focus on how to make that switch, first in your mind, and then in what you do because it is the hardest thing to do. There are so many people who already know what they love and what they would like their life’s work to be, but haven’t made the switch. It’s understandable because there are so many roadblocks and fears associated with it. Many of which are unnecessary, but  have been led to falsely believe them.

Now is the time

Now is the time. You can make the switch. I wish you the best. I want to see a world where people have come alive because they are fulfilling their life’s purpose. No purpose is better than the other, no life’s work is better than the other. What you truly love and desire is  crucial data on what your life’s work is. When you make the switch, you’ve already made the world a better place.

How to get the free copy of the complete Make The Switch Framework

Follow the link below. You will be directed to my online store where you can download the framework for free. You will receive a free mp3 of the introduction of the framework and a free PDF of the complete framework. You will learn about the 5 things you need to know to make the switch.

http://jamiepennelly.bandcamp.com/album/make-the-switch-framework