Author Archives: Guus

Hesitant

I was a bit hesitant to click ‘new post’ as I have no clue what to write right now. Related to this site my mind is much more to finishing the inspirational and motivational sites pages than writing posts. And I should(?!) take a break and do something fun, but actually I am quite happy working on DoctorsConnect, my new project. And I am still working on the new site for the SEMP Association, but that took and is taking a bit more time than I expected.

So well, yeah, quite busy with things, but it would have been nicer to also work on some real customer stuff (the SEMP Association site I do as sponsor) to have some more budget for fun things, but well, if it isn’t there it isn’t there and it gives me the time now to focus on DoctorsConnect and I think I came quite far with that already, as the whole foundation is there already and it’s pretty stable. The difficult part (for me) may be to make it a bit (or a lot) more user friendly, but in the end I think reliability is very important, even though I have learned that ‘time to market’ is also very important.

So well, we’ll see, but I have the feeling I am quite close to have a first version of the system ‘in the market’ soon. And that makes me very proud.

What a day

Wow, what a day was today. And I have no clue why it feels different as I didn’t do so much different things than I usually do. But I did finish the start of the software that enables the management and display of the (evaluation) of inspirational sites and motivational sites. And that was something I had looked forward to for quite a while, as especially the page top inspirational sites has become quite a chaos that I think is not of much use to readers unless they are willing to spend a little time to read through the rubbish and find the more interesting stuff. But the basis stands and I am very happy with that.

And yes, next to that there may be a little hope that finally my personal life, my life will improve, even though I am a little skeptical with that. Anyhow, the reason is that since two months or so I am participating in a group of Codependents Anonymous and this is the first time in my life I see a glimmer of hope to turn my life around for the good. As it seems I’m not the only one feeling like I feel and doing things that don’t work and it seems a twelve step program may be the solution for the change I have been longing for for so long.

And no, I certainly don’t want to create the impression that twelve step programs have anything to do with achieving success or inspiring people, but if you have the same feeling like me, a feeling I have had for a very, very long time, that you have done everything and nothing seems to work, then you may want to look into something like that. But only then, and not if you are just stuck in a ‘normal’ way.

So well, yes, it seems my start of 2015 is good and that is a feeling I have not had in a very long time. And it feels good.

Happy New Year

I don’t believe so much in things like New Year anymore, like having New Years Resolutions, although Napoleon Hill recommends doing things like that. But the new year is around fifteen minutes old and with all the fireworks it is hard to ignore. So yeah, why am I writing right now? Shouldn’t I be with family or friends? Well, maybe I should, but with so little budget and hardly any friends and a relationship that could be a bit smoother and easier I didn’t really feel like celebrating New Year with friends or family or inviting friends or family here. And I don’t mind so much, although of course I would have liked to really celebrate this New Year and Christmas, yes, also with friends and/or family.

And I am thinking now how to continue. As part of this whole thing, probably even including this whole site, goes probably back to my codependency, to my codependent behavior. And what I hear now, especially in the weekly meeting of a Codependents Anonymous group, that type of behavior is pretty destructive. And I guess you can find much of that in this site, especially in my posts, hopefully more in my older posts and less in my newer posts. But that’s not the subject I wanted to talk about, although one of the things in my mind is that I guess there are many people who are or feel alone with these days, especially with these days, where most people seem to have a very happy time with friends and family.

So especially with these days around Christmas and New Year I guess there are pretty many people who are alone; or feel alone; or feel more alone. And I guess there are also quite some people who just don’t like these days, who just want to do something else. Or who don’t know how to deal with it as they don’t have the budget or the friends or the family to celebrate as they wanted to. And as I indicated I am one of them, as I don’t feel it is right to visit family right now because I am really tight on budget. And it has been for very long already, so I think most people don’t even believe me, but it is still true, at least for me. And I decided to change something there and I changed it a bit, which is one of the reasons I don’t want to go, but it is still hard to not just borrow again and go and have fun as my partner wants. And friends nearby, well I guess they don’t really know I would have liked to be invited. And I didn’t know how to invite them and involve them in my budget issue.

Anyhow, I am pretty much okay here kind of alone as my partner was supposed to be somewhere else but came back, which kind of confused me and also stopped me from making other plans.

So well, not sure what is inspirational in this post. Or what my real message is. Ah, yes, I wanted to say something like ‘please think of those people who are alone and such’, but that sounds so corny now. And I am not sure if it is even true.

And yes, it was kind of weird the last few days, as I was mainly just working, just doing my normal thing. But that was also what I wanted, as I am working on an exciting new project and also wanted to finish anther project that is starting to take too much time, especially too much lead time. And shouldn’t I just do what I want to do and not what others think that should be done, like celebrating holidays ‘because that is how it’s supposed to be’? And as indicated, I would love to celebrate, but it just doesn’t feel like celebrating, so why would I annoy myself and others with actually wanting to do something else…

And yes, I guess I will still kind of follow the suggestion of Napoleon Hill about my progress (in life?), even though I have other dates for that. But I realize I skipped most of those dates for thorough analysis, so maybe this is just the right time, like tomorrow or this weekend. And maybe also something to add to the Inspirational Tools, some kind of table where you can follow progress in your life, like analyzing things how Napoleon Hill suggests somewhere in Think and Grow Rich.

So am I doing okay, regardless the fact that I didn’t achieve the success I am looking for and have been working on seriously for about two years now? Yes, I think I am, as I learned a lot and somehow I have the feeling I made progress, quite a lot, somehow, even though I can’t exactly pinpoint how and what, as my situation didn’t really change. But I guess somehow my perception changed. And I hope also my attitude, as the last seems to be very important for achieving success.

Anyhow, I wish you all the best for 2015 and if this site, my writing and such, is contributing or has contributed to that, please let me know. That would really inspire me to do more.

Impatient?

For the last week or so I have been a bit impatient, as I wanted the site to be ready for 2015. And that meant among other things updating the code for displaying the daily inspirational quotes for the page daily inspirational quotes 2015. As I hard coded the checking of the year in that code, which I don’t consider good programming practice, but was a good enough solution until now and could be good enough for at least the near future.

So I intended to wait until it was really needed, but today I couldn’t hold it anymore, so I just created that page and added the necessary few lines of code to handle the display of the 2015 quotes. And somewhere in my mind is that another update is needed, but maybe I’m wrong and was it just creating an additional page for my gratitude diary in the Dutch site.

And actually I don’t want to do retrospective things related to the ‘past year’ or do ‘good intentions things’ for the coming year, but somehow it seems that is hard to escape. And Napoleon Hill even recommends it, a yearly check on progress, so maybe I’ll still do that one of these days.

And it is strange, as Inspiration for Success, kind of starting with my Dutch blog now more than two years ago, somehow is completely different than when I started it. Or not really different, but more like it has progressed, it has grown. The strange thing with it is though that the traffic went down recently, quite a lot, where I expected it to go up all the time, as I have continued to write every day, except Sundays. And that hurts a lot as I expected, as I presumed, that the traffic would go up, especially as I kept writing. And recently I have even written more than average as I also added and changed some pages and added functionality for the top inspirational sites part.

And believe me, that hurts a lot, that the traffic went down, went down a lot. And that the number of links towards the site does not increase, or at least not visible. As it still takes a lot to write every day and also trying to improve the functionality of the site. And no, I couldn’t find the strength to improve the inspirational tools, a part of the site I thought could be, would be, very useful for people.

So yes, it is very good to experience the satisfaction of writing every day. And seeing that in the graph of the number of indexed pages in Google Webmaster Tools. And of somehow see the site grow also in other ways, even though it is very slow. And somehow I know that if I just continue, if I just persist adding stuff to the site, the traffic will increase. And with that also the use of the inspirational tools. And the subscribers to the daily inspirational quote.

But no matter my personal progress in discipline and habits and such, it would be nice to see the traffic and the use of the inspirational tools grow. As yes, I am quite sure that would inspire me to do more, to improve and expand Inspiration for Success in a way I had in mind when I started it.

So yes, if you would be willing to write a comment; or just check the inspirational tools; or give some feedback; or sign up to the daily inspirational quote; or create a link to the site or one of the pages in the site. That would really inspire me, really make me happy.

But if not, that’s also okay. As I have learned that with persistence, yes combined with the right mindset and some other things, you can achieve anything. So certainly a bit more traffic and better use for Inspiration for Success.

Saying no

The more I learn about codependency the more I realize I need to do something. And it seems nobody can do it for me. And they say it’s not easy. And it isn’t, as it indeed seems other people don’t see or realize what is going on, it seems I am indeed acting ‘weird’. As today I said ‘no’ to someone and he kept going on with what I felt like he was just annoying me. And yes, I know I have spoiled this person with always giving in. And he has a very strong will and he is very sociable and it seems I’m not. And the strange thing is it seems he can get away with anything. And I feel I can’t, or maybe don’t want to.

So how we teach each other things in a gentle way, without breaking things, without blackmail. And it is so easy to say to cooperate, negotiate or compromise, but how do you do that when the other person appears to be completely unreasonable?

Anyhow, I am starting to learn that ‘no’ is indeed a complete sentence. And that I don’t need to have excuses of feel guilty when saying now, when I just don’t want something. But it’s not easy.

So I just want to share the following ‘quote’ I found when searching for my daily inspirational quote for today:

“No is a complete sentence and so often we forget that.

When we don’t want to do something we can simply smile and say no.

We don’t have to explain ourselves, we can just say “No”.

Early on my journey I found developing the ability to say no expanded my ability to say yes and really mean it.

My early attempts at saying no were often far from graceful but with practice even my no came from a place of love.

Love yourself enough to be able to say yes or no.”

Susan Gregg