Karen@KarenCommins.com

Karen Commins

Award Winning

Atlanta Audiobook Share-rator™

Away From the Mic

Golden Nugget From Pat Fraley’s Pick Up Your Oscar Webinar

Pat Fraley recently taught a webinar called Pick Up Your Oscar: The Craft of Voice Over Acting. I sign up for just about everything Pat offers because I know I will learn great info that propels my career forward.

This webinar about acting was no exception. In fact, it was more useful to me than much of the voice-over training I have had! In publicizing the event, Pat wrote: “It’s not an MFA for 50 bucks, but it’s the only acting system created to meet the rapid rigors of the voice over world.” He further promised to teach how to:

  1. “Play Actions” not present emotions
  2. “Play the Subtext”
  3. “Raise The Stakes”
  4. Create “Motivated Contrast”

The big golden nugget for me was the fact that you can’t act an emotion. You have to think in terms of the ACTION VERB in order to bring the emotion to the text. You can “up the stakes” by finding a verb that has a different connotation or intensity.

After the webinar concluded, I found this fantastic book ACTIONS: The Actors’ Thesaurus at Amazon, and it already has been extremely useful in creating more evocative auditions.

Actions: An Actor's Thesaurus

The introduction offers this explanation:

If the actor plays a specific and real action on each sentence, then, even though the audience are unlikely to be able to identify the technique or the individual action, the work will be interesting and absolutely watchable because of its precision. Actioning enforces a specificity which can liberate the actor’s performance and ensure a cohesive integrated character with each moment leading naturally onto the next. 

The book also provides an example of finding and using actions in analyzing a commercial script.

During the webinar, Pat coached several people through the process, and I could really hear the difference in their reads. You can order a copy of Pat’s webinar, along with a variety of other programs, at this link.
 

TDIMH — Going Fast in the Wrong Direction

This Date in My History — Mon., 6/3/02 10:46PM on my sofa and melting

If it’s true that the harder I work, the luckier I am — which is a quote from either Edison or Jefferson, but definitely on one of my mail-outs — then I should be rolling in v-o gigs.

I sent half a dozen emails yesterday to companies I found at ozonline.tv, which has a directory of all sorts of creative companies in GA. The depressing and overwhelming thing is that the list has tons of companies I haven’t heard of and therefore aren’t in my database. So who are these 350 people in my database? Am I sending all my expensive mail-outs to the wrong people?

I know that I created my database the wrong way. I gathered names from the GA Business Directory and the Atlanta Business Chronicle Book of Lists and created a database without, as they say in marketing circles, qualifying my prospects. I could have good companies with the wrong contact name, companies who would never hire voice talent, and good potential clients all mixed together.

I haven’t had a lot of time to make phone calls while at work, and response to my emails has been limited in the past. I was pleased to get a response tonight to one of my queries yesterday, and the person said they use voice talent and to send my stuff. I wish I could prepare a media kit in less time, but I practically have to print everything new.

It bugs me sometimes (like tonight) to be working hard in my room and hear Drew downstairs laughing at the TV. I’m jealous that he has time to relax and even more jealous that he has steady business from the newspaper for photography without ever having to work for it. He said one day he’d like to do something with photography, and I suggested that he approach the local newspaper with the idea to be a stringer. He did, and they’ve been calling him ever since.

I, on the other hand, have spent countless hours and 1000s and 1000s of hours [sic — I must have meant “dollars”] trying to market myself and get my big break, and for what? This year, I’ve made $925, which is more than the preceding years put together.

I vowed to celebrate every step I take toward my goals, but, right now, I feel overwhelmed, tired, grumpy, and somewhat depressed because I feel like I am spinning my wheels.

Of course, some of my negative feelings could be caused by being hot. The temp today was in the 90s, and the A/C hasn’t been able to keep up.

Today’s Take-aways:

1)  You need to create and maintain a great contact database for your marketing efforts. In addition to contact info, I record notes about conversations, especially the personal data I learn about my contact, and actions taken like demo submissions Before entering any information in your database, you will want to be sure that the person or company actually needs your services and that this person is the one who would make the decision to choose you. Otherwise, you could spend valuable time and money marketing to people who would never hire you.

2)  Balance between business activities and the rest of your life is critical! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and your business won’t be, either. Obviously, balance is a bit more difficult to achieve if you are starting your business in the evenings and weekends after full-time job and even more complicated by your family’s schedule. Time management is your friend! Schedule time for both your business and family activities so that you can move forward on your goals without feeling like you are forsaking your family to do it.

3)  Jealousy is a self-defeating emotion that keeps you from reaching your destiny. We need to learn to be happy with who we are and where we are in order to get where we want to go.

4)  When you feel grumpy and start complaining about everything that’s wrong, try instead to make a gratitude list of all that’s RIGHT in your life. Not only will you instantly feel better, but your gratitude is the key to receiving more for which you can be grateful!

Photo:  iStockPhoto/PhilHillPhotography

 

How do you respond to criticism?


Being a creative person in the public eye means that bad reviews go with the territory. In narrating 11 audiobooks in 2012, I observed that:

  • People seem more likely to leave a rating than write a review.
  • Negative reviews seem to outnumber positive ones.

In looking at the negative reviews, some people actually gave informative feedback about why they didn’t like the book. Others, though, left mean and meaningless comments. I suspect that many people feel better about themselves when they can be critical of others.

Recently, I used my journal entries from 1993 to give you 4 quick lessons about finding happiness when you hate your job. Today, I want to use my journal entries to talk about how to deal with criticism.

In 1993, I wrote:

I can’t help but be upset and depressed, among other negative emotions. I endured another round of criticism.

[A manager] has insinuated that I am incompetent. These constant attacks are demoralizing and de-motivating. I don’t feel like doing anything for anyone.

When [my boss] brought up the subject, I felt pains in my chest, underarm and ribs. I’m sure the anxiety and stress I continuously feel causes these pains.

Never in my life in any endeavor have I been the subject of so much criticism. Throughout my career, others have always perceived me as being extremely intelligent and capable. These recent attacks hurt me all the more deeply since they are unwarranted. I know more about computers and networks than [management] will ever know.

 

On 8 July 2012, I wrote:

I was looking in that first journal I started in 1993. Every day, I was writing about all of the problems I was having at work. Some of the days I vividly remember just by looking at that journal. 

My [younger] self was very sensitive, especially to criticism. I can learn a lot from her.

The more she thought and wrote about criticism, the more it seemed to come her way. When she started standing up for herself and letting people know they couldn’t dump on her, she actually became more respected. Days at work became easier…

Looking back to 1993, none of the stuff that I wrote about made a long-term difference in my life. I solved problems. I gained self-esteem. I knew I did good work, and no one could take that away from me.

No matter what people said, the truth was that I DID GOOD WORK.

And that’s the truth today. I do good work in audiobooks. Not everyone is going to like my work.

They may say mean-spirited things about my work…Obviously, the naysayers haven’t caused people to stop buying the books…My 4- and 5-star ratings for performance far exceed the 1- and 2-star ratings.

I would tell my 1993 self to focus on the outcome I wanted and keep doing good work. That sounds like excellent advice for my 2012 self!

What changed in the 19 years between these journal entries?

Some people would say that things that troubled you when you were younger don’t matter as you grow older. Yes, that’s partially true, but I also have spent considerable time in consciously re-programming my mind. I continue each day to CHOOSE BETTER THOUGHTS and speak words in the direction I want my life to go.

The following quotes are especially meaningful to me. They help me remember to focus on the outcome I want to achieve instead of dwelling on any perceived slights or criticism in the present moment. I hope they may help you.

Wayne Dyer

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change. 

In 1994, I changed my mindset to be “I’m only doing this job to get money and vacation time to do what I want to do.” That attitude shift was my first attempt to focus on the outcome I wanted. By focusing on the outcome, I was less swayed by events – and negative comments about my work – in the moment.

Barry Manilow

Don’t take your critics’ words to heart. What do they know, anyway? Forget about pleasing everybody, and play to people who like what you do. (paraphrased)

Barry Manilow could be the patron saint of the unfairly criticized. I remember reading an article in which he said that he would give a great show that the audience loved. He would read the reviews expecting accolades and would instead find brutal words from critics. He said the bad reviews would hurt his feelings and those of his fans.

He began changing his performances to please the critics.

Fortunately, he realized he wasn’t being true to himself and decided to compose, sing, arrange, conduct, and perform songs the ways that suited him.I find it interesting to note that in the 20 years that I’ve been following Barry in his 40+-year career, he’s gone from being a punch line to a joke to being referred to as a music legend.

He didn’t change. His critics did.

Joel Osteen

If somebody doesn’t like you, don’t take it personally. They are not part of your destiny. Shake off every negative comment spoken over you and reprogram your thinking. Your attitude should be “No big deal. They are powerless to stop the blessing on my life.”

You have to have a boldness. You can’t be insecure and worry about what everybody thinks. If you change with every criticism and play up to people to try to win their favor, then you’ll go through life being manipulated, letting people squeeze you into their box….Even if you changed and did exactly what they asked, they would still find fault.

While I am not a fan of organized religion, I like Joel Osteen’s messages each week. He always talks about ways to improve your own life, starting with the thoughts that you are thinking.

Theodore Roosevelt

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. 

Arthur Schopenhauer

We will gradually become indifferent to what goes on in the minds of other people when we acquire a knowledge of the superficial nature of their thoughts, the narrowness of their views and of the number of their errors. Whoever attaches a lot of value to the opinions of others pays them too much honor.

I wish I could say that I have read this philosopher’s texts. I actually heard this quote recently when listening to the audiobook of THE CHAPERONE written by Laura Moriarty and beautifully narrated by Elizabeth McGovern.

Mark Twain

One mustn’t criticize other people on grounds where he can’t stand perpendicular himself.

I have learned to shrug off criticism in audiobook reviews by remembering the following points:

  • Each rating or review is just one person’s opinion.
  • I do the best that I can in each recording session.
  • With each recording session, my best level improves.
  • I am happy with the audiobooks that I create.
  • The publishers and authors are delighted with the audiobooks I create.

Do you struggle with taking criticism to heart? How do you deal with it?

Photo: iStockPhoto/Leontura

3 Thoughts to Help You Get Past That Mistake

Every job promotion I earned through my long career at the IRS was a competitive action. Today’s story is about a job I didn’t get due to my own mistakes and how those mistakes help me in my voice-over career today.

Once upon a time…

I started working at the IRS as a teenager. Daddy worked there and encouraged me to apply for a part-time job on the evening shift after school. It was a data entry job in which your output was measured against that of your peers.

As a fast typist, the work was easy for me, plus I made more money and had a more structured schedule than my friends who worked in restaurants. I never thought my job there would evolve into a career, but I eagerly applied for every position that had potential for more money.

Given the procedures involved, the high number of applicants, and paper blizzard of job applications, jobs typically weren’t filled for 3-6 months after the announcement. I would apply for a job and then forget it (kind of like doing an audition today).

One evening, my manager called me to her desk and told me that I had a job interview. I think she ended this exciting news flash with something like, “Oh, and it’s 5 minutes from now, so you better start walking.”

I worked in a 1-story building spanning several acres. All of the tax returns for several states were processed in that building, so you can imagine its size. I didn’t know where the interview room was and, after several wrong turns on various hallways, practically had to run to get there.

Even though 3 decades have passed since that day, I still remember the interviewer’s face when she saw me.

There I was, fashionably dressed in my lovely tank top, overalls, colorful toe socks and flip flops, out of breath and probably a bit sweaty as I burst into the room.

She looked me up and down and most assuredly thought, “Um, no.”

She asked me a few questions, and my answers revealed my complete lack of knowledge about her organization. I didn’t even know which job I was being interviewed for! I’m sure she thought that if her other top candidates were as prepared as me, she’d prefer to leave the job vacant.

Someone else’s job “interview” story

I thought about this incident recently when I received an email from someone who bemoaned a mistake in an audition. That person kindly gave me permission to reprint their words here:

I am on ACX.  I made the mistake of submitting an audition from home with horrendous lack of quality and only put in the comment, “please let me know if there are issues.”  Ha . That must have been like comedy for them.  I did not get any comments.  So I have been making all the mistakes that teach me what to do next.  Still looking to figure out how I recover from such embarrassing mistakes.

Man smacks his head after making a mistake

 
I learned 3 things from my bad interview experience that may help you get past your own mistakes:

1.  You have to prepare for what you want.

Louis Pasteur said, “Chance favors the prepared mind.” In my case, preparation would have included dressing the part and being familiar with the organizations where I had applied.

However, a big part of your preparation involves learning what NOT to do. Like showing up for job interview dressed like a hobo and submitting an audition with horrible sound quality, we all have to learn some things the hard way!

Being in a learning curve is a scary place to be. The best article I’ve written about being in a learning curve is 12 lessons from Dancing With The Stars. If you read that article and absorb the lessons, you’ll find it easier to give yourself permission to learn and grow from your experiences.

2.  You’ve got to bring your A game.

My friend Dave Courvoisier writes an excellent blog about voice-over, equipment, and social media topics. He recently wrote an (Embarrassingly) True Story and the subsequent Feedback Follow-up in which he described a producer’s reactions to 400 auditions for a pirate voice.

I encourage you to read these illuminating articles as they offer a producer’s exact comments about the auditions he heard. In short, he felt most people didn’t make an effort to impress him or do good work, with half sending “terrible recordings” and others sending “laid-back and lazy” auditions.

The good news is — to quote George Eliot and a title of one of my audiobooks — “It’s Never Too Late To Be What You Might Have Been”.

Every day is an opportunity to grow and improve. As you learn more and improve, your A game is going to change.

You may have lost one chance to make a good impression, but you haven’t lost ALL of them. You have to shake off the negative thoughts and hold the attitude every day that you are working to the best of your ability. Your actions will follow your thoughts, so you might as well think thoughts of progress and victory!

And remember, people on top of the mountain didn’t just fall there.

3. Things happen for a reason.

Sometimes you figure out the reason, and sometimes you never do because it wasn’t about you. If I could go back to that blown interview, I wouldn’t change a thing. I learned something valuable that day.

I can look back at the closed doors in my life and see how they led to something better. I’m reminded of another IRS interview story.

In 2008, I had an interview with the multilingual office. I really, REALLY wanted that job. It would have been a promotion, and the work was something I thought I’d be very interested in doing. For some reason unknown to me, they were delayed in making a decision after the interview.

Meanwhile, my best friend Mike asked me to work on a temporary promotion for 4 months in his office in Applications Development. When I said yes to that opportunity, my life changed in ways I couldn’t imagine:

  • I wasn’t selected for the job I thought I really wanted. It turns out I never missed it.
  • I loved working with Mike again! I was his assistant manager, and I felt pride in contributing in a meaningful way to the organization.
  • Although I had been desperate for years to get out of the IRS and into voice-over full-time, I actually ACCEPTED my life for the first time. Acceptance of your life is a key to moving forward.
  • My original manager in Network Operations was incredibly generous. Since I loved the job with Mike so much, she let me continue working in Mike’s office for a year after the temporary promotion ended.
  • Tax Exempt and Government Entities (TE/GE) is an IRS business unit that deals with taxes for those groups. TE/GE was one of our main clients in Applications Development, so I learned a lot about their organization.
  • In 2009, I had an interview for a project manager position in TE/GE Business Systems Planning. They didn’t select me for the job.
  • Instead, TE/GE actually offered a communications job to me! It was my dream position at the IRS!
  • In 2011, the IRS offered early retirements to a very small number of employees, mostly in areas of communications and training. Guess what? I was one of them! If I had stayed in Information Technology, whether with Mike in Applications Development or my original job in Network Operations, I would still be working at the IRS, with no end in sight.

My life would have turned out very differently if I had gotten that job as a teenager. I love my life and wouldn’t want to change it!

When you know that things happen for a reason, you place less emphasis on any one thing that happens. This knowledge takes the stress out of any perceived mistakes of the moment.

Don’t dwell on those “mistakes”! As I discovered through my many IRS interview experiences, what we think are mistakes are often the catalysts we need to take our lives higher.

Image: iStockPhoto/PeskyMonkey
 

4 Ways to Find Happiness When You Hate Your Job

Does this paragraph sound like you:

I’ve had tremendous anxiety and stress on my job for over a year. Actually, I’ve been stressed out for much longer. Lately, I feel like I’m “on the edge”; I’m about to go crazy.

Or what about these comments:

  • I worked 13 hours today….
  • I have been exhausted all day and found it very difficult to concentrate at work….
  • I felt frustrated, overwhelmed, and burned out a good bit of today….
  • Just thinking about work makes me feel sick to my stomach.

I know what it’s like to feel all of those things because I lifted these sentences from my first serious journal, which I kept between March 1993 and December 1994. (I say it’s a serious journal only to distinguish it from diaries with the little lock that I wrote in as a child. I wish I’d kept those and written journals throughout my life, but that’s another story.)

I started the journal after a meeting with a counselor from the Employee Assistance Program at my job with the IRS. I wrote:

I want to think about things that make me happy rather than dwell on those things that make me feel anxious, worried, depressed, etc. 

I told the counselor, “I think this job is killing me.”

The counselor replied, “If you think that, it probably really is.”

The counselor said my relationship with my job/employer is unhealthy and destructive since I have been suffering from headaches, digestive problems, and an inability to get to sleep at night.

The counselor’s immediate answer to my problem is to find another job. I think I’ll try harder to do that very thing.

If you see yourself in my mirror, there’s hope!

This way to happiness!

I think many people want to leave their current jobs and pursue a voice-over career because they perceive voice-over to be a fast and easy way to make money. I’ve already covered the fallacy in this thinking in many other articles.

However, I found 4 quick lessons in my 1993 journal that may help you find happiness when you hate your job:

4/21/93 — [A fellow computer network administrator] and I had a discussion while in Nashville that we have lost professionalism in the eyes of others. The proliferation of PCs has caused other people to think that our profession doesn’t require special skills. [My boss’s] refusal to fund my classes only emphasizes that point to me. 

LESSON 1: Most people immediately think they would be happy if they could change jobs or possibly even start a new career. Before you make an irrevocable and life-changing decision, read the article Every passion does not lead to a career choice. You need to figure out what is missing on your job and in your life, as well as ways to get it in your life.

If you do decide that a career change is necessary, accept that becoming a professional in ANY category requires time and money to gain the knowledge, skills, and experience necessary for that line of work. Malcolm Gladwell asserts in his book OUTLIERS that 10,000 hours – or approximately 5 years of 40-hour weeks – of dedicated practice is needed for anyone to reach the elite level of his or her field.

Of course, you can become an expert in your field with less than 10,000 hours of practice. I can’t say precisely how long it would take. I do know that success requires more effort than a weekend workshop.

Based on my experience in switching careers, I advise people to start their new career slowly and in a part-time capacity while still employed in the first career. It takes the pressure off you as you gain the skills to be successful in the new career. You can funnel money made in the first career into classes needed for the second. Through it all, you will feel happier knowing that you are taking active steps to live the life you envision.

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7/12/93 – I did my first training session as a reader for the GA Radio Reading Service. I auditioned several weeks ago. On 6/30, the Director of Volunteers told me I had passed the audition. She said only about 35% of the people pass the audition. Since it consisted of 100 difficult vocabulary words, 2 newspaper articles, and a dramatic piece, I can believe the majority of people wouldn’t pass. 

LESSON 2: Even voiceover — a career based on something as seemingly simple as talking — is not as easy as it looks! One way to gain valuable knowledge and experience is to volunteer for an organization.

My husband Drew is not the first person to parlay his volunteer gig into a paid position. You can read his inspiring story in the article 10 Law of Attraction principles in creating a job shift.

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7/30/93 – The best thing that happened all week was seeing Barry Manilow in concert tonight! He was on his “Greatest Hits…and More” tour. I had never seen him in concert…I was so excited at my first glimpse of Barry….The more Manilow I hear, the more Manilow I want to hear! 

LESSON 3: Your career is only one aspect of your life. Find a new hobby that brings you joy. That joy will overflow into every other aspect of your life, including the job. If it’s an expensive hobby (like traveling to see 51 Barry Manilow concerts in 20 cities!), you’ll feel greater appreciation and gratitude for the job that funds the hobby.

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8/11/93 – I went to the [literacy] tutor workshop last night. They are matching students and tutors starting today. I’m anxious to get started with it. 

LESSON 4: This lesson may seem like the same thing as #2, but it’s not. Item #2 was to volunteer for organization to gain experience you need. Item #4 is to take the focus off yourself and your problems, and instead, help someone else solve their problem.

I’ve read that one way to achieve your dreams is to help someone else achieve their dream. You can help someone by volunteering for an organization or just in a one-on-one capacity where you see a need. Helping someone else helps make the world a better place for all of us.

Your career is a series of decisions and an evolutionary process. Your job may add to your happiness, but it’s isn’t the source of your happiness. You can CHOOSE to be happy every day, even at a job that doesn’t fulfill you.

In an upcoming article, I’ll share some lessons I’ve learned about dealing with criticism. In the meantime, do you have tips about staying happy? I’d love to get your comments on the blog!

Power of “I AM” in Maintaining a Positive Attitude

A positive attitude is one thing that people always advise you to have when starting or pursuing a voice-over career. You probably even think you have one. I thought I did….until I realized just how pervasive our negative thoughts and words really are.

For instance, in one of the on-line voice-over forums, we were discussing an audio recording technique. Someone made a comment like “I could kick myself that I wasn’t smart enough to figure it out for myself.”

We think and say things like that all of the time without ever realizing the negative energy lurking in our words.

That particular example is a double negation of self. First, the “kick myself” part could cause you to feel actual pain in your body. Your ears are listening to every word that comes out of your mouth. Your brain is processing those words and may interpret them as commands.

Some very common phrases that people use without thinking can cause mental or physical pain, especially when repeated and said with emotion:

  • Someone is a pain in the neck or butt.
  • I’d give my right arm for that.
  • That thing is to die for.
  • I am blown away by that.
  • That person is driving me crazy.
  • That situation is on my last nerve.
  • I love that person to death.

The “I wasn’t smart enough” part of the forum comment is the part I really want to discuss today. Saying “I wasn’t smart enough” re-inforces a negative belief system. If the person thinks they weren’t smart enough for one thing, maybe they start thinking they aren’t smart enough for other things as well.

When I’m around people who put forth such comments, I offer them a different perspective. I urge them to think and speak kindly of themselves. Rather than saying “I wasn’t not smart enough”, the person in the example could instead think something like “I had a good workflow but am happy to learn an easier way to do it.”

Vigilance is necessary when monitoring your thoughts. We can’t help that first, unbidden, unwelcome thought. Two steps are necessary to maintain a positive attitude after having it:
  1. Don’t say it! Saying the thought gives it a life out in the Universe. What you put out in the world comes back to you, probably in ways you didn’t expect.
  2. Think a different, BETTER-feeling thought as your next thought. This is your life, and your thoughts and words are your script. As Joel Osteen advises, don’t use your words to describe the situation. Use your words to change the situation.

Lately, I started to question whether I have lost my ambition or motivation. This negative thought only came to me when I looked at this blog and realized that I have not written a post of substance in 3 months.

It was bad enough to think it, let alone say it. Saying it gives it creative power!

When I heard myself say these things about myself, I felt bad. I felt discouraged. That’s what these insidious negative thoughts do — they make us feel bad and may paralyze us from reaching our destiny!

The bad thoughts and feelings multiplied even though all other evidence about my ambition and motivation told me both were in overflowing abundance:

If I had repeatedly said “I am not motivated” or “I lack ambition”, those statements — like all words we speak — would have become a self-fulfilling prophecy!

I’ve been writing this blog for 6 years and previously had missed only 2 months (August 2009 and November 2011) when I didn’t have at least one new post. Those missed months followed major life changes for me. When I really thought about my motivation and ambition, I realized I have not lost either. Instead, I’ve gained new freedoms I previously had only imagined.

I’m still adjusting to being a full-time voice actor and audiobook narrator. My new role means that I can go to breakfast, shopping, or to a movie with Drew any day of the week. I can take a nap any time I want. With another big change in my life, it’s natural that other changes would occur, like writing less frequently on this blog.

This picture recently was shared on Facebook and nicely sums up this post:


The key is to keep reminding yourself of all the positive things you are. I have been writing a growing list of “I AM” statements, like I am talented, I am creative, and I am blessed. I pull out the list when I feel negativity creeping into my thoughts.

As you might have guessed, the last 2 statements that I added to my list are:

I am ambitious.

I am motivated.

If you’ll start keeping a list of “I AM” statements and repeating them to yourself, you’ll find that you’ll have more than a positive attitude. You’ll have a positive MINDSET!