blogging, business, consulting, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #30

December 16, 2015 emmapalova 2 Comments

A tribute to chief challenger Bradley Will of Learn to Blog

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- I must say I feel lighter today and that’s not because I didn’t have anything to eat.

I just finished watching the “Best Year Ever Webinar Replay” and completed the 30 Day Content Challenge.

Just like the challenge, it was very inspiring right before the holidays. I would like to officially thank Bradley and the ambassadors for all of this. You made me a different person.

I uncovered things about myself that I didn’t know throughout the #30 Day Content Writing Challenge.

The thoughts for each day guided me in a forest of thoughts and ideas. I made new discoveries like the story about a Magnetic Island down South. I made new friends with Nicole Varga. Gary and Pete Safe.

Even though the challenge was marked by constant violence, it was productive and creative. I found out that by making myself write every day, I could be helping someone else accomplish the same goal.

When I missed posts, I caught up thanks to Pittsburgh Grammy and Gandhi quotes. I wrote a simple children’s book in Czech.

I found out that I can efficiently write about fear in the wake of Paris attacks on Day #3 of the challenge.

“I keep feeding my mind, I am not that one-dimensional blogger,” Will said in the webinar.

Well, I feel the same way that everyday writing made me stretch my mind and expand my personality. I am not a one-dimensional blogger either. I am everything I want to be.

“Sometimes it takes other people to point out our blind spots,” Will said.

Yes, it does.

“Turn back to art,” was Will’s advice.

Art has always been my favorite haunt, my favorite hideout. So, I am going to finish the challenge on that note.

Collectively between 500 people, we published 3,200 posts.

“The results left me stunned,” Will said. “Inspiration stems more inspiration.”

The opposite is also true that violence breads more violence. And we all fought it back with creativity.

“Be around great people.”

Thanks to you Bradley, I was around great people. Some of the best in the industry. They motivated me and carried me through the challenge.

I also learned about rather giving than taking and that money doesn’t bring you happiness.

Everyday writing is like keeping a diary. It is very therapeutic and explorative.

The challenge made me a better person.

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December newsletter

Gallery December 15, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

All is good again. December newsletter done.The Christmas party last week was a success. Tomorrow is the last day of the 30 Day Content Challenge. Don’t miss the final post #30,

Fallasburg Today

All good news

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- All is good again on the Western front. The Christmas party in Fallasburg last week was a success. We enjoyed good food and company.

New people came to the party, as well as old timers. I ran into many friends like Tamela Spicer and Dave Emmette.

The December E newsletter Fallasburg Today is in your inboxes. Add fallasburg50@gmail.com to your address book. Check your junk folders.

Check us out on http://www.fallasburg.org and join our public Facebook group Fallasburg Today. Join the conversation on twitter @fallasburg #fallasburg.

Stay tuned for FHS president Ken Tamke’s vision for the next 50 years of historic preservation.

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blogging, business, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #29

December 15, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Living creatively

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- I love number 29. I was 29 when I came to the USA and got creative. I grabbed the first money I had, and took off to buy a word processor. I still remember that day.

I returned victoriously from the store and started writing for Czechoslovak Biweekly newspaper based in NYC under the editorship of Peter Bisek.

Unlike what my parents wanted to continue in my civil engineer career and go work for an asphalt company, I knew that’s not what I wanted.

To be happy, I had to go my own way.

Going my own way means living creatively, not in conformity. Living creatively hasn’t always been easy. Ask Vincent Van Gogh. No, I haven’t cut my ear off and I am not living off of my brother.

You endure hardship and most of the time you have no or little money. You’re criticized by other people to get a real job.

But, you get the satisfaction of expressing yourself at a time when people are silent in this violent world.

You get the satisfaction of maybe helping someone out there to do the same thing.

Once we all regroup, we have won. If we all live creatively, there will be no violence left.

By living creatively, we’re moving forward not backwards.

I took my creativity to the next level in 2013 when I learned to blog on the WordPress platform. I enjoyed it from the get go: the challenge of learning something new and being a part of a group of progressive people.

My brother Vas is also creative. He paints and builds model trains.

I also love entrepreneurship. I take that after my grandpa Joseph. He had his own business in communist Czechoslovakia, which he went to jail for. You were not allowed to have a business in communism.

Grandpa wasn’t afraid, he would not conform. Neither will I.

I will always stand up for what I believe. I always have.

My personal hero is late Czech president Vaclav Havel. He went to jail many times for standing for what he believed in. But, he kept writing against the regime. Havel signed the Charta document that started a movement that eventually brought communism down.

It all starts with one person who is not afraid to speak up.

Set your tone. Speak up. Join in.

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blogging, business, consulting, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #28

December 14, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

It takes a lifetime to get to 13 seconds of winning a battle

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- This one rings close to home because it is such a strong theme for the challenge. It took me a lifetime to get to where I am now. I am doing what I love and hopefully other people appreciate it.

Throughout the process, I reinvented myself several times. I went from being a civil engineer by default of returning to Czech Republic to a writer on the WordPress platform.

In between, I did many different things. These included English instructor for French executives in Montreal, a factory worker packaging health aid boxes, a clerk in Women’s Department, a journalist for print media, a journalist for digital media, a journalist for Czech media and a social media marketer for Fallasburg Historical Society.

Then, I taught myself WordPress. Last year, I started my online business Emma Blogs, LLC. Now, I am doing the 30 Day Content Challenge.

What’s next? I don’t know. That’s the beauty of life.

I will definitely continue to write and run the business. But, I am thinking about going back into the regular work process. Whatever that means at the time of the Internet.

Any change is a good thing for all of us. I do love change. That’s why I like to watch water outdoors. It keeps constantly changing with light and motion.

I am glad that I took on the challenge. I’ve learned a lot about myself. On some days I did great, on other days not so well.

Some themes were inspiring, other ones not so much. So, on those not inspired theme days, I went on my own. As I always do.

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blogging, business, content writing, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #27

December 14, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Don’t be afraid of a challenge

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- Who doesn’t like a good challenge? Writing is not challenging for me. Writing is a way to express myself, my feelings, my thoughts and to deliver a message.

It doesn’t always have to be writing for the sake of information.

Spiral staircase at the Dali in St. Petersburg, FL

I started writing in grade school. Later, in prep school we had to write compositions in Latin. I remember the one about the Cyclops. I got a C on it and rightfully so, I didn’t know what they were talking about. I only know that they had one eye in the middle of the forehead.

But, it taught me a lesson that writing in any language is good for you. You let go of your feelings and take part in life.

Imagine what the world would be without books. I lost focus long time ago, because it all goes into my writing. I can manage to read blogs and short stories, but no books. That’s the price you pay after years of writing. I’ve written in English and in my native Czech language. I’ve written in French as well and in Latin.

I have no regrets. Writing challenges have taught me the discipline of every day writing. The challenges also prove to you that you can write on any topic presented and at any time of the day.

It doesn’t have to be a long piece either to deliver the message. I prefer to the point writing and not beating around the bush.

Who has the time to contemplate a 100-page paper?

My advice to anyone who is afraid of a challenge is to stand up to it and say, “Hello what can I do to help out?”

I feel that by writing every day I am helping someone else achieve the same goal.

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blogging, business, consulting, content writing, psychology, relationships, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

30 Day Bloggging Challenge #26

December 14, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

The destructive habit of comparing ourselves to others

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- I must admit I don’t have this problem. I don’t know who I would compare myself to? And mainly I don’t know why I would want to do that in the ever-changing world of trends. Today on twitter trending could be Justin Bieber, Billy Bush or whoever.

Thai wind 1 by Kacey Cornwell, Art Prize entry

But, I know most people do. They want to so desperately fit into whatever just flies at the moment. So, then they have to refit to a new trend. And they’re never themselves.

They’re so afraid what other people are going to say about them. It’s called insecurity or conformity.

You don’t have to compare yourself to others to feel confident and secure. It’s your own set of values that matters. You stand behind them and defend them, not other people’s values.

Establish a set of values that matters to you and stick behind them. Don’t sway away or wander off on a tangent only to imitate others.

List your values today on a piece of paper and carry it with you no matter where you go.

My set of values:

1-family

2-friends

3-writing

4-entrepreneurship

5-country

6-freedom

Your values will carry you forward in good and bad times, just like in marriage.

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Christmas, community, traditions, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

Prague Christmas markets

Image December 13, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

Happy holiday season to all from Emma Blogs, LLC. A Czech tradition, the three Sundays of Christmas. They are bronze, silver and gold Sundays prior to Christmas Eve. People head out and shop in outdoors Christmas markets.

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30 Day Blogging Challenge #25

December 11, 2015 emmapalova 1 Comment

Source: 30 Day Blogging Challenge #25

blogging, business, psychology, Uncategorized, WordPress, writing

30 Day Blogging Challenge #25

December 11, 2015 emmapalova Leave a comment

You are not here merely to make a living

By Emma Palova

Lowell, MI- How appropriate theme. I just had this conversation with my son Jake. It’s time to do something about the violent situation and fear we are all living in. That means to do something peacefully like Mahatma Gandhi, Vaclav Havel, Mother Teresa or Gorbachev.

Violence breads more violence. Going to war or buying weapons is not the answer. Increased consumerism is not the answer.

The following paragraph is from an interview with Marilyn Manson used by Michael Moore in the film Bowling for Columbine.

“Because then you’re watching television, you’re watching the news, you’re being pumped full of fear, there’s floods, there’s AIDS, there’s murder, cut to commercial buy the Acura, buy the Colgate, if you have bad breath, they’re not going to talk to you if you have pimples, and it’s just this campaign of fear and consumption and that’s what I think it’s all based on, the whole idea of keep everyone afraid, and they will consume.”

Within two minutes apart we’re watching how Xarelto is good for you and then how you should join the lawsuit against Xarelto that can even cause death. Really? A drug approved by the FDA can even cause death.

Since the Paris attacks we see Opdiva advertised on the NYC buildings.

We’re living worse than animals. They wouldn’t put up with this.

A strong leader has to emerge amongst us and do something about all the mess in the world.

I know it probably should be each one of us. And collectively, we should start dialogues to spread the message. Let’s start in coffee shops and by writing about this.

I lived through the Velvet Revolution in 1989 in former Czechoslovakia. i participated in the demonstrations on the plazas and squares. I rang my keys and lit candles into the night. It did make a difference.

It’s our moral responsibility to take action, otherwise we’re a part of the problem.

To hear JB’s response to Trump’s speech against the Muslims is unacceptable to humanity. Trump shouldn’t have said it, and JB should have kept silent because he gave us the answer.

“We cannot offend our Saudi allies,” he said.

So here we go again. Big money and friends.

First of all I did not know that Saudi was our ally. I just know that they have oil that we want, And second, you always offend someone out there by any action you take.

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