Stay Focused…

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great” Zig Zaglar

This video is inspiring and motivating. I recommend that you all take the time to watch it! For what I liked about the video is that it shows by starting small and having a dream success can follow you, your dreams don’t just happen overnight, but it has to be developed and thus takes time, patience and persistence.

All these celebrities in the video started off small and grew into the inspirations they are today. Jim Carey wrote himself a cheque of 1 million dollars for acting services rendered and put it in his pocket and said one day he will get that money. Eventually the cheque started deteriorated as time went by and he just left it in his pocket. Years later he eventually got offered 1 million dollars for Dumb, dumb & dumber. This shows how important patience and staying focused on your dreams are, as things don’t just happen overnight, because you have to believe in the amidst of contradicting factors.

Tyler Perry goes further and says when a seed is planted in the ground all you can do is water it, you cannot control the sunshine, you cannot control the weather. All our dreams start of as just something on a piece of paper, which just shows you don’t have control over everything, but you only have control over your destiny. That little bit of control make it count to your advantage, so write down your destiny on that piece of paper have faith and never stop believing in it.

Most importantly never let people tell you that you can’t do something, and never ever quit! It’s important for you to do what you love and success will follow, as Steve Jobs says in the video “if you don’t love it, if you not having fun doing it, you don’t really love it, than you going to give up” and often the people who enjoy and follow their dreams are the ones who will succeed it might not happen immediately, but eventually you reap the fruits. So don’t do something you don’t like life is about taking risks and often those risks can either break or make you, but the important thing is that you took that risk and made it work for you.

Will Smith says “make a choice, just decide what you want to be, who you going to be, and how you going to do it” we often so skeptical and fall into a trap of doing something you don’t actually like, whereas if you keep on believing in that passion or goal that you WANT. Who knows where this road of discovering  will take you. You need to raise your standard of what you want, it’s important and a MUST for you to know that you will achieve that goal!

So don’t waste time work on what you want, do what you love and remember that we not on this earth forever, but while we are here live your dreams for the only person that’s stands between you and the fulfillment of your dreams is YOU!!

By: Alexandria Allan & Benjamin kaas

Potholes on your road to success…

“I’ve  missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed . I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed” Michael Jordan

Sitting on my chair and staring through the window at the beautiful silhouette of Durban, thinking to myself I messed up again…do I really deserve to be part of this beautiful design, am I truly that finish touch… Suddenly that Jessie J song Who you are comes to mind and I turn up the volume on my Ipod, singing along to her soulful voice “ I stare at my reflection in the mirror, why am I doing this to myself, losing my mind on a tiny error I nearly left the real me on the shelf…”

Suddenly I’m standing in front of the mirror and having a conversation with myself, the realisation finally kicks in and I start stimulating myself just by looking at myself… We all make mistakes in life and I believe it is part of our road to success; these mistakes are called potholes… Potholes have the ability to refine us into the beautiful gems we are designed to be. As I stare at my hair, looking like the waves of the ocean it represents my struggles, these eyes represent the tears I had to endure to get to this point in my life , my nose craving the smell of success, these lips… why can’t I think of anything positive to say about my lips? Then I realise these lips have inspired other people to succeed in life, other people to do well…but what have they done for me?

We must learn from our wrongs and grow from them. My wrong is that I don’t motivate and encourage myself to be the best I can be in life… Therefore it is important for us to realise there is no perfect person in this world, everyone goes through a rough patch and they can either let that define them or let that be the building blocks in their life. As the great Albert Einstein said “Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

When you hit that pothole in your life keep moving, never let one mistake bring you down from accomplishing your goals , these potholes are often the wrong kind of friends, an error, a misunderstanding , but the nice thing about these mistakes is that it can be resolved , it can be a lesson and a realisation. Just remember that in life there will be potholes that will cause interference on your road to success, but the main objective is that we must learn to overcome those challenges and grow stronger. The quest to stay focused on your dreams to succeed is to remember that it is okay to fail, and you won’t always get things right the first time. I say keep on trying, keep on persevering through the face of adversity of life and look at yourself in the mirror and say “I am a diamond in the rough; soon I shall sparkle and create a reflection so strong that I scare myself!” God is our director and we are all living the script that was exclusively designed for us. So why edit it, just live it!

“Yet still I rise never to give up, never to give in against all odds” Yolanda Adams- Still I rise

 

All pictures taken exclusively for Through Coloured lenses By Christelle Buckley for Potholes on your road to success…

A story by Alexandria Allan – A story that can relate to many of our lives #Live  #Laugh  #Pray  #Love unconditionally!

 

The Soultress…

“Stop. Breath. Smile”  Mariechan Luiters

A beautiful women with a zest for life, friendly, down to earth and humble are just a few words to describe this SOULSTRESS and artist. The only direction I see her heading to is all the way to the top!

(Q) What was your childhood like?

(A) I had a well-balanced happy upbringing. My parents are my biggest support system, each in their different ways. Today I can proudly say i appreciate my father for being strict, leaning towards respect, discipline, strength & perseverance which installed values in me that kept me rooted & that got me through challenging times. My Father is My Rock. My mom, free spirited and thee most caring and giving human being I’ve ever met, her heart is as big as her smile! She believes that love makes a home, it conquers all.  My mom is my Anchor. My siblings & I could still get away with some things with her but we had no luck with daddy dearest lol, we nicknamed him “stop sign” , together he and my mom make a good balance. Although I was a very introverted, homely & complexed child, I never felt out of place in my home, I just knew I had a special gift.  My gran spotted my talent when I was just 3 years old and  told my mom that her little girl is gonna be a singer one day.  Life in school, well, I had a love/hate relationship with school, hehe. When I wasn’t bullied by kids & rescued by my younger sister, I was writing songs and poetry for my first crush, the principle’s son, who never noticed me, shame. Life goes on!  Music was my escape, my pen pal & I was blessed to grow up in a musical family who loves a good karaoke night, LOL! After school, I would rush home for my daily fix, recording my favourite tunes on radio, rewind and  play it over and over driving my brother and sister nuts. While they loved making friends and doing what kids do, play, I was consumed with Music in my own imaginary world. By the time I was 13, the music teacher Ms Adams discovered me singing a Whitney Houston song in the girl’s rest room. She was the first person outside my family who heard me sing and that was the beginning of a new journey, new discoveries…Mariechan the singer, emerged.

(Q) Was it always your dream to be a singer?

(A) Always! Music chose me, it was all part of God’s plan. My purpose is to share, move and inspire, to bring people into one place and share through my music, pieces of me. I’m supposed to move souls the way music moves mine. Music is a powerful force that connects us to the world and my gift to sing adds flavour to music’s message.

(Q) When you fell pregnant did you feel like you couldn’t accomplish your dream anymore?

(A) I already accomplished so much with the platform I was given, there will always be negatives and positives, but I choose to see both as blessings, how else will I grow?  I try to be the best version of myself, I’ll rise I’ll fall; make them stepping stones to a nobler character. I worked even harder at my dream; because now, my extended self was a part of it. We can achieve anything we gear our minds to. I didn’t let circumstance define me as an artist nor as a woman.

(Q) What or who motivated you to enter Popstars?

(A) I entered Popstars in 2002. That was the first time I entered a reality TV competition. It was a nerve wrecking process, that year I didn’t easily adjust to lights, cameras and thousands of other singers; it was all new to me. I wasn’t singing in front of the locals in my community, this was a different ballgame. My lack of confidence showed and I didn’t make it further than top 30. I felt so demoralized after that and told my folks that I would never enter any singing competition again. The 2003 auditions came, the last audition day was on the Sunday I was working, still, I stuck with my decision to not go. Torn inside, I knew I had to either take a leap of faith or cut the wings of my dreams… I decided to go to the auditions which closed by the time I got there. Little did I know, the impression I made the year before stuck with some of the judges and crew members, the minute they found out it was me outside, they had me go in and put me through to the next round. The lesson? Talent will speak for itself and perseverance will open doors.  My burning desire to grow, learn and master my art is what motivated me to enter Popstars for the 1st and 2nd time! God prepared me for that year in 2003, and that’s the year when I made it into the girl group Jamali with Liesl  Penniken and Jacqui Carpede.

So what inspired me; was my own voice, but also Gods voice and I didn’t allow people to put me down, to make me stop doing what I love doing which is singing.  It was my voice, Gods voice that inspired me to go try again, not to give up… This marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life…

(Q) Is there anything that you would love to change about your life when you look back?

(A) ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! if you had asked me this a few years ago I would have probably named a few things that I would have loved to change, but I think if I didn’t go through trials and tribulations, I wouldn’t be here talking to you,  I wouldn’t be the woman, daughter, sister, mother I am today. This is my personal evolution, there’s blessings in lessons. We get so caught up asking for blessings that we forget we’re already blessed. I get to write songs and sing for people! It doesn’t get any better than that. #Love #peace #music. A few years back I had a fan come up to me when they heard  the song Secrets, a young girl, and she told me “thank you so much for writing that song” ,  she was 18. She was about to commit suicide, then the song Secrets came on the radio and just by hearing my voice she stopped! The song resonated so deep within her that it saved her life. She told me ; she needed to record that song, that was her lifeline, not the rope she wanted to hang herself with. I just started crying and she held on to me  and that’s why I love doing what I do and never regret anything…

(Q) So what other projects are you currently working on?

(A) I’m working on My Solo Project, after 10 years together, Jamali has given us the platform to now embark on individual endeavours and discovering our own truths.  Being in Jamali has taught me about womanhood and growing up. We still love doing work together, shifting more focus on our Individual careers was a natural progression.  Jamali is our foundation, our home.  As an artist you need to explore different parts of what makes you, you. People got to experience us as a group, now they get to know us as individuals.
Another project that I was involved in, was writing a soundtrack for the book titled Soul to Sole by Timothy Maurice Webster. I believe that in everybody’s life it’s important to have someone who believes in you. I am privileged to work closely with someone who believes in me.  He came up with the concept of me writing a song for his book. I wrote the song that same day and kept the title Soul to sole to honour the journey of this amazing author.

(Q) Do you now believe that any coloured person can achieve their dreams?

(A) The key focus shouldn’t be about race, Let the focus be about humanity, because any coloured person can achieve success just like any other human being can. I won’t make the focus around being coloured, because being coloured comes with positives and negatives. Often the negatives override the positives. I represent the best of both worlds for I am black and white. Show people you good at what you do,  I can add a bit of Xhosa in my music, I can add a bit of Afrikaans , I can do both of those things, because I represent both. So be the best of both worlds and never lose your zest to sparkle in life.

All pictures are original

Jamali’s Pictures: By Jamali

All answers: By Mariechan Luiters

  

For bookings call: 0828847542

Soul to Sole by Mariechan Luiters is available from iTunes

Stonecold by Mariechan Luiters via http://soundcloud.com/mariechan-sa/stonecold?utm_source=soundcloud&utm_campaign=mshare&utm_medium=twitter&utm_content=http://soundcloud.com/mariechan-sa/stonecold … #Soundcloud

Destined for GREATNESS!

“For every loss there is a gain, and for every gain there’s a loss” Troy Kelmovitz

Ever wondered how we undermine our own talents? Many times we are brilliant at baking, so good at singing , but because we don’t believe in ourselves we undermine our talents and throw them to the back of our minds, simply because we rather take the easy route  in life. This easy route doesn’t make us happy, but because it’s putting money on the table we prefer it. Well… I say do what makes you happy, we only have one life to live, one life to be who we want to be. Follow your dreams  or you will spend the rest of your life working for someone else who did!

Here’s a story about a young aspiring artist from Boksburg striving to be the modern day Picasso…

MEET TROY KELMOVITZ …

Q: What did you want to be at the age of 10?

A: At the age of 10 I loved drawing and I was inquisitive about big and awkward buildings.  In that I found out about the “architect” I was interested and started reading about an architect’s career and so my dream to be an architect was discovered.

Q: How did you discover your talent?

A: Well by the time I discovered it I didn’t know what talent meant or was. To me at age six drawing “stokmannetjies” in my mom’s new YOU magazines was so much fun and giving the celebs new faces or some shades. Just drawing made me relax, but with that how many times hasn’t a few people just watched their mom or dad bake or cook only once or twice and the next thing you know they mastering the exact same dish after two tries… That’s a gift and talent, but to you it never really is, because many believe that talent is to be the next Cristiano Ronaldo, Steve Jobs or Picasso, but than what was talent to them? So I to was blinded and caught up with the “I’m  not good enough” phrase, which is why I discovered I was sitting on my own seed of gold treasure. To maybe, just maybe be ranked amongst today’s Picassos, why not try?

Q: Take me through your journey of becoming an aspiring artist?

A: My dream was to be an architect but as I grew older  it just didn’t interest me no more. Just painting and not being restricted pleased me, so in mid-2012 my dad got a business card for art classes – Terry Vorster at Terry’s art studios and since October I have been painting and never found a better passion before.

My first painting was a rose dedicated to my sister, because out of all people she believed and believes  in me.  The reason I chose a rose is because I want to be the first guy to give her a flower and one forever to set an example of what her husband should be like…

I love music and some jazz at times and that’s what drew my interest in painting these paintings…

What’s not to love about Paris and the Eiffel Tower, especially a sunset of it… Romantic beyond don’t you think…

Q: As a coloured do you now believe that it is possible to achieve your dreams?

A: Yes, it all depends how hard I am willing to work for it, how much I love it and is it my passion. If you not doing, working for what you love are you really living? Can you say with certainty that you are happy? What’s the use of climbing your personal mount Everest, getting to the top and not really feeling the reward, not really being amongst people you want to be around… People remain the same because they fear change, they fear the unknown, they fear challenge and so swimming with the stream is the easiest approach in life, no legend in history ever swam with the stream, all of them swims against the stream and all of them left a legacy. So I encourage you to start investing in your own legacy.

All art/paintings by Troy Kelmovitz  

E-mail address: kelmovitztroy@gmail.com

Your reflection through infant eyes

” Your brand should leave a footprint inspired by the soul “- Timothy Maurice Webster

One morning while dressing my niece for pre-school, she was being her chatty bubbly self. When all of a sudden I hear silence and just that moment she’s busy staring at me with her bright brown eyes. With a smile on my face I’m like “Whats wrong Tali?” and just that moment, a moment that blew my breath away, she says “Atta (aunty) when I grow up I want to be as beautiful as you and I want to go to big big school just like you“. In amazement I start crying, my four year old niece saying this to me….

Often in life we don’t realise how many people are actually looking up to us, in our minds we are so obsessed with getting things done that we don’t even have a moment to just stop and stare and look at the world out there.

There are so many people that look up to YOU, that want to see you succeed in life, don’t be “that girl” or “that guy” that sits and evaporates with no sense of direction, there are so many opportunities out there for you. Remember that things only happen for you when you put effort in, there is no such thing as can’t, only won’t, take a few steps forward, take one step backwards, whatever it takes. Most importantly you can’t blame society, you have to uplift your society and be “that girl” and “that guy”  that establishes true self-esteem and concentrates on successes,  forget about the negatives, the failures and disappointments. Concentrate on developing a brand new kind of you, that reflects beauty in the eyes of the next generation…

Now I know my niece looks up to me… Please share your story and let me know who looks up to you?

Quote taken from Soul to Sole by Timothy Maurice Webster (The book is available @ Exclusive books)

A teardrop that gave me hope…

“Should I cut my wrists, or take her sleeping tablets”

She stumbles in the door screaming my name, her breath like a punch in my face, shes been drinking again. As she screams my name, I utter “ma i’m standing right in front of you can’t you see”. She is at her worse tonight… worse than ever before, than her response numbs me as I still help her to her abandoned room; “You will be nothing, you will be NOTHING, I tell you today that you will be nothing in life”. Behind my brown eyes I could feel it coming tears rolling down my face; my mother my foster mother this women, saying that I will be nothing…

I realise that  my mother, my so-called mother, only said that, because shes been living her dreams through me, I don’t want to run this Popeyes Tarvern for the rest of my life. I want to be a lawyer, yes a lawyer and yes I will be a Family advocate to be exact, so that I can help other kids like myself find better foster parents who love, care and cherish them. I am a smart, intelligent and a vibrant COLOURED women no one will define what I will become…

Today I am a Family advocate, I  did not let her words define me, I did not let that women’s words define me , I did not let her words defeat me, I did not cut my wrists or drink her tablets… I knew God had a plan for me he wouldn’t put me on this earth if I was a nothing, I believed! I was born to be somebody…

You believe in your dreams my coloured brothers and sisters, never give up on what you want in life, it is when people start telling you that you can’t , that you show them that you can, it is when people think that you are nothing, when they think you a puppet,  when they degrade you… This is when you show them how you can sparkle. Remember this “Yes you can, you can do anything if you try, just try, yes you can, but you have to believe and rely on what you have inside. You can make it through your trials” Donnie McClurkin. Go out there make the world colouredful…

Picture: deviantart.com

Based on a true story about a orphaned coloured girl.

Be Great

My coloured brother and sister, You are beauty, a beauty sent from God Above.  A gem, a gem that is filled with
colour, hope and love .

Longing, longing to be out there…
To be someone known, someone important, someone worthy.
Someone who is a success.
Someone who strives to be the best.

How they get there is unknown.
But your confidence runs deep.
And you see that dream that wants to be fulfilled, that needs to be fulfilled. That dream that is trying to break through.

Find your potential.
Live that potential.
Be the you, you were created to be.
Destined to be.
And finally maintain and believe in that you!

Never forget where you come from and never lose that map of where you going.
Be great!
You were born for it!

Authors: Alexandria Allan & Davreaux Jacobs
Voice in the Video: Davreaux Jacobs