Well it’s that time of year where we all say what we will do for the New Year. We make a list of things that seem great but yet we never even accomplish half our stated goals. Why is that? Well personally I feel its procrastination. We all know what’s good for us, what’s bad for us, what we need and what we don’t need. However we sit around and still do the opposite, no matter how much we speak and know we should be doing something else we sit there and procrastinate.

 I went to church yesterday and the pastor preached on letting go for the better. He said you cannot have that breakthrough you need while you’re holding on to wrong.  He also went on to say, we often miss our blessing because we expect everything to come easy and not want to put in the work. I agreed with the message. Year after year I sat there hanging on, settling and dealing with. I constantly was shrugging my shoulders and making due. But how long can you live with just that? I guess that is a question we have to ask ourselves individually. We all have difference tolerance levels; however what will always remain the same for all of us. You will not breakthrough until you let go and live. Let go of whatever is blocking, blinding and hindering your peace of mind and happiness.

You cannot live your life happily without having a peace of mind IMO. You can trick yourself into believing that things are good. You can plaster a fake smile for the outside folks, you can lie and fake it but nobody has to truck into your shoes but you. So go ahead and front, deal with, pretend and hang on to the wrong things all your life. But will you ever receive all that you are supposed to have?  Will you ever fully accomplish all those goals you set up in the beginning of the year? Well trust me the choice is yours and nobody can take that step for the better but you.

The hardest step for a baby is to let go of that table, couch or whatever it is that is balancing them up so they won’t fall. But one day when they’re tired of going in circles, or maybe it’s the bag of cookies that they want some of badly. They stand there and let go and they take that first step to walk, they step out on faith knowing that I might fall, I might not; but I’m going for it. It’s funny how we can learn so much from our kids. But just like that scared little baby who had to believe that they can do it, we have to do the same.  

We have to take that first baby step to better our lives or to get what we want badly, you have to let go of that couch or table that you feel is stable.  If you’re tired of going in circles, if you want to move but you’re scared you might fall, just think about how you gotta crawl before you walk and walk before you run. But you won’t get anywhere until you let go and take a step towards your future. So as the New Year rings in and the months start to roll by; don’t let the promises you’ve made to have a better life fall by the wayside. Don’t be afraid to let go and take a baby step to claim what you want and need. The bible said if you have faith as little as an mustard seed you can move a mountain. Step out on faith in 2011 and let go of whatever that is hindering you from receiving your blessing that God has in store for you. The time is now.  Let go and let God, so hard to do but it’s the only way to do it…

Happy New Year

Nichelle Walker

Despite a brief hiatus from music this year, Beyonce landed a top 10 spot on Forbes 100 Most Powerful Women list. Joining the 29-year-old singer are CEOs, cultural icons and other musicians including Lady Gaga, who placed at #7 overall and #1 on Forbes’ lifestyle list.

Beyonce earned a reported $87 million last year in more business ventures than just music. The R&B superstar is also an actress and a clothing designer for her own label, House of Dereon. Her contracts with L’Oreal makeup and the fragrance company Coty, with whom she partnered to debut her own fragrance, Heat, last year, increased the singer’s annual revenue.

Rounding out Forbes top 10 are First Lady Michelle Obama, who landed the coveted #1 spot, Oprah, Angela Merkel,Lady Gaga, Hillary Clinton, and Ellen DeGeneres.

In addition to being named one of Forbes Most Powerful Women, Beyonce made surprise appearance on The Today Show with Kathy Lee and Hoda Kotb earlier this week in support of her mother Tina Knowles’ new clothing line, sold at Walmart stores nationwide.

Since the beginning of her career, Beyonce has enjoyed success with 7 films, 16 Grammys and 118 million albums sold worldwide. She has also received countless MTV Music Awards over the years.

Mary J. Blige pays tribute to Diana Ross on the cover of Ebony’s 65th anniversary issue. Ross’ iconic cover, which Blige captured very well, was shot in 1970. She nailed it, get it Mary.

I love the fact that Beyonce and Jay are always together. It’s not just some made up thing for show, I can see the love in her eyes for Daddy Long stroke. Jay and Beyonce went to visit his mom home in Orange County and Beyonce came out to dance with the neighbors. How can you not love this girl so down to earth.

Jennifer Lopez has finally reached an agreement withAmerican Idol to serve as a judge on the show for one year and for her time she will reportedly receive a whopping $12 million.

Rumors sprouted early on that the 41 year-old actress/singer would be filling one of the two vacant spots on the panel after both Simon Cowell and Ellen DeGeneres decided not to return to the hit reality show. It was later decided that Kara DioGuardi would not be brought back either but they are returning to the 3-judge panel, so there will not be a replacement for her seat.

Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler is rumored to be the person filling the second Idol judge spot and Randy Jackson will be returning to his post on the show in its tenth season.

Discussing the reported replacements, Cowell told Extra, “Yeah, I think they are all good people. Jennifer, I got to know quite well and I’ve never met Steven before, but I think it would be interesting.”

This year, American Idol is also making a change in the auditioning tour. The trek across the US is slated to end inLos Angeles but they will allow people to submit audition videos online through MySpace to get that one last chance to make it on the show.

Thus far neither Lopez, Fox, nor the producers behind the show and 19 Entertainment have commented on the reports.

Source

Keke Palmer turns 17 this Thursday and she’s using her Birthday as a platform to help her raise money to benefit folks across the globe in need of clean water!  I love this Smart Chick, Keke is helping to raise 10,000 dollars for mycharitywater.org for her 17th Birthday on Aug 26th. Keke’s charity page along with her mission statement and information on how to donate is at www.mycharitywater.org/KekePalmer. Keke will also be on Ustream/SayNow live Wednesday night from 7-8pm eastern to take calls from people that have donated to the organization. Lets help her out.

You better work it out, my Chi-town Chick is looking MassMedia Fly on the cover of InStyle. Jennifer Hudson flaunting her new slim-line figure on the cover of the August issue of InStyle magazine.

The Oscar and Grammy winner has been busy as of late cooking material in the studio for her second studio album ( due in the Fall), and shooting new movie ‘Winnie’ is South Africa.  Get it…

Mary J. Blige debuted her new perfume, My Life, over the weekend and made HSN history in the process. The Home Shopping Network sold over 50 thousand bottles of the fragrance, which retails for about $50 a pop, making it the fastest selling and most popular fragrance to date for the network.

The singer announced the feat via her Twitter account and thanked her fans for supporting her.

“Fam!! We did it!! We broke records with My Life fragrance on HSN! And made history once again!!! 50K sold!!!,” Bligetweeted.

“Thank you so much! What an amazing support system!! You guys are the best!! …You saved so many lives and dreams tonight with your purchase!!! So many women will be getting the second chance they deserve!!!”

Blige created the perfume with help from Carol’s Daughter and described the scent as “a reflection of her personality.” A portion of the sale, which brought in $2.7 million in revenue, will be donated to Blige’s non-profit organization, Foundation for the Advancement for Women Now.

Her sales and revenue eclipsed the previous HSN record set by Sean “Diddy” Combs and his I Am King cologne this past winter. The music mogul sold 2,600 units of his I Am King classic gift set within 16 minutes and sold out his entire scent collection during his appearance on the network.

This is one Smart Chick actress/recording artist KeKe Palmer has some major achievements to celebrate this summer. She recently graduated from high school from the Home School Program Options for Youth curriculum. She has also been awarded the 2010 BET “Youngstars” AWARD and she is gearing up to release her sophomore album with Interscope this fall. Ke Ke also tweeted that she is releasing a mixtape this summer and is also launching her new blog tomorrow. All of these accomplishments come just before her 17th birthday in August…. Get Girlie I love her…

In Memory of Michael Jackson (1958-2009)

A year ago we lost such a great talent. I still can’t believe it’s been a year already. My prayers go out to his children and family and hope they are in a good space today.  Lets celebrate the great things MJ has done, with his trend setting ways, great music and smooth moves. I will try to upload a new music video of his every hour so that we can all remember him at his best…. The King still lives on….

P.Y.T