Sticking To It

"This one step - choosing a goal and sticking to it - changes everything." ~Scott Reed

I love goals.  I could set 100 goals no problem.  My struggle is sticking to it.  There have been many times during baking projects that I have wanted to give up on my goal to open a bakery.  In fact I'm pretty sure that while we were working on the wedding cake a couple of weeks ago I decided to quit baking. 

It was late and I was tired and things were not going well.  I remember thinking "why am I doing this?"  Of course I couldn't quit right then I had a cake that needed to be finished and delivered so I decided that after it was finished and delivered, I was done baking.  I even told Bob this was it, I'm done after this cake.  He just looked at me and said nothing.

He knows me all too well.  Once the cake was done and I had gotten some sleep, the idea of quitting was gone.  We've had a lot of challenges over the last couple of years as we've decorated cakes, learned about donuts and worked to learn the "tricks of the trade." 

We've gone from our first cake:

To our most recent:

The best part is that I feel we've made some improvement and while there's still lots to learn and overcome, I plan to stick with it.

The Dream Giver

I just finished reading the book The Dream Giver by Bruce Wilkinson. He also wrote The Prayer of Jabez. I loved the book. What a great story. It really put things into perspective for me.

So many times I've wanted to pursue a dream. In the early years, I let people talk me out of it. You know, your friends and family who only have your best interests at heart, but they steal your dream. Sounds harsh I know, but it really is true. Unless your dream is to be the world's biggest drug dealer (or something along those lines) what harm is there in going after it.

As I got older and read more, I got to a place where what people thought of my dream didn't matter, but I still gave up because it was hard. Things didn't work out right away, or I failed. What I didn't understand is that there is some learning involved before you get to live your dream. As much as I wanted to believe I had it all figured out, there is so much more to know.

Now, I understand about learning but there's still more. There comes a point where you have to go all in. Are you willing to do whatever needs to be done, make the sacrifices that need to be made and have faith it will work out.

This is where I'm at. I'm standing on the edge, trying to decide if I am willing to give all I can to make my dream work. After struggling all these years, it's hard to put yourself out there one more time. It's hard to push away the doubts and the negative and focus on the big picture. I know it will be worth it, but sometimes I just wish it was easy.