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.

Yesterday's Post

So why all the fuss about inspiration?

I think that all of us have inside of us dreams that we have forgotten about, given up on or maybe failed to achieve. I also believe that we all can accomplish anything that we put our mind to. Seriously put our mind to, not just consider. That's where inspiration comes in.

It's hard to put your self out on a limb to try something new or to try something that you might have previously failed to accomplish. There are lots of people who have experienced the same thing but have picked themselves up or stuck their neck out and succeeded. That's why I wanted to read your stories.

I don't know about anyone else, but I struggle, struggle a lot with putting myself out there to fail. I hate failure. My motto has been, don't try it if you don't think you are good at it. But as I read and watch inspirational stories I realized that failure is part of the game. I also realized that sometimes you learn more from your failures than you could ever learn any other way.

Failure is a detour, not a dead end street. ~Zig
Ziglar

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.

Patience

I used to think I was a patient person. And I guess in some ways I am but there are some times when I get so frustrated because things are not happening like I want them to. Or they aren't happening when I want them to. I think that is the most frustrating one. I want it to happen right now, actually yesterday would be better.

“Patience is waiting. Not passively waiting. That is laziness. But to keep going when the going is hard and slow - that is patience.”

What a wake up call. Right now things are stressful at work. It seems like my focus is everywhere but on the things I really want to do. I have all these ideas that I want to put into place, but I haven't been able to. Boo, Woo; Boo Woo.

I just need to keep going. Small steps in the right direction are better than no steps at all. Sometimes I just have to get a reality check to get myself back on track.

Intentions

I am always planning, making lists, deciding I'm going to get something done and then the day ends and I haven't even started. Like this blog. I always intend to post something every single day. But I find myself looking for just the right quote or reading books to find just the right idea. Then I read this quote.

Small deeds done are better than great deeds planned. ~Peter Marshall

Wow, did that hit home. I need to quit planning to do big things and just focus on getting something done. I did take my own advice and posted today. My goal is to continue on through the day and see what I get done. I think it will feel better to know I've gotten a few small things finished than the feeling of failure I have when nothing I've planned to do is done.

Daily Effort

Every year, high in the San Bernardino mountain range of Southern California, five acres of beautiful daffodils burst into bloom. Amazingly, this special spot, known as "The Daffodil Garden," was planted by one person, one bulb at a time, over a period of thirty-five years.

Every so often I receive an e-mail with this story in it. Today it was in my inbox. I'm not one to believe in chance. I needed to read this story again.

From the story: "The principle her daffodil garden taught is one of the greatest principle of celebration: learning to move toward our goals and desires one step at a time - often just one baby-step at a time - learning to love the doing, learning to use the accumulation of time.
When we multiply tiny pieces of time with small increments of daily effort, we too will find we can accomplish magnificent things. We can change the world."

Daily effort. That is so hard some times. There is always something to do, but does that effort lead you to your goal. I know that I need to be more focused each day, doing the small things, that will move me closer to my goal. I know what I want to do, now I just need to get busy!