The Memory Tree {SOL 11.28.17}

When my kids were babies, I started an annual tradition of creating a photo ornament of each of them.

Every year, I would take a favorite photo (yes, we printed our photos -- at a store! -- in those days), hunt down a photo ornament, and hang it on our Christmas tree.

As the years passed and the ornament collection grew, I began looking forward more and more to putting up the tree. I loved looking at how cute the kids were, each ornament sparking a favorite memory and taking me back in time.

This year is the first year that both of my kids are away at school and my husband and I had to put our tree up alone.

But we weren't alone -- we had our collection of photo ornaments and their memories to keep us company.

"The days are long, but the years are short."

Leave Your Excuses at the Door (Literally) {SOL 11.07.17}

This past week, I spent four days in Nashville at Christy Wright's Business Boutique event. Christy is an advocate, teacher, and business expert whose work involves helping women start and grow businesses that they love.  (If you are trying to do the same, you will want to get to know Christy.)

Some of you may know that I left the classroom this past spring to start my own business, Teach Write,  which is dedicated to helping teachers teach writing.  This move is exciting, but it has launched me into a sea of uncertainty and doubt as well.

At one of the sessions, Christy talked about overcoming our fear and challenged us to stop making excuses that hold us back from bringing our dreams to fruition.

I am quite familar with both fear and excuses, but I am an exceptionally good excuse-maker.

"I must clean the bathroom before I write today."
"It's a bad time to make those cold calls because it's lunchtime."
"I need to do a little more research first."
"I don't know anything about running a business."

At the end of Christy's presentation, they passed out Post-Its and asked everyone to write their excuses down. Then, as we left for the day, we were to put the Post-Its up on the doors, literally leaving our excuses at the door.

 See the Post-Its on the glass doors?

This was a very powerful experience.

Not only did it help us call out our excuses and move them from the shadows into the light of awareness, it also showed us that other women's excuses and fears were also my own.

It reminded me that I am not alone.

What excuses are holding you back from doing something your heart has been calling you to do?

I encourage you to write them down and bring them out of the shadows into the light of awareness where you can walk right through them.