Monday, July 26, 2010

Make the list!



Achievments Build Confidence
Confidence is required for Achievements
It's the Catch 22!

If you have a goal and you feel that you will never be able to accomplish it. Try achieving other related smaller goals first. As you achieve you will build your confidence for the big stuff.

One great excercise to do now, is to look back on your previous achievements. When I first started to do this list I could only think of maybe a couple of things. I truly don't feel like I have done a lot, and really, these acomplishments may not seem like anything to you or anyone else, but the important thing is that they made a big difference in my confidence levels or I felt very proud to have achieved them. (Note: I don't take credit for most of these, but give the glory to God for blessing me with the opportunities that I had and seeing me through the tough stuff)

My top ten achievements:

Teaching myself to draw (at an early age)
Getting Cody's CD (this is a dog obedience title, hard work involved, did this in high school)
Graduating college (with honors) )more about this another time)
Participating in Summer Missions ( a summer away from home, was scared to death to go!)
Marrying Joey (it was a long difficult journey ... more on that some other time)
Becoming a Mom (I never knew it would be so natural for me)
Passing the teacher's exam (a really really hard test for me!)
Teaching myself to quilt (have gotten infinite enjoyment out of this)
Learning to drive competantly (I know, sounds stupid but I didn't drive until a few years ago)
Illustrating a Book that was published (a small book but it is in book stores)
Hugs for Nurses (available on Amazon.com)


Now you! Make a list of your top ten achievements. Let me know what they are if you do it. Don't be embarrassed if they don't seem big. Some of mine aren't. The important thing is if they meant something to you.

Also, the real bonus of making this list is that it makes you want to add 2 or 3 more really cool things in the future! I know a couple of things I would love to add to this list and I just need to focus and work hard to make them happen!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Scaredy Cat!



Today's post is about something I have been thinking about very much lately. Confidence. You can call it courage or self-image or all sorts of things, but for my purposes today I will stick with 'Confidence'.

I recently stumbled upon a blog by a man who writes and advises people on being more confident. He calls himself 'The Confidence Guy'. This began to stir up a world of thoughts in my brain all about how we see ourselves and how that effects what we do.
You see, I have a few goals.
I have always played around with different goal ideas and earlier in life I could never settle on particular ones for long lengths of time before I would decide that something else would be more worthy of my energy. For a long while I thought I had a problem with finishing things. That isn't so much it after all, however. I don't have problems finishing what I start, only prioritizing things that are left up to me.
God, Family, Friends... these are priorities I am certain about. With these I have no problems. It is the list of goals I am free to come up with on my own that I had trouble settling on.
After having my son, and turning 30 I began to have a much clearer mindset on my goals and which ones I would like to accomplish. I think the reason for this is that I felt more confident and also that being a mom is very fulfilling to me and that took the pressure off of me to find some way to make my life feel more important.

Ok, so now I had chosen some goals that I was certain about. Now what?
Now I have some issues with achieving those goals that I didn't have before. I think much of the problem lies with confidence.

Maybe you, like myself, feel not so confident in some of your abilities. This doesn't mean you are a weak or meek person. I am very confident in my opinions, my value as Christian who was fearfully and wonderfully made by God and accepted by Him. I even have tons of confidence in certain talents that I have such as my art and quilting.

So what is the problem? Why is it that when begin to do anything that is part of a dream of mine, I start having difficulties?

Because my own brain begins whispering to me that what I am trying to do will fail.

Does your brain do that to you? Until I read a few articles by the Confidence Guy I never stopped and really paid attention to that little voice that was sabatoging my mission. I mean, I was aware of it, but not aware in a way that helps me be defensive against it.

Until now.

Watch out little voice, I'm on to you!



Next time: A simple excercise to boost your confidence and help you set some goals.

Friday, July 16, 2010

The Etsy Shop





The Etsy shop is up and running now. I still have various projects waiting in the wings for final touches to go in the shop. I am happy to say that being up to my ears in baby quilt-making has been as fun as I had hoped it would be. Many things lose their fun when you start doing them for money, but in this case - being totally in control is the way to go. I will probably offer some customization but will limit it to certain choices so that I can keep a handle on things. Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks.












This just in.. while I was writing this blog I got my first sale on Etsy! Yay! What a great start to my morning! I can't wait to sell more quilts. Now off to buy more fabric!!
Misty












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