Nicole from Stamped on My Heart recently reached out to me about her lovely Etsy store. She creates handmade custom jewelry and offered to make something special for me. I immediately chose to have this necklace made; a simple reminder of a promise I made to myself.
You see, I’ve always been a dreamer. When I was little, I dreamed of being an actress or a singer, I was always quick to take the stage. As I got older, I let fear get the best of me and quit singing publicly. Then my dreams turned to running my own business. I went into business school wide eyed and ready to learn, dreaming of what I could do; own a boutique, style beautiful events, design a clothing line…one after the other, I dreamed. But, as big as my dreams have been, my fears were always bigger. Quickly after graduating, I let my big dreams go, settled into the day to day and accepted the safety of familiar.
Until a little over a year ago.
We have a wooden sign hanging by our front door that reads ‘The Anderson Family Rules’ one of our rules reads; ‘we dream big’. I remember writing that down the day I had the sign made, thinking it would be a trait I wanted to pass on to my children. One day in my complacency, I passed the sign and the line stood out to me. It is a rule I set in our family to dream big, but I had stopped dreaming. But, why? I stopped dreaming because I was afraid. Afraid of failing, afraid of change, afraid of what people would think or say. I let fear overshadow my dreams.
That day, I made a promise to myself to always chase my goals, no matter how big or small and never let fear get in the way. I still have to remind myself often to stay positive and fearless. It is easy to feel defeated before even giving something a chance, but you never know unless you try.
Thank you so much Nicole for making me something with so much meaning. I will cherish it always. Nicole has also offered my readers a code to receive free shipping on orders over $20.00 with code PUMPSANDPUSHUPS no expiration!
