Dreams With a Deadline

My Tupperware Lady Days!
My Tupperware Lady Days! Some serious goal setting times!

How are you at setting goals? Are you consistent about them or are you content to just take every day as it comes?

I am not the best when it comes to goal setting. I’m a recovering perfectionist and goals to a perfectionist can be an over the top thing, worthy of obsession. When I was a new mom, I was a super Tupperware lady for seven years. A newspaper article that interviewed me for a story on party plans called me “vivacious” (no kidding!). My cousin Gary called me this for years. 🙂  Truly though, I shied away from goals for fear of not making them. Back then our distributor would say, “Goals are dreams with a deadline.”

Over the years, I’ve realized what’s more important- my sanity or pushing myself to insanity.

That’s why I was intrigued when my friend Tracy Eisenmann did a Vision Board workshop last year. My friend Karen and I decided to do it together and had a grand time. We sipped wine, snipped and cut from magazines, and looked for pictures that would symbolize our forthcoming intentions.

My Vision Board
My Vision Board

After I created my board, I hung it up and looked at it often. Dreaming of what I might accomplish, I opened my heart to the possibilities. After a while I admit to putting the board in a closet. It left my mind and I went on to other things.

Recently, I got it out again and took a fresh look. Up in the left hand corner, there were two cars. One was black, the other was red. I am not kidding when I tell you we just bought two used cars in January and February respectively. My car is red. Jim’s car was dark grey.

I was alone in my house when I pulled the vision board back out of the closet. Out loud I said, “AND IT’S RED!”. I couldn’t believe so much of the board had come true.

Maya Angelou is in the bottom right corner as a dream weaver for my writing. I have always admired her. Remarkably, my first writing dream/goal has come true. I am going to tell you about my book “Ordinary is Extraordinary” within one week of this post. I will give you a link to order it. It will be ready for the women’s retreat at Antiochian Village on Saturday, April 2. I am going to speak about it.

This is a “pinch me” time. Sometimes I can’t sleep I’m so excited about it all. God has blessed me with a full wedding season, a new granddaughter, a book, and friendships so deep that I am amazed.

There’s a Vision Board Workshop on Friday evening of the Empowerment weekend (April 1). So I will be doing a new board and I’m so excited! I hear we will be accepting walk in’s on Saturday morning. I’m speaking at 9 am so get there early if you plan on coming at the last minute!

Thank you so much for being with me on my journey. We have so much more ground to cover. Let me know what’s exciting in your life!

For more info on the Empowerment Retreat, click HERE.

And for my worldwide blogger friends, here’s my latest Penelope picture!

Penelope Katherine- Two months old already!
Penelope Katherine- Two months old already!
It's nice to share. Thank you.

15 Replies to “Dreams With a Deadline”

  1. I don’t do well with deadlines…oh I usually make them but I am so stressed out that I don’t know if it’s worth it, LOL! The one deadline that I was going to make without any problems was the short story i wrote for a contest. Even though I had just two weeks to do it, I had it ready four days before the deadline…all I had to do was final edits. But then…I had a heart attack! The very first thing I thought about after learning I had actually died and was brought back, was that I was not going to get the book into the contest in time. THAT is when I knew that I AM a writer! Ha ha! Well I got home the day before the contest ended and I submitted it, only to find that voting ended that day, too! So i decided to self publish it because I had gotten some great reviews, even though they couldn’t vote!
    So now I am working on a sequel and I am close to finishing it.
    I wish you the best of luck with yours and I will certainly buy a copy! You will have to autograph it when I am in PA next!
    Enjoy Easter with Penelope!

  2. WOW!! Great pic.. you were on a mission! Iam so excited for the weekend and very eager to buy your book! Can’take wait to hear you speak, Joanne. What a lovely picture of you and Penelope! Happy first Easter to her and your family!

  3. I love the first picture of you–such a WOW you are–and the vision board, too. But my favorite is of you and beautiful baby Penelope. Two month already, and so adorable.
    Wishing you and you family a joyous Easter, Joanne. <3

  4. After reading this, I’m even more convinced that we are kindred sisters. Perfectionism, Maya, and even the Vision Board. The process of building that vision is the joy and I loved that you saved yours from a previous time. Thank you for always helping me remember the important things – I think of you every time I search for a parking spot 🙂
    You are truly a vivacious and wonderful friend 🙂

    1. I am inspired by you and the community you have created via your wonderful blog. Thank you for your beautiful words! May we both find many parking spaces whenever we need them!

  5. Can’t wait to read this book!! So excited for you that you are achieving your dreams. Thank you for all the inspiration <3

Leave a Reply to Joanne CainCancel reply

Verified by ExactMetrics