Your Treasure Box of Self

My mom and I are craft buddies. As a talented craftsperson (see her hand-crafted creations above) she is my main source of inspiration in what I do as a paper artisan and brand designer.  Recently, while we were hanging out watching our favorite home decor design show, I asked her what she would have been if she wasn’t a schoolteacher for over 30 years.

My mom and 2 year old me.

Now my mom comes from a generation of women where there were not many choices of what you can do to make a living. So while she was a great schoolteacher for a long time, if she were given the choice today, my mom would have chosen arts and crafts. The academic institution where I grew up had no room for art or creativity. By the time I was in school, what little art classes there were had dwindled to a handful a week, occasionally pushed aside for ‘more important’ skills like math or language.

My mom is not the only one I know who keeps a little treasure box of self locked up for years. It’s a secret archive of all the facets of her crafty self she can’t be as a schoolteacher. Now in her retiring years it is finally unearthed and she enjoys making fabric flowers and couture evening bags and even attempted a gorgeous mod-A line dress lined in purple for me!

What is in your treasure box of self? What would it contain when opened up and allowed to bask in sunshine?

  • Do you wish you could be a dancer and perform on stage, even if you’ve never gone to a single class all your life?
  • Do you want to travel the world and take beautiful, emotionally moving photographs of people and their cultures?
  • Maybe you’ve always wanted to host an art retreat to teach folks how to paint?

Is your treasure box a time capsule, to be opened only at the end of your life? Or can you enjoy the delights today, little by little?

There is so much information out there on how to get started, but here’s what I’ve learned in my personal dream-chasing journey:

  • Get started, experiment, try everything, have courage to pursue it. Just start.
  • Be vulnerable. Tell your story, your real story, make people connect with why you want to do what you do.
  • Do it because you love it (this is oft-preached!) not because of money. Loving what you do and having fun shows. Be ruthless about this.
  • Hire a business coach or enroll in Product Marketing Breakthrough if you make stuff, or B-School if you sell services. Read $100 Startups by Chris Guillebeau. Make an appointment with a mentor from SCORE. Just get help!
  • Never give up.

A quote from one of my favorite success stories:

“The first thing is to decide on the deepest level that the thing you love doing is worth doing, so much so that it is worthy of obsession. That’s the fire that starts the engine. After that, you must promise yourself to work extremely hard and do good work everyday, and that you will never give up, no matter what. Just say, “I will never give up, I will never give up, I will never give up. ” like the little engine that could. When you decide this, everything you want is yours-it’s just a matter of working hard and pushing through the hard parts with a grin on your face. The grin comes from knowing you can do it because you decided you would.” –Emerson Fry.

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Want a little boost of confidence to take off? Have a peek at my Dreamer’s Design Journey, a brand design package I put together especially for those of you just dipping your toe into following your dream:

Graphic Design Handmade

It includes my Create-YOUR-Story branding workshop, a TreeSpace-designed website skin, and beautiful starter stationery!