Happy New Year, my friend! I hope your holidays were as enjoyable as could be for 2020. I’m thrilled to announce that my documents arrived in the mail officially certifying Erin Reinholtz Studio as a registered business in the state of Michigan, just in time to check this last big goal off my 2020 list!
As we take our first steps in 2021, I’d like to encourage you to go forth with zest. Living a deeper life has been at the core of why I returned to painting a year ago and started sharing my journey publicly. Though I’ve always been a bit ambitious, there are some distinct experiences that really set me in motion. Let me tell you a little story about one such time…
In 2001, I sat down in a lecture hall at Harper College, where I was a student. I wasn’t there for a class, though. As president of the Program Board, it was customary for me to attend most of the extracurricular functions on campus, and today’s was a guest speaker.
A large crowd gathered, filling most seats in the room, and a tall, slim guy soon made his way, enthusiastically, to the stage. I had never seen him before, but it took him only ten minutes to entirely change my life. He stood center-stage, waving a $20 bill in his left hand and said, “I have twenty dollars here. Who wants it?” Everyone watching quietly raised their hand.
“It’s yours if you really want it,” he shouted. Loud shouts followed, flooding the auditorium. “Me!” They grew louder and more persistent. “ME!!” My hand was up and waving, too. I wanted that money.
Then Patrick Combs, as he would soon introduce himself, stood, still waving out the crisp green bill. “How badly do you want it?” Some members of this young crowd stood up, then, waving their arms, as though at a pop concert. Most screamed louder and louder. Each of us struggled to find a way to get his attention.
This carried on for what felt like an awkward length of time. We all wanted that money. Any of us could get it, but it wasn’t until one guy finally climbed right up the on the stage and took it from Patrick’s hand that anyone got it. And the room went silent.
“You have to go after what you want. Nobody is going to bring it to you.” We all knew we wanted that money, as badly as the next. It was right there for the taking. Yet, only one of the hundreds of us in that room was bold enough to get up and actually take it.
Patrick Combs is an author and inspirational speaker, having shared stories in every state of the country. After his speech, he gave me a signed copy of his book, “Major In Success,” and I recommend it for any high school or college kid out there.
Most of us are older than that now, but the lesson we can all embrace is that the clock ticks on by, and nobody is going to be sitting around waiting to make your life the kind you want it to be.
You’ve got to have courage to turn the vision you’ve been wanting for your life into reality. Your journey starts now.
Today, I ask you two questions:
1) What unfulfilled dream do you have for yourself? 2) What is one thing you can do today to bring yourself a step closer to your dream?
Each day, just one small step will carry you further along your path. As you make your plans, ask yourself, “Does this support the life I’m trying to create?”
Feel free to share your goal with me in the comments below. Sharing your goal will help you turn it into reality.
E-mail subscribers got a free printable today to help you answer these questions. (Be sure to subscribe here so you don’t miss the next one!) On it is one of my favorite inspirational quotes and an easy way to breakdown your answers to my two questions. I can’t wait to see where this brings you at the start of 2022, or even in just a couple months!
Until next time,
-Erin
