continuing to learn... continuing to dream....

What many of you might not know is that I came from the Professional Development/Education world before I became a soap maker.  And, being a big believer in professional development (I better having been a producer of it for several years of my life) I try to carve out time to continue my learning.  And, with Emma's Friends being my first self-owned business I have so much to learn!

I have been down with a cold for the past two days, trying to allow my body to recover so that I can be more productive more quickly.  I'm not a good patient, but I'm trying....  So, being that I don't sit still well unless I have a book in my hand, I've been taking this time to read some books on my list.

I'm nearly done with one book which I have enjoyed a lot: Dave Ramsey's new book Entreleadership.  If you aren't familiar with Dave, he is a finance/business guy with a Biblical approach to how to manage your personal and business finances.  This new book is a compilation of his 20+ years of experience in being a businessman, a boot-strapper.  My kind of guy!  ;)  A wealth of knowledge is shared in a very palatable way (unlike so many business books which are stacked on my nightstand and desk but which I fail to make too much of a dent in...).  I just wish I could spend about a week with him to learn more deeply.  I know I can (and have and will) learn by doing, but sometimes, that just hurts.  Ahh.... I'll get there!

Another book I'm reading is Start Something that Matters by Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes.

Blake's is a fantastic business that gives away one pair of shoes for each pair it sells.  His book is about doing something you love which makes a difference for someone else.  I zipped through the first several chapters saying, "yup....ah-huh... I know!... it is fantastic ... YES!"  :)  It felt very much like home.  I still have a handful of chapters to read yet.  It is an e-book and I am more of a paper book person (still! even though I adore technology, I still love the feeling of a book in my hands but think the page turning sound made is very cool with the e-book) so I forget about it when I think about reading.  Lame, I know.  I'm working on it!  LOL!

I also ordered a few more books in the past few weeks.  Love half.com for the tremendous value it offers for used books.  They should be rolling in day by day this week and next.

So, while my body has been more still... my mind has been whirring along learning, growing and having all kinds of thoughts and ideas that I will need to put to paper and see how all my new learning works out.  I do love to learn.  I'd get my PhD if I could find a way to finance it.  But, with some of my loan for my Masters degree still hanging over me, I've been warned by Don that unless I find a PhD Sugar Daddy, getting a PhD is a pipe dream.  ;)

Yet, my love of books and learning runs deep.  My father is an avid (read: crazy psycho, you can't imagine how many books this man has read!) reader.  I was raised to love to read... and dream... and do.  I remember a poster which hung on my sister's bedroom door:

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it;
If you can dream it, you can become it.
                               ~ William Arthur Ward

I put a similar one on Emma's bedroom door when she was about two years old to remind us of the same, regardless of what people expect of her:

"Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
                                  ~ Robert Browning

And, so, I will continue to reach, continue to imagine and dream... and do... and hopefully achieve and become that which I imagine and dream.  After all, what's a heaven for?  Thanks Robert... and Dave... and William... and Dad.

~ Lynn