Challenge #25--GROWTH: Midway Reflection & Voting Reminder

Hello everyone! We have reached the midway point of Challenge #25. The theme for this challenge is all about GROWTH.   As usual, I am going to share a little introspection with you all that I am also presenting on my own personal blog in my "Motivational Monday" feature.

Keep on Growing

It doesn't matter whether you are 25, 50 or even 75!  You are never too old to grow and develop.  We may get stuck and mired down at times during our life that makes us think we'll never reach our objectives but it doesn't matter.  We can always pick up and start again.

My husband is one example of this.  He had a difficult time as a child in school and was told by many that he would never amount to anything.  His own mother and many of his siblings would often call him 'stupid' and 'a retard'.  Both terms that shouldn't be part of anyone's vocabulary!  He dropped out of high school but later went on to complete his GED (which is a general equivalence of a high school diploma), and then put himself through night school to become a Bookkeeper all while working at the same time.  Years later, not satisfied with where he was at, he decided to go back to school--at the age of 36.  Again, amidst ridicule such as, "you're too old" and "what are you thinking".  He ended up graduating from a two year program and went on to have a very satisfying career in that field for over 10 years.

He knew what he wanted and he never gave up.  He didn't stay complacent with where his life was at.  He didn't give up and get stuck on what someone else's ideas of success meant.  Even when he struggled with reading and writing, he never gave up wanting to learn and grow.   Of course, today we know that he has both learning disabilities (visual, auditory AND kinaesthetic) and Attention Deficit Disorder having undergone testing.  Had he been properly diagnosed as a child, he may not have had as many educational struggles as he did.  However, even facing those difficulties he never gave up and continued wanting to learn and grow.

Even today, after having retired from his career at the local college, he has gone on to learn a new career as a tax professional.  This is his fifth year with the organization and each year he must learn more in order to improve his skills.  At the age of 65 (well, he will be on Wednesday),  he show no signs of ever wanting to stop the process of learning.

This is just one example.  There are many places in our lives for us to grow and develop.  It doesn't matter whether it is growth related to our career or business, our personal life or our spiritual one.  It is important that each of us continues to develop and grow throughout life.  It can be the little things we work on or it can be the bigger ones too.  The key is that you keep trying to improve yourself and work towards the person you were always meant to be!

As a reminder, here are the watermarks and links for the wonderful images that the team worked with for the midway.

 From Sparkle N Sprinkle...

Vivian Hat Lady

 Beach Friends

 Bubble Gum Wishes

  

Daisies

Welcome Autumn

 Easter Bunny and Chicks

We are fortunate and blessed to have the chance to work with all these fabulous images during the midway.  Thanks so much to our amazing sponsors.

To help inspire you down the path of growth, check out the wonderful projects most of my Design Team had the opportunity to create...

 

Finally, that leaves our...

Julie, from Muddy Paws & Inky Fingers, who is our guest designer this month, created this lovely card...

Clicking on the team members name (or in the case of our GDT, the blog name) will take you to their blog where you can check out the details for their inspirational creations!

So if you haven't entered already, what are you waiting for?  Create a project and/or post that is positive AND relates to growth, provide an explanation of how your project and/or post relates to the theme somewhere in your post or come over and leave a comment with the explanation.  Easy, peasy!  You can enter our latest challenge by clicking HERE.

Also, I know that the participants would love for you to go and pay them a visit.  Remember we're creating a Path of Positivity to follow one project at a time and we'd love to see you somewhere on that route even if it is just by leaving a comment on an entry from someone who has touched you somehow with their project and/or post!

If you are new to this unique challenge, you can find out the impetus behind why I started it under the 'Introductions' tab and all the details you need to know in order to participate, in the 'Challenge Details' tab (both tabs located at the top of the blog).

Don't Forget...

You still have until 11:55 p.m. tonight, to vote on your favourite entry for Challenge #24.  Voting is quick, easy and painless so I hope you will consider casting your vote if you haven't already.  Don't forget, if you leave a comment after voting, you have the opportunity to walk away with a selection of digital papers created especially with your interests in mind. To check out all those eligible and cast your vote, click HERE.  Winners for challenge #24 will be posted next Monday.


LOOKING FOR ANOTHER MOTIVATIONAL QUOTE ON GROWTH?
If you need some additional motivation to help inspire you, I've provided another sentiment on this month's theme (the first is available HERE), free for you to download.

 Left click to bring the image up into the lightbox in its full size and then right click and scroll down to 'save as'.

Credit Notes For This Creation:
© 2015, Lisa L. Décosse.  PUO.  However, you are allowed to use the sentiment on handmade projects that you intend to sell on a small scale basis provided credit is given. You also need to include a credit note and a link to this blog should you use any of my images in your creations and post them on your blog. Please be sure to familiarize yourself with my full terms of use found in the 'Download Instructions & T.O.U.' tab at the top of this page.  Of important note:  Please do not share my images with family, friends, etc. Additionally, do not post any images to file sharing services like Box®, 4-Shared®, etc. Instead, please direct people to my blog so they can grab the image for themselves. If you would like to post a watermarked version of the image, please contact me to obtain one. 

This word art creation is in png format and published at 300 ppi. It is quite large in order to accommodate different programs that people work with.   If you are a card maker you can always resize it smaller without distorting the quality.

Font Information:

• Blenda Script font created by Seniors Studio
• Slim Joe font created by Ion Lucin
  

Both of these fonts were listed for commercial use at the time of these creations.  As such, it is my understanding, that I am within my rights to use these fonts in my creations and offer them to others.  Please refer to my full terms of service for what you can and cannot do with this digital creation.

SUMMARY
Whether you are new and need to familiarize yourself with all the details,  or a returning participant and just need to refresh yourself, you can always find out everything you need to know in order to enter this challenge in the 'Challenge Details' tab at the top of the page. You can enter the challenge by clicking HERE to take you to the current challenge post where you can also find a quick summary of the details related to this challenge, towards the bottom of the post. 

GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY...

Please show your support to our wonderful guest sponsors by going over and checking out their work and saying hi if you have the chance.  As mentioned above, this month our guest sponsor is...

Our regular sponsors include...

 

  If you ever have any questions be sure to EMAIL ME or just leave me a comment.

We look forward to seeing you participate!