The Christmas Tree in the Corner

My Christmas tree is still up. There, I said it. It's out in the open. Everyone knows. My husband Tim and I began joking about it the second week of January. It became less funny the end of January. An embarrassment the first of February!

Then something interesting happened. Tim said, "I dare you to leave it up all year!" I was like yeah, right! I don't do dares! Then he said, "We should leave it up as a symbol - a symbol of our commitment to work on what's important in our lives right now." Hmm.

When I'm not traveling I work at home, and every time I would start to take down that silly tree I would be interrupted by a phone call or something that required my attention - something truly important to our lives. I would get sooo frustrated. Tim's comment reminded me of Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey's 3rd habit is Put First Things First - put time into what's important to you.

To be successful at anything in life - whether it's cooking, scrapbooking, going back to college, writing that book or starting a business - we have to make time for it. But most of us, including me, let other things get in the way. We think taking the Christmas tree down must be done. I mean, come on - what would people think if they came to my house and my tree was up!!! Don't so much care anymore.

So who's with me on this? Here's the challenge: What is a goal of yours that you don't have time for? Why aren't you working on it? Now pick a symbol - something you aren't going to do in order to work on that goal. Use that symbol as a reminder that you have choices each and every day. Post your symbol here and let's support each other on this. I dare you to do something even more bold than leaving your Christmas tree up all year!