When I celebrated Thoughtful Pinch’s fourth anniversary on 3/3/19, it started a conversation about anniversaries with my brother. He is approaching his tenth year as a professional photographer and was reflecting on his career. My brother mentioned that he wished he was further along than his current situation. He wanted to have accomplished bigger and better things by the ten year milestone. My outlook about his career is much different than his and I thought I would express it in depth with this week’s blog topic as my ten year anniversary thoughtful pinch to him.

Let’s start by taking a guess. What is this a picture of?

It’s a small dish of soap PIECES that I keep next to my bathroom sink.

Lately, my son has been taking a bunch of showers and he has been using many bars of soap. Both the hub and my son refuse to use the last bits. Instead, they open a new box of soap and toss aside the remaining PIECES. Call me cheap, call me an environmentalist, call me anything but wasteful. I still use these soap scraps because they still do the job. When I wash my hands, I grab a handful of soap PIECES and rub them together under running water. The result is a clean pair of hands. Small PIECES of soap can wash my hands just as well as a large bar of soap.

Here’s another way to look at PIECES. When I was in my twenties, I made a goal for myself to run a marathon by the time I was 40 years old. I didn’t run a marathon by the time I was forty. In fact, I’m months away from turning 50 and I’ve never even run a 10K, let alone a marathon. This year, besides my one New Year’s resolution which is to forgive, I made a goal to run one mile a day. A friend had told me that she ran at least a mile a day and she hasn’t missed a day in over 8 years! So I started running a mile on January 1, 2019. It wasn’t until the end of January when it occurred to me that I ran 31 miles - that added up to more than a marathon (26.2). Of course, I didn’t run it all at once, but I am running a PIECE of a marathon everyday.

My last example regarding PIECES is about Thoughtful Pinch. Four years ago I started writing one post a week. The next year I continued writing a weekly post but added marketing on social media. The year after that, I still wrote weekly, marketed on social media and added recorded podcasts and created a You Tube Channel. A half year later, I added merchandise - making handkerchiefs and Cloud Journals. I also threw a launch party and sponsored my first golf event. In year four, I created an app that will be available to download for free from the APP Store. Four years later, I still haven’t made a single dollar. Nevertheless, I know that each year, I hold onto my PIECES and I continue to collect more along the way. Together, my collection of PIECES will differentiate Thoughtful Pinch from any other company.

We can all have regrets about bad career decisions or recount all the wrong turns we made in our lives, but everything leads us to where we are today. If we dwell on the mistakes but don’t find the silver linings, then yes, we’re going to be disappointed. All experiences are PIECES of you. Experiences are your “everything” - the failures, the successes, the lack of, the expertise. My three tips on honoring your PIECES are: 1. Even though the PIECES may seem insignificant to some, you may find them useful. 2. If big goals cannot be accomplished all at once, but can be accomplished PIECE by PIECE - the goal is still worth pursuing. And 3. Hold on tightly to your PIECES while you continue to pick up more; it’s what makes everyone unique.

Tommy, being an artist in a business world isn’t easy. Therefore, honor your PIECES because you have landed gracefully where you need to be. Happy Tenth Anniversary! I’m so proud of you and I’m looking forward to seeing where your creative talent takes you next! Congrats!

Pinches,

Barb