What If...

What if you give it your all and that isn't enough? What if you put 100% and still fall short? It happens all the time. I was thinking about that when I was driving home from a Smiling Stiletto event tonight. When I started working on PS full time 8 years ago, I don't remember that it ever crossed my mind that I couldn't do it. I don't think I ever thought that far ahead- it was all about focusing on the small steps which let the bigger pieces fall into place. I suppose that the idea of failure must have crossed my mind, but I was 24 years old at the time and it didn't matter. And for eight years, my all has been enough- with the help of many others of course.

 So what's the problem? Event anxiety is the problem. I've put my all into the Date Auction and I'm anxious about ensuring it is another success. It is shaping up to be a wonderful event, but that doesn't lessen the concern. I've done everything that I can with the marketing, outside of having a huge marketing budget. We have some fabulous people being auctioned off and great hosts and sponsors. We're not in the hole for any money due to the sponsorship dollars raised- the event is 100% profit.  I am trying to relax but there is a lot of pressure on this event- there is pressure to raise money, create a good buzz, make our sponsors happy, have a positive experience for our guests so they want to come back and justify the time and effort that was spent on the event. I've been sick with a cold for the past few days, so of course that doesn't help with feeling anxious about the Date Auction. The good news is that I am feeling better tonight. I'm going to work on relaxing and keep chugging along with the things that need to get done for both events and following up on marketing outreach.

In other good news- I am done staring at the PS calendar proof. I went through it 3 times this morning before I gave Lisa the go-ahead to start finalizing the calendar for the printer. This morning, I looked at first for spelling and make sure the photo captions were in order. Then, I looked at the dates and ad placements. Then I looked at it again for both things. I've done this a bunch of times. Proofing is so important, you need to keep looking at things- you never know what mistakes you could have missed or you see an improvement that can be made.

Well, that's the latest for tonight. Tomorrow, I'm picking up table covers and name-tags for the auction and doing our bid sheets for the silent auction portion of the event. I'm also working on promotion and our Anniversary Celebration. I have a potential volunteer coming in for a meeting in the morning. It would be great to have a regular office volunteer, so hopefully it will be a good meeting. I'm now off to munch on some honeydew melon- the first one that I've had this summer and it is delicious! Before I go- a special Happy Birthday shout- out to my sister Cordelia!
Until next time friends...