What's in a name?

Good morning, all! In yesterday's post about setting my 2012 goals I mentioned that my next post would be about my goal for starting this blog. I figured a good place to start would be explaining why my blog is titled "Grabbing the Brass Ring".

Carousel, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, by ldjaffe on flickr

My paternal grandparents lived in Santa Cruz, California, while I was growing up. When my family would visit them, one of the places we'd often go is the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Like most little girls, I was wild for horses. I'm talking insanely wild for them. My bedroom walls were covered in pictures of horses that I'd cut from calendars, magazines, etc. So, not surprisingly, my favorite ride at the Boardwalk was the carousel. It's an absolutely gorgeous carousel, too. Check out the picture to the left.

Being an older carousel, one of the features for riders on the outside horses was the ring grab and toss. As you passed by one side of the carousel, there was this metal arm that dispensed small iron and brass rings if you were tall, fast, and coordinated enough to grab one. If you were successful in grabbing one of the rings, there was then this borderline terrifying clown face that you were supposed to toss your ring at, trying to get your ring into the clown's mouth.

I was too young and too short to ever have managed to snag one of those rings, but that didn't stop me from trying every time I went around that carousel.

When I came to the realization (discussed in my first post) that as I've grown older I've allowed myself to make more and more excuses for not going after the things I want - for not chasing my dreams - one of my first thoughts was of that carousel on the boardwalk and of how hard I tried to grab one of those rings each time around even though I knew I wasn't tall enough to reach. Somewhere along the path of growing up and taking on more responsibility I'd lost a lot of that drive and belief in my abilities to make something happen.

I determined that 2012 was the year I wasn't going to let excuses stop me anymore and I started thinking about how I could maintain my energy and enthusiasm for my dreams as the year went on. Creating this blog was the answer, and it became one of my 2012 goals. And "Grabbing the Brass Ring" was the most fitting name I could imagine, as that's what I'll be trying to do this year and into the future. This blog will be the place I'll turn to in order to share my dreams and the steps I'll be taking to turn them into reality. I'm hoping this blog will help to keep my motivated and accountable to myself. Stay tuned in the coming days as I'll be posting about what those dreams are.

Though I think I might be the only one reading this blog right now, I'm hopeful that others will soon join me on the journey. Perhaps you'll see some of yourself as you read through my posts and it would be a wonderful blessing if my words someday give someone else the boost they need to chase their own dreams. Have a blessed and wonderful day!