The Path of Positivity Challenge Begins Today

If you are new to my blog and would like to know why I started Motivational Mondays, please go HERE.

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A couple of weeks ago when I was rushing around to put the finishing touches on my "100th Follower Celebration" post (click HERE to go to that post if you haven't been yet, there are lots of goodies up for grabs), one of my very best friends Naomi from Creative Bug on the Loose, offered to help me out.  I had done a little research and had come to a decision as to which type of 'linky' site I wanted to use, with a little help from Vicky from Crafting Vicky.  So, Naomi offered to go in and get me all signed up with InLinkz.  Now with InLinkz you have an unlimited number of text linkups and just one thumbnail linkup.  Now apparently, Naomi hates it when you can only do a name linkup, so she took it upon herself to gift me with a six month subscription to InLinkz so that I can have as many thumbnail linkups as I want.  Naomi is such an incredibly generous woman, and I am so blessed that she is in my life.  So, I plan on creating as many thumbnail linkups as I can come up to make her purchase worthwhile.

Spending a couple weeks thinking up different things, I have first decided to come up with a new concept to attach to the Motivational Monday feature of this blog.  I was thinking that you guys could come over and link up something that you have done during the week that you consider motivational in nature to share with the rest of us.  It could be an inspirational card, an encouragement card or you could be talking about happiness, kindness, dreams, etc.  Even a 'thinking of you' card would be okay because the goal behind that is to bring some happiness to someone on your mind.  If you create a card based on an Inspirational Picture that I put up one Monday, please link that up too.  Anything of a positive inspirational nature that you'd like to share is acceptable.   04/21/13--UPDATE:  It doesn't have to be a card, it can be any type of project whatsoever. Don't forget it can also just be the post that is inspirational.


It could be something from a week ago or a month ago.  I'm not worried about back linking right now BUT only submit it once.  For example, you have a post that you created three weeks ago that you would like to share this month.  Link it up, but next month you will not be allowed to submit the same link again.  

The whole idea is for us to create a Path of Positivity for people to follow to bring sunshine to our corner of the blogging world.  As long as it is positive and inspirational it qualifies.  Just link up and be ready to receive guests.  People participating should come back throughout the week and visit others on the list, leaving comments along the way.  Please note though that if I go to your blog and find just a regular birthday card post or something along those lines, unless there is an inspirational story attached, the link will be removed.  There must be an inspirational or motivational vibe to the creation or post.

 04/14/13--UPDATE BASED ON QUESTIONS RECEIVED THROUGHOUT THE WEEK:

• It can EITHER be a post that has an inspirational vibe or just a project that is inspirational in some way.  You don't have to have an inspirational card AND an inspirational post.  One or the other is fine.
• I was asked if participants can link up other people's blog posts that they find inspirational.  I'd prefer that people link up there own blogs but am willing to talk about individual situations.  Just send me an email to discuss it.

Each Path of Positivity challenge will remain open for a full month.  In the remaining Motivational Monday posts for the rest of the month, I will provide the link up to the challenge and a summary to help remind people.  I will also try and create a badge to put in my sidebar, letting people know of the challenge.  Hopefully, these things will help to spread the word and encourage people to linkup.  <<<THIS BADGE HAS NOW BEEN CREATED AND YOU CAN FIND IT AT THE TOP OF MY RIGHT SIDEBAR>>>  The challenge will be open from the first Monday of one month to the Sunday before the first Monday of the next month. I know we are starting late this month so it will actually only run from Monday, April 8th to Sunday May 5th at 11:59 pm.  The following month it will run from Monday, May 6th to Sunday June 3rd.  Got it?  When you link up, leave a comment summarizing what it is about your post that you feel is inspirational/positive/motivational.  That way it will help us have a focus when we come over to take a look.  

{{Please note that this next paragraph has been edited from the original due to learning how voting works}}

Now, this linkup has been created to allow voting.  The way voting on a collection works is that you only have one opportunity to vote and voting begins when the collection has been closed.  Then at the end date, voting will be disabled as well.  Therefore I have set it up so that the collection will close on May 5th at 11:59 p.m. and voting will begin on May 6th at 12:00 a.m. You will then have until May 12th at 11:59 p.m. to vote on the creation or post that you have found to be the most inspirational of the bunch. If you are voting, make sure to leave a comment telling us what it was that inspired you about your choice. You are more than welcome to encourage your friends to come over and vote and even participate if they'd like.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a large number of blog posts to visit to help inspire us throughout the month?

What is the incentive for participating you ask?  Well my hope would be that you'd participate just for the sake of bringing a smile to someone's face and sharing your own positive vibe with others but for those who need a little extra motivation Naomi is very generously offering up a prize of 10 digital images for the person who receives the most votes during the month.  There will also be a random draw for a creation that I make.   If any of you designers out there would like to support this challenge idea and add an image or two, we can increase the prizes given out. Please contact me if this is something you'd like to be part of and sponsor.  

 04/14/13--UPDATE--Ike from Ike's World has generously donated three images as well.  We are now up to THREE PRIZES!

This is a brand new idea so we'll see how it goes.  This will most definitely be a work in progress.  Right now the entries will be unlimited BUT this may change down the road depending on the number of people who decide to participate.

My contribution to start our path this week is the idea to make sure that you think positively each day.  Every time you are in a positive space it can lead to more opportunities for being positive.  Positivity has a spiralling effect.  Of course, we all know there will be those days where it is difficult to find anything to be positive about.  The days that challenge us are the days where we have to try a little bit harder.  I know.  I've been there.  If we stumble along the path of positivity we need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, keep looking and moving forward.  As should be everything in life--one step at a time!

Here is a quote to help you along the way...

I've provided today's quote for you a couple different ways.  First, I've provided it as one single image which you can find directly above.  I've also split it up so the first line could be put on the front of a card and the rest of the quote inside.  Note that since it is author unknown, I've taken some liberties with the punctuation in the split version.  It just seems to make more sense this way, when dividing the quote into two pieces...

Both parts are the same font size.  Also, these quotes are much larger than they appear here.  Take whichever version you are interested in, you can always take both if you want.  Don't forget I'd love to see what you come up with if you use any of my creations.

So how about you?  What positive project or thought can you share with us this month?  Let's keep the path of positivity going!  You can find the linkup at the very bottom of this post.

Summary

• Each Path of Positivity challenge will remain open for a full month.  The challenge will be open from the first Monday of one month to the Sunday before the first Monday of the next month. 
• Link up your inspirational post below using Inlinkz.  You will be able to submit your link up to May 5th at 11:59 p.m.
• When you link up, leave a comment summarizing what it is about your post that you feel is inspirational/positive/motivational. 
• Voting will begin on May 6th at 12:00 a.m. You will then have until May 12th at 11:59 p.m. to vote on the creation or post that you have found to be the most inspirational of the bunch Then leave a comment telling us what it was that inspired you.  
• There will be a prize of ten digital images for the person who receives the most votes during the month, another prize of three digital images (the way in which this prize will be won is yet to be determined) and a prize for a random draw.  

GENEROUSLY SPONSORED BY:

 

 

 Your patience while I undertake  this brand new venture is appreciated.

Until next time,

Fonts Used:

• FoglihtenPCS 
• Dancing Script 

Click the font name to take you to a download location.  These fonts are free for commercial use. 

Quick summary of Terms of Use:   

• Do not claim the image as your own.
• Credit 'Decosse's Dynamite Doodles' somewhere on your creation.
• 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 I have signed an image, do not delete my signature.
• Leave a comment on my blog.  It is currently the only way for me to know if any of my freebies are being nabbed.  Additionally, it will help to inspire me to continue to create and offer future freebies.