Inkinspired-The Arrow Tattoo

October again, and as it appears thanks to Facebook’s memories feature, it is the time of year I like to express my deepest passions via a new tattoo.

When asked, why a tattoo, I respond that I had always wanted one from my late teens on, but never knew exactly what to get. Then I went to Australia and my life began to evolve. Once on that path of change and personal development, all the passions within me came to the surface, quite literally, thus it became time for ink because the meaning had been found.

Most recently, if you have been following my social media pages, you will have seen that my dear and close friend and I made a day trip to New York City to get very meaningful tattoos placed inside our left wrists. These tattoos, had been in the plans for close to a year now.

While many of my tattoos and the plans for a few more in the future have been done in destination, we chose to meet here, in New York, for this. The two of us met a few years ago at a Book More Travel Workshop in North Carolina, hosted by the Global Travel Institute for Travel Entrepreneurs. I had already belonged to the program and my dear friend and now partner in crime Tracy was just joining. We discovered immediately we were kindred spirits. Before the conference was over, we had become besties.

We learned many things for propelling our business forward through our membership in GIFTE. One of the main concentrations or focus areas is mindset. Our fearless leader, Meredith Hill, founder and president of the company, teaches many things to keep our mind on the right entrepreneurial path.

One of those things involves the analogy of an arrow being pulled back. It has meaning on several levels.

One, is the arrow needs to be pulled back to have momentum. The further it is pulled back the further it will go. Another is to the comparison of contrast in your life. The more contrast you have, the more reward/good that exists on the other end. And, finally, the faith that you need and must have, blind faith, seeing and believing you will hit your target. That faith will create the forward momentum you need to reach your goals. As we say, READY, FIRE, AIM!

I and Tracy have been through a lot of contrast over these past few years. I have been in a constant state of change and evolution for at least the past 3 years as I created and opened the travel agency, divorced my husband, and then relocated from Tennessee to the northeast in New Jersey. Tracy too has had her own agency coming to birth, as she has dealt with the end of her marriage. We both resonated so strongly with the mindset conversations and analogies of the bow and arrow that we decided we would get arrows put inside our wrists to remind us and strengthen us to keep moving forward.

You will see our arrows are slightly different.

Because our struggles and paths and personal meanings are different as well. For Tracy, I know the word TRUST was something she needs to remind herself of and her colors represent her agency branding. For me, I wanted something more traditional, native. I have the dots to symbolize the movement forward, the wave to show that it is not always a straight path to our goals, the leaves as feathers because of my draw and connection to nature. For me nature always heals and restores. But, the one thing, we both know is the best is coming and the reward for our efforts is in sight.
To discover the meaning behind my previous tattoos, check out my blogs, “Souvenirs to Last a Lifetime” and “Tattoos-The Meaning Behind the Ink”

updated 7/19/20