God created us with an overwhelming desire to soar. He designed us to be tremendously productive and to mount up with wings like eagles, realistically dreaming of what He can do with our potential.

- Carol Kent

My guest liked what I had done to my porch, especially the floor. She said she had believed it was real flagstone instead of just paint. She said she wished she could do something like that. I told her she could; all she needed was three or four colors of acrylic concrete paint, some rags, a sponge, kneepads and a weekend. She laughed.

Yeah right, she said, then added that she had purchased some wall transfers from QVC months ago and still couldn't decide where to put them. So, she hasn't put them anywhere. Wish I had a dollar for every time I've heard this complaint. If there had been time I would have told my guest what I know, from first hand experience about this affliction, what it stems from and the road to take to find the cure for it. If she had really wanted to know. Some people would prefer to take refuge behind the problem instead of facing it. Granted, it is easier.

When I had my art and gift shop on Main Street in Buford, I heard this over and over. "I'm just not very creative", I'd hear. I always asked why they felt that way. The excuses ran from, "I can't draw a straight line", to "I can't put things together, I have no vision." A little deeper dig nearly always revealed that the real issue was not creativity, (or lack thereof) but plain old indecision born of lack of confidence and that age-old nemesis of progress, fear of failure. What would others think if it didn't turn out right? How to begin, how to trust the original inspiration, and/or desire to create something in the first place? How to risk falling short?

The simple solution for this all too common problem requires complete abandonment of the what-ifs. What if I mess up the wall/floor/wood? What if it doesn't turn out like I wanted it to? What if it looks like a baboon had been turned loose with it and my friends/family make fun of me?

To the what-ifs I say, so what? What if you don't like it and you have to repaint the wall/floor/wood? So what? What if your skills fall short of your dream or vision? So what? What if, in the end, you spent your time, effort and money for materials and end up with something that has to be thrown away? So what, so what, so what? What if you spend your whole life planning and never doing? How ineffectual is that? What if you never try anything for fear you won't get it perfect the first time? What, I ask, is gained by doing nothing at all?

In my not-so-humble opinion, the core of the issue is singularly about self-image. We can't allow ourselves to experiment and try new things because we can't risk looking inept or inexperienced. No practice allowed. We choose what we try conservatively, not because we are not creative but because it is a safe position. Unfortunately, it is also confining and limiting. The catch-22, of course, is that the learning, the practicing and the screwing up is what takes us to new heights and builds our skill levels and thus our confidence. It is the trust we have in our ability to attempt and succeed at new things that pushes us into higher percentages of success rates. But the building of self-trust takes time, and often many more failures than successes. I am intimately acquainted with this truth believe me. Ask my sister about my first attempts at haircutting. . . on her.

It is a circle really. One thing links to another. First, you do a thing. You might fail, but you do it again and eventually you are doing it more for the sake of doing it, and less for the final results. Good results, however, do encourage more doing, that's a given. But the ultimate reward comes not just from accomplishment but also from one's can-do perseverance as well as from the complete disregard for what others think about it. Every child who ever held up a newly completed work of art and said," I did it myself" knows the unadulterated joy of self-trust. Once you transcend this obstacle you begin to understand the secret of genuine creativity:

Doing is infinitely better than not doing and being is better than doing. But you cannot be unless and until you do.