I guess we all have had the experience of self-education and the subsequent excitement of planning the best change in our lives ever. Nothing will ever be the same! I, personally, love both education and planning. “New strategies look more appealing than the old ones because they provide unlimited hope,” writes James Clear in his book Atomic Habits. I feel this is the stumbling block for many of us. There is this appealing hope. We have finally figured out the right key to a brighter future! Tony Robbins tries to hammer into his students that knowledge is not power but only POTENTIAL power. Clark Kegley opened my eyes to the essentials when he said that many people educate themselves (and plan, I might add) so excessively that it becomes entertainment.

We read wise books, every other day we try a new system of a healthier lifestyle or more valuable use of time, we go to seminars… Why do we do it? Why do so many of us love this “action cotton candy”? We have the feeling we are working hard when in fact, we are just casually having fun. I think it is because in planning there is no danger of failure. As long as I haven’t done anything substantial that can be seen, I’m in no danger of failing and disappointing myself or others. No failure, no ridicule, and no rejection.

Still, knowledge TOGETHER with unrelenting action mean power and progress. Napoleon Hill once said that “A goal (again, aplan, I would say) is a dream with a deadline”. We need to work our way up to that deadline. I’ve been happily tiptoeing around this detail for many years.

I think the fear of failure is more palpable in the area of performing arts. The performer becomes vulnerable, revealing his inner self. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard for many of us to believe that we have something to say to others. We doubt our work can touch another person’s heart. We turn our attention outwards. Try to see ourselves through other people’s eyes. I think that is a dead end. Let us create things that haven’t existed just because we have to express ourselves. Share the beauty God put into our lives. Surely, there is someone whose heart will be touched by our work.

So, without further ado, I am going to paint. What are you going to create?