MONSTERS

The monsters of doubt crawled out from under my bed last night and parked themselves at my desk. "You need to practice more,"one said. "You should stick to what you know," said another. "Why are you throwing your money away on this project?" said a particularly bold one.

I sat with these doubt monsters all evening. Their voices got louder and more numerous. I began to second guess myself. I began believing them. I started to sink back into the hole of fear and insecurity- the place where I'm convinced that I'll fail and that I should stick to what is safe and familiar.

But this time, I stopped! This amazing thing happened: I realized that I have created weapons to use against these ugly, negative thoughts. The words and the art that I put down on paper over the past month are the messages that make the monsters crawl back into their holes. They're reminders that I don't have to listen to the fears and doubts, that I am bigger and greater than they are, and that I can succeed in making my dreams come true.

So I took a deep breath. Scrolled back through images of my paintings on my laptop, and then charged on forward with my plan to open a new Etsy shop. Take that monsters!