Do I dare?

Do I have what it takes? Will they read what I say? Did I leave the oven on? How many questions fly through your mind every time you take a chance? If you are lucky, one, maybe two, and they are something powerful and meaningful like "Who the hell can stop me?" or "Why wait another second?" Yeah... those are good questions... they are getting you somewhere. Not gonna hold you down. Good for you. Me, oh I get more than one or two.. I get dozens. "Why would anyone read my stuff?" "Who do you think you are?" "I mean really, did I leave the oven on.... I baked pizza... burned my finger... said some pretty words... um... did I... ?"

We are our own worst critic. More often than not, what stops us from accomplishing amazing things is the voice in our head telling us that the right thing to do is not take that risk. Don't open that door cause you don't know what is on the other side. Stop, that button is red.. don't push the red button!!! We do it time after time. No one wants to live the rat race forever. Trapped in the spinning wheels of bills, paycheck, bills, paycheck. Forty hour work weeks, little time off, losing sleep, losing friends, all to work, work, work to throw our money into someone else's pockets. And those pockets run deep. Mary Poppins bag isn't as deep as a rich man's greed.

Taking the first steps to free yourself from that race is hard. Scary. Overwhelming. But every successful person will tell you the same thing. The secret to success is taking that step. Not having all the knowledge. Not having every 'i' dotted and 't' crossed. But doing. Just start. That is the biggest hurtle you are gonna face. Any path to happiness or success only becomes a reality if you start to walk it.

I have wanted to be a writer my entire life. Well ok, maybe when I was born all I wanted was to eat, sleep, and eat some more... and I am pretty sure at some point I wanted to be an Archeologist after seeing Indiana Jones, and a Jedi after Star Wars.. but somewhere along the line I realized I wanted to write. I've not produced a NY Times best selling novel, or an award winning short story. To this date I've only created a few blogs that have mostly been read by my family and friends. But it's a step. A baby step.. in tiny little Nike Jordans.

So this is me. This is my path. The journey is starting.. right after I check the oven.

Wayne Richardson