Motivation Monday - What's Stopping YOU?

What's Stopping YOU?

I'll Tell You What Stopped Me! 

A Migraine!!!

I usually have my Motivation Monday post written during the weekend so it is ready to go 1st thing Monday morning. 

Our weather is shifting here from craaazy cold,

to windy and spring like.

Weather changes is one of the things that triggers my migraines.  I take a vitamin regimen to prevent them and it usually works extremely well,

but,

when you shift from 0 degrees to 55 degrees in a matter of hours, all bets are off.

Hopefully, those barometric swings are done for a few days

so I can get back with the program.

Whew?

But my next question is 

"What's Stopping You?"

What's stopping you from achieving whatever it is you want.

Time

Money

Education

FEAR?

The next question must be,

"What are you going to do about those things?"

How can you change those variables?

Do I need to better manage my time or my money?

Is there something I need to learn to begin achieving my goal and how and where can I learn it?

How can I rid myself of the fear that holds me back? 

Each of those areas is a blog post in itself, so I'm only going to address one.

FEAR 

Fear is internal and often unwarranted.

Studies show that 80-90% of the things people worry about

Never Happen!

Everyone who knows me, knows I am terrified of dogs.

It is warranted because I have been attacked on multiple occasions.  I've been ripped off my bicycle and my clothes and skin chewed up.  I was knocked down while carrying a 2-year old daughter, and I was chased to my car by 2 huskies and they scratched and clawed at my car window and door.

People say to me all the time about my fear of dogs,

"Well, just don't be afraid!"

And they say it with a straight face and they mean it.

I always say,

 "As soon as I figure out where that fear button is,

 I'm turning it off."  

(So far I haven't found that particular fear button.)

 

 I know my fear is warranted.

But I still don't like being afraid.

But I have other fears that are not warranted.

What if this painting isn't any good?

What if I can't figure out how to update my website?

What if you don't like my blog?

Yep, those are some of the things that get to me.

Then I have to ask myself - 

"Self, what is the worst thing that could happen

 if each of those things happened?"

1.  On the painting - if I like it that's good, if not - why not, what did I learn from the painting, gesso over it and try again.  Oh look!  No one died!  I can try again.

2.  Well hey, the website thing - I've had so much trouble figuring it out already, and I usually come out victorious so that's not really a problem.  I accidentally shut the whole thing down about a year ago for nearly two weeks and wasn't sure I would ever get it back up.  So I'll do what I usually do, which is to throw myself on the mercy of the support folks and they walk me through stuff.

3.  On the blog thing.  I can't make you like something, so that is completely out of my control.  If I can't control it, I  really need to TRY not to worry about it.  Or I could change what I think you might not like, but this blog is pretty much an extension of me, so there's only so much I can change.

Are your fears warranted?

Sometimes we allow fear to change our course of direction when we shouldn't.

Yes, I am not getting out of my car if I see a dog,

but I am going to paint this painting,

I am going to update my website,

I am going to write this blog post.

There probably will be problems.

I will have doubts,

I will not understand somethings,

But I am moving forward anyway.

I may have to give myself quite the pep talk 

but I am still moving forward.

So now you know what stops me.

How about leaving me a comment about what stops you and then you figure out how to not let that happen any more.

And since this is, after all, an art blog,

here is my art for the day.

I am posting an old piece because it was the first piece I ever did with a human in it.

Talk about being scared.

 Yeah!  I was terrified!

But I survived!

I was happy with the painting.

No One Died!

Interested in learning how to paint from the ground up?

You can still visit my website even as I update it,

but be on the lookout for some pretty significant changes in the next month or so, cause hey, I'm working on it.

 Click HERE.

My website is for all those who want to learn to paint, 

but don't have the slightest idea where to start.

There's a free class there,

there's a pretty inexpensive class there,

and there's a full blown art course that explains many beginning art concepts and shows you how to use them through video, power point and pdf's.

It's a great place for home school families who want to add art to their curriculum.