Confidence

This handsome young man is confident and determined.  He loves sports and he practices--he practices for hours!  When his older brother is working on his skills, this one is right there by his side wanting to bat just one more time.  He spends a lot of time shooting baskets, kicking or catching a ball. And have I mentioned his smile and his light blue eyes?  This guy has it all--especially a grandma who adores him.  I could learn a lot from his determination to improve his talents and abilities.
     I have an amazing group of friends.  Their talents range from floral, graphic and interior design, expert quilters, scrapbookers, super grandmas, gardeners, polished party hostesses, school teachers, counselors, youth speaker, the list goes on and on. A few of us were having a "heart to heart" and discovered that we were all a bit intimidated and envious of the others' talents and felt that our own abilities just didn't make the grade.  We all vowed to stop having such negative thoughts and rejoice in all of our unique talents.  Easier said than done.  I still find myself falling into that pit of self doubt. I think that is one of the reasons for my 9,000 hour goal.  I want to develop my own talents and just be the best I can be.  Even if I'm still trying to figure it out at 80!
    I recently picked up a magazine called "Where Women Create".  I liked Jo Packman's editorial on confidence.  She wrote,"...It is always interesting to me, that regardless of how unaccomplished or accomplished we each may be, we can be overly confident and absolutely fearless in various situations and in others we are meek, timid, and uncertain...In one interview right before [Katie Couric's] big night as the first solo female anchor of a weekday evening news program, she said, 'There is nothing more beautiful than confidence.'...So perhaps the key is just working to be more confident.  That's it, isn't it...but oh... how fragile and fleeting is true confidence?...What makes you confident and why are we so so easily convinced by no one but ourselves, to lose our confidence that we were just in control of just moments ago? I work diligently, every day, to keep my confidence intact and some days I am so much better at it than others"


    Only 8,990 hours to go!