My first husband and every friend I’d ever had were all older than me, so I still felt like “the youngest.” And I accelerated quickly through the ranks at work, so, again, “the youngest.” But now I’m in my early 30′s, married to a man younger by 3 years, and recently (finally??) pregnant. My first reaction to finding out I was pregnant? “Am I old enough for this?”

Um, yes, m’dear, at 31 you aren’t going to have any fingers wagged at you for being a teen mother, for heavens’ sakes.

I don’t have great suggestions, only the fact that I completely relate, and that constantly reminding myself that I am old enough for anything – because, hey, I’m doing it, right? – helps.

4. “Learning is as important as doing”–can you combine the two? Often it is by doing that we learn :) You can take what you learn and apply it–actions ALWAYS help you learn to do something new. I’ve read many books on writing, learning a lot about structure and storytelling and description, but until I take that plunge to write my own stuff, I really haven’t learned it, have I? :)

5. “What I did right is way more important than what I did wrong.” I too feel that what I do right doesn’t get enough credit :) But we can learn from what we did wrong–and then apply that knowledge to our current project :) The problem comes, I think, when we decide to add strong emotion to the words “right” and “wrong.” No one wants to be “wrong” if, by being “wrong,” we are bad or stupid or foolish or unworthy or useless–and that’s how /I/ tend to feel about being wrong. :/ But, if you look at doing something wrong as an opportunity to learn and to grow in whatever you’re learning, then that gives it a whole ‘nother meaning, doesn’t it? :)

It seems like you’re judging yourself pretty harshly, Chris. But, you know what? I think we’re all like that to a degree. I tend to be harder on myself than I am anyone else because I have to live with myself and therefore I don’t forgive myself easily for making mistakes or stupid decisions that I can look back at now and say, “D’oh, THAT was stupid.”

(hugs) You’re allowed to be creative however you want to be creative. And most of all, the world is yours, if you want it badly enough. Know what I mean? :)

(Now to go off and let all these words sink into my OWN head ;))

There is maybe more people who struggle with depression, and Internet addiction could be
the reason…

http://www.video-game-addiction.org/internet-addictions-adults.html

You’ll be happy to know I got here the l-o-n-g way around: starting at IttyBiz where I read your hilarious post where you reminded me we all “follow the rules” like rats in a maze, which made me immediately run to the bedroom to rip the tags off my new pillows; then to your “this is who I am” page where, yep, I double-checked to see if your phone number was really there (it is–expect a surprise phone call when you least expect it, because one right away would be far too normal); then to your “yes! please tell me when Chris updates his blog!” email signup; then to your “yes! give me access to all the freebies so I can download even more stuff I don’t have time to read!” email signup; to here.

Talk about a theme park! Nice to meetcha (along with your wife, mother, father, Don what’s-his-name, and your herd of cats and dogs).

Annie

Both my daughters are (for lack of a better term) “child actors” with some professional success. Their father started teaching them something very early on: It takes three things to be successful as an actor. You need talent, hard work and luck. There are tons of out of work actors who are talented and hard working – it’s kind of a given that you need both of those things. But luck – being in the right place at the right time, being the right height (that’s a big one with kids), having long hair or brown hair or blond hair or the skin color the producer is looking for – also plays a big role. But when we talk about talent – I do believe that it is something that can be developed although there’s probably a range in which people will fall. There are people who, no matter how hard they work, will never be great actors but that doesn’t mean that they can’t do community theater and have a great time doing it.

What I think your post says – very well – is that it’s sad when someone who really would love to be on stage says “I’m not a good actor, I’ll never be famous or as good as so and so, therefore I won’t even try.” It’s sad when people would LOVE to play the guitar but are so afraid of being bad, they don’t even take lessons (that would be me . . .). Who says that we have to be as talented as Jess’ friends before we can sing in public? Who says we have to label a child as a “born artist” before we can encourage him to paint?

I’m going home right now to play the guitar on Rock Band 2! And even if I suck, it’ll rock. Thanks Chris!