Ed Note: published 2012. a necessary revisit.

I started James Dry Goods in December of last year…125 days ago to be exact. And many of you keep me accountable by asking about the blog when I miss a few days. Sometimes I have been working on a technical issue or trying to improve the overall user experience.

But more often than not, I haven’t posted because I spent my morning coffee surfing the web and decided that my ideas, presentation, or opinion isn’t good enough, interesting enough or, worst of all, “cool” enough.

I let comparisons kill my creativity and my confidence.

The weird thing is that I am NOT that kind of person.

To a high school dance, I wore a rainbow brocade skirt with a tutu – a Patricia Brant original. I wore my hair asymmetrical before hairdressers even used that term.

I delivered management presentations to crowds of hundreds without breaking a sweat. I have been complimented by a buyer from a well-known southern store on a dress that I designed and figured out how to sew.

I have always done whatever I wanted without a thought about what others would think…in a good way. But now?

I can pinpoint a few creativity and confidence killers, which I will share with you in another post. However, based on the amount of time I have spent thinking about this, I know this much is true:

When you compare yourself to others, what you are really doing is discounting the love and acceptance you already have from the people closest to you.

When you doubt your abilities, you are minimizing the people in your life who have already taken a chance on you.

And while you can remain your own worst critic, you can not let that critic stand in the way of getting the work done in the first place.

So, turn down the “noise” and carry on. I am going to do me. You do you. We are both pretty fabulous. Because I said so.