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I’m surrounded by talented people. And right now, I’m taking about the ones I sincerely, straight-faced, honestly believe are talented. I know so many talented people. Writers and artists and singers and dancers. People who are brilliant and creative, and all the good things.

And more often than not, the things that should be their passion are pushed to the back of their consciousness. Things that should matter turn into “hobbies” or “pastimes” after a while. Something to wedge in, when they get a chance, and forget when they don’t. Not because the people who have these talents tried and failed, but because they gave up before they started. Someone talked them into believing that creativity doesn’t matter as much as _________. They didn’t give themselves a chance to be a creative.

I’m just starting to realize how many of them there are. People who would rather be doing something else, but didn’t give themselves a chance. I’ve been watching them fall into that lifestyle, and watching them fall out of it. Here’s a brilliant photographer who wound up a pathologist. There’s an engineer who retired and suddenly became a painter. And he’s good. His stuff is selling.

So, today’s post is about giving yourself a chance to do the things you really want to do first. A chance to do them NOW, instead of waiting for later, or stealing time here and there from other people’s priorities for you. I want to be a writer. And I’m giving myself a chance to do that.  Now. Not tomorrow or the next day, or forty years from now.

There’s a brochure from a retired engineer turned painter on my motivation board.

Or is it a brochure from a painter who never gave himself a chance, until now? I’m not sure.

In crappy day-job news: Today’s cringeworthy conversation was about co-worker’s husband’s upcoming catheterization, and included the phrase “Just shove that thing up there.” As if I needed another reason why I’m not a doctor. People are full of squishy stuff, and thus endeth my medical education. I am still recovering.