Perception plays funny tricks on me. I don’t know why but home repair has always seemed unreachable to me. Maybe it’s fear that don’t want to screw anything up. Or maybe it’s that I’ve never taken the pretty faceplate of the light switch to see that it’s just a big hole cut in the drywall. My friend James help me install an over-the-range microwave. He’s like, “Just cut a hole in the cabinet for the power cord.” My reaction was something like, “What?! Cut a hole in the cabinet?! Are you crazy?” He smashed a hole in the wall and it turned out great.

Sometimes things are just a matter of doing them. Take the time to learn about what you need to do and then, as Nike says, just do it. I’ve got another friend who is in design school. He was intimidated by page-layout software. He decided he didn’t really need to learn it and he would do everything in Illustrator. That’s like saying, “I don’t really need to use the lawn mower, I’ve got a weed wacker.” He finally learned it and is now quoted as saying, “What was I thinking?”

I was working on music last night and needed to fix a part that seemed intimidating to me – I had to fix the kick drum on the entire song. Once I dug in and started plowing, it took me about 15 min and now it’s done. If I had procrastinated then it still wouldn’t be done and I’d be further away from completeing the song. I can think of 150 other things that intimidate me but I don’t want to bore you.

What are some things you perceive as being difficult or out of reach?