As I stood at the edge of a chilly park, the winter air biting at my fingertips as the dog tugged at her leash to just-keep-walking-already, I replied to my neighbor’s query with a tentative explanation of an intangible future.

“Have you started looking for a job yet?” She had asked, and by it she meant neither harm nor foul, merely inquisitiveness towards the guy-with-the-dog she sees routinely in the park who she knows left his steady employment over the summer to pursue something different.

“I don’t think I’m looking for anything yet.” I replied. “In fact, I’m busy working on some creative projects. I’ve started to think of it as my own little business. I’m a writer now. And I’m writing and revising a couple novels at various stages.”

Besides my wife, and prior to that moment I had told nobody of this plan.

Today the park. Tomorrow the world.

Change is manifested through confidence, and confidence comes in bite-sized chunks.

What happens when you find yourself surrounded by people who are better at something than you?

It happens all the time to people who are just getting started. You post, share, and show, but then someone else comes along and their art is amazing. Their writing is stellar. They can sing, dance, perform, or engage with an audience way better than you.

That’s just life.

For most of us in everything we do there exists someone who is better at something we want to excel at. Don’t avoid that. Cherish that you have access to someone from whom you can learn. Find more people who know lots of stuff and surround yourself with experience and expertise and then open your heart to appreciate their skill and what they show you, no matter how good or bad you think you are, always.