I like things to be easy.
When I was young, most things came very easily to me. I didn’t have to work hard for much of anything. I quickly learned to stick to the things which were most obvious to me — and which impressed people the most — and just sit back to receive the praise.
For the most part, I‘ve done the same thing for my adult life. Unless I have a huge incentive, I stick to what I know how to do. It’s safe. It gets the praise I crave. And it keeps me from having to risk failure.
But every now and then, I push myself into something completely new. The old fears start surfacing. What if I’m a fraud? What if I fail at this? What if I‘m just embarrassing myself? What if I’m not perfect?
I’m in that position right now as I work toward the first complete episode of my new podcast, Love & Hope. (Listen to the three-minute introduction here.) I know the things I need to do. I’m working on them. But I’m not an expert at these things — and I once again feel the old fear of not being perfect.

Being in love shows us who we can choose to be at our very best
Would you be glad or ashamed if others could read your thoughts?
Why is it ‘isolationism’ to oppose killing those who didn’t attack us?
We often live in the tension between known and unknown
If a bad relationship needs to end, fake Facebook posts won’t fool us
We can’t trade away gun rights and believe it’ll give kids perfect safety
AUDIO: Spark between two hearts can be beautiful mystery of love
We often value a love only after we’ve carelessly thrown it away
Illegal bribes mean a politician is corrupt, but the legal things he does are just as immoral