I’m a big fan of sci-fi movies, and one of my all time favorite trilogies is The Matrix. We were watching the first of the three movies last night for the ump-teenth time, and it had been a good while since I had watch it. I had forgotten about all the great lines that Morpheus (played by the super talented Laurence Fishburne) has in the first film:

“Free your mind!”

“Don’t think you can; know you can.”

“I can only show you the door. You’re the one that has to walk through it.”

“There’s a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.”

As he spoke, I thought about how these relate so much to anyone who is creative, and especially anyone who hopes to make a living or at least part of a living using his or her creativity. Confidence, the assurance that you know you can do something no matter what others say or even more so no matter what your inner doubts are, is so important whenever anyone is trying to reach a goal. If you don’t believe that you can accomplish a goal – get that craft book published; start a craft web site; earn an art degree – you will probably never make it.

I’m not saying to do something crazy, like try to jump from one building to another as Neo attempts during the “jump” program, but it is very easy to be our worst critic when instead we should be our best supporter.