I can watch my all-time favorite movies again, and again, and again. I never get tired of them! Here are my top three in no particular order because I just can’t rank them:
- Pride & Prejudice (the Keira Knightly version, although I don’t mind the 6-hour version, but…6 hours???)
- Letters to Juliet
- The Young Victoria
Besides simply loving the stories, I’ve learned a lot from these movies, and maybe that’s why I can watch them on repeat. If you haven’t seen them, I highly recommend watching all three.
Letters to Juliet is set in NYC (one of my favorite cities!) and Italy, the #1 place we want to visit, and here’s a brief synopsis from amazon.com:
When a young American travels to the city of Verona, home of the star-crossed lover Juliet Capulet of Romeo and Juliet fame, she joins a group of volunteers who respond to letters to Juliet seeking advice about love. After answering one letter dated 1951, she inspires its author to travel to Italy in search of her long-lost love and sets off a chain of events that will bring a love into both their lives unlike anything they ever imagined.
The letter that Sophie writes to Claire at the beginning of the movie (which is a reply to Claire’s letter that was written in 1951) is read towards the end of the movie, and the main message in the letter hits me every single time I watch this movie. And I’ve watched this movie more times than I can count. The letter teaches a powerful lesson.
What?
If?
Like Sophie says in the letter, these two words alone can mean an almost infinite number of things, but when we put these two words together? That’s when the magic can happen.
What if?
How many times do we ask ourselves, “What if?”
“What if I do [that thing]?”
“What if I dare to just go for [that thing]?”
Even though [that thing] might be super scary, or feel impossible, or just not make sense.
More importantly, how many times do we NOT ask ourselves “What if?” out of fear, or a lack of confidence, or feeling like [that thing] is impossible?
Asking ourselves “What if?” can take courage. And then actually going after [that thing] can take mountains of courage.
I love this quote about courage from The Princess Diaries, which is another favorite movie:
“Courage is not the absence of fear but rather the judgement that something is more important than fear; The brave may not live forever but the cautious do not live at all.”
~ Meg Cabot, The Princess Diaries
What do we miss out on because of fear? I’d say we miss out on a lot of things that could help us grow, have more joy in life, teach us important lessons, and even missed opportunities to serve others. We miss out on living our best lives possible.
So, ready to get courageous and go after that “What if?” thing? Here are some tips that might help. And believe me, these are tips I can definitely use myself. But first…a story…
This is my first watercolor painting. I used a sketch from my teacher, and she guided me the entire time. This picture has been hanging in our home ever since.
I’ve wanted to learn how to watercolor for a very long time. I talked about it often. I’d stare longingly at watercolor paintings. But…I’m not an artist. At all. So even trying to watercolor seemed like something I could. not. do.
We were living in Arizona at the time, and I found out that our local Michaels had watercolor classes for beginners. I told John about it, but I didn’t do anything about it. For months. And I kept talking about it. For months.
When I opened John’s present to me on Christmas morning one year, it was a box full of all the supplies I’d need for that beginning watercolor class. He’d looked up the class and bought all the supplies.
Wow.
First of all, I was super impressed and touched that he went to all that work!
Second of all, I knew that I needed to sign up for that class. Because he’d spent money, after all. That’s kind of a commitment.
I signed up and paid for my first class, drove to my first class with all my supplies, and sat in my car in the parking lot. Since I’d already paid for the class (again, spending money = commitment), I finally forced myself to get out of my car and walk into the store and into the classroom.
And I absolutely loved my first watercolor class! I went back week after week, and then I started taking classes from a great teacher at a local art museum, and then I took classes with a friend I met at my art museum class at that great teacher’s home.
I was hooked. I even took a drawing class at a local community college, which really opened my eyes to how anyone, really, can draw.
Just in case you’re interested, this is the book we used for the class. It’s awesome, and it proves that anyone can draw!
Now for those tips.
8 Tips for Being Courageous
So, how can we be more courageous? Here are some ideas I hope can help:
- Figure out the first step. I found a watercolor class.
- Just take one step. One teeny, tiny baby step. John helped me here by buying the supplies I’d need for the class.
- Get educated. Learn about what you want to do. This, alone, can remove some of the fear you might be feeling. With YouTube and so many other media options available—for free!, there’s no reason you can’t at least start learning about [that thing] you want to do.
- Keep taking those baby steps. As you continue to learn more about [that thing], your confidence will grow! For me, I went back over and over again to different watercolor classes.
- Realize you won’t be perfect. As one of my favorite authors, Jon Acuff, says, “Don’t be afraid to suck at something new.” Profound, right?! Because why would we ever expect to be perfect at something we’ve never done before? I know I fall into that trap, Quite often. I especially fell into this trap where learning to watercolor is concerned.
- Realize that other beginners around you aren’t perfect either. You’re all learning and growing together.
- Get back up when you fall. Falling can be a great education about what doesn’t work, so learn from each fall.
- Give yourself some grace. Lots of grace. We are often hardest on ourselves, so treat yourself like you would your best friend and be kind.
As for my watercoloring…at the beginning of 2009, I decided to go back to school and I was teaching an early morning religion class to high schoolers (we started at 5:50 AM), and so my watercolor painting not only took a back seat to life, but it stopped entirely. Then we moved to GA 10 months later, I kept going to school, then got my job, and…you know…life stuff.
About 2 years ago, I set up a watercoloring area in my office just so everything is ready when I’m ready to dive back into watercoloring. And I really haven’t touched it. But…I’ve been feeling a strong yearning to get back to watercoloring again, especially since I’m now a solopreneur and have more control over my time. And it’s going to take courage because I’m basically a beginner. Again. But I’m hoping that as I take those first few steps that what I learned so many years ago will start to come back.
What will you say “What if?” to today? If you have no idea, do a brain dump and write down everything that comes into your mind. No filtering or judging allowed…just write. Then choose the thing that sticks out to you the most, and just go for it!
Any progress, no matter how bumpy or no matter how small is better than zero progress. And the things we learn along the way are priceless.
I’ve shared another lesson I learned from Letters to Juliet here.
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