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Check out all you Bay Area peeps. One of those times I wish getting to the Left Coast was easier.

The key of trust

Trust is the key to success in work, relationships and achieving any goal and as much as it has to do with trusting others, it has so much to do with trusting yourself.

As any artist will tell you, we are our own worst critics.  No matter how many hours, changes, and emotions we put into something we never truly believe its "good".  There are a lot of self-trust issues going on.  The first is  trusting our emotions.  Do we really feel it.  In as much as we are trying to share what we are feeling with you, our audience, we need to inject that feeling into the work.  Think about some vocalists you are familiar with.  When they walk on that stage, they are an artist if you can tell that they are, at least trying, to emotionally connect with the song they are singing.  They want it to be believable for you.

The next step is to trust our talents to recreate our emotions in whatever medium we work in.  I am, obviously, a wordsmith.  I have to trust my knowledge of words or how to use a dictionary or thesaurus to find the colors to paint my picture for you.  I'm also a collage artist.  I have to trust my inborn knack to marry colors, textures, and objects to put my feelings on the screen or on a piece of base material.

Trusting our instincts, in the arts process, is believing that what we see and feel in the marketplace is real.  We occasionally, ignore the number-crunchers, and trust our conscience as to when the market is ripe to put our work out there.  Instincts can guide us to businesses and people who will help us broadcast our work.  Instincts also work in any field you are coping in; parenthood, driving a car, whatever career you think you want to move into.  You trust your skills, you intelligence, you physical abilities and that little thing in the back of your head that flashes a warning light or holds up the stop sign.

And all of these things can lead to achieving a goal.  Of course there is also those outside trusts involved too.  Starting with trusting the people closest to you.  Sadly some of the people we are forced to be around, especially when we are young, are not necessarily trustworthy.  Of course there is the extreme of abusive family members but even low level bad influences are things that should cause us to be distrustful.  Unfortunately most kids end up doing damage repair as young adults as we hammer into children that all adult family should be obeyed, respected and trusted.  Even I'm an adult still trying to regain self-esteem that was beaten up by a parent.  Once we are out in the world and trying to achieve goals, which require trusting others who are sometimes complete strangers, along with trusting ourselves, this adds hurdles to the path to the prize.

Trust is something that needs to be earned.  If I could go back, at least wtih my own kids, I would have taught them not only about stranger danger but not to trust people they think they know too freely.  I would have taught them to trust their own guts more.  I would have worked harder on being a person they could trust.  I would have taught them to only trust an authority figure if that person had proved to them or others around them that they were worthy of that kind of respect.

Now I find me teaching myself about trust.  Most of it is internal trust mixed with faith.  Trust that the spiritual is real and benevolent.  Trust that, for as blatantly obvious as it is, I am on the right road.  Trust that my words have meaning and power and need to always be used for good.  Trust that I can not only manage my life and steer my ship but that I can do the same for others.  Trust that not all goals require a college degree.

Trust is a key.  As important as all the others.  To open the door of life there are many locks and therefore, there needs to be more than one key on your ring.  Make sure trust is one of them.