My partner Diana has a trainer at the gym. He gave her some advice for when a weight or challenge seems more than she could handle.

Some writers have alter egos, whom they feature as protagonists in their novels.

We’ve initiated our startup, our non-profit, our novel. A favorable wind of enthusiasm has borne us safely through the first stages. If we’re talking about a stage play, we’ve reached the end of Act One. Suddenly …

The poster boy for freezing before we begin is Hamlet, the Melancholy Dane.

Revise that: Resistance strikes BEFORE we begin. How many of us have collected “notes” and amassed “research” for that life-altering project we’ve always dreamt of tackling?

Who will teach us? Who will be our guide and mentor on this monumental passage from the Old World of working for someone else to the New World of being the “rightful sovereign of our own person?”

When you and I quit a job—literally or metaphorically—we’re like that fish that first crawled up on dry land. We’re like Rambo or Wonder Woman or Dorothy on the road to Oz.

What exactly is keeping you and me from being “the rightful lords of our own persons?”