My Hubby just made my painting life a whole lot easier. On Friday he gave me an LED light pad, which allows me to trace directly onto my watercolor paper. I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but I absolutely HATE tracing and transferring images! I don’t have any choice, though, because I can’t draw (yet).

It’s not that I mind tracing the image initially; it’s that depending on whether I have a mirror-image line drawing to trace, I may have to trace a second time, then scribble over the whole thing again to transfer it to my watercolor paper. If I were to use carbon paper, I’d still have to trace it twice — once onto tracing paper, then onto my watercolor paper.

Now I only have to trace it one time, and boy, is that a time saver!

Now, thanks to my sweet Hubby, I won’t have to dread tracing anymore. He has surprised me with quite a few gifts to support me in my watercolor journey. It’s his way of showing me he supports what I’m doing and encouraging me to keep going.

That’s not the only way he supports me, though, and sometimes I think he doesn’t even realize how much the little things he does mean to me. Things like:

• Walking into my office to look at whatever work-in-progress I have on my table — I always feel good that he’s interested enough to wander in there when I’m not even aware of it.
• Giving advice when I ask for it — He’s the more artistic one of this couple, so I often ask his opinions about things.
• Putting up my ‘progress walls’ — He’s hung over a dozen paintings for me so far. We use those Command picture hangers which are great for the walls, but can be a pain when it comes to placement, and I have several different size paintings/frames, so getting them arranged is not always an easy task.
• Reading my blog every time I post — He knows everything I’m doing, but he still takes the time to read about it.

Sometimes even the smallest show of support feels huge to me. That’s especially true when I seem to be in a slump or a painting hasn’t turned out well. It can encourage me to get back to work when I’m just not feeling it.

Having support in our endeavors, whatever they are, can sometimes be the difference between continuing with them or giving up. When we’re feeling discouraged it can be easy to think, “Why bother with this?”. Having someone who is in our corner, who’s rooting for our success, can make us keep going. After all, we don’t want to let them down, do we?

One of the things I learned as a Personal Trainer and Health Coach was that a support system was one of the biggest indicators of whether someone would be successful with their wellness goals. If they didn’t have support from someone – family member, friend, coach….. they were not nearly as likely to be successful as they would be if they had the support.

I think that’s probably true with most of our endeavors. Having a support system makes almost anything we do easier. I know I’m grateful for everyone, not just my sweet Hubby, who is supporting me in this crazy dream of mine. Thanks for being one of those people as you take the time to read my ramblings each week!

What about you? Do you find having a support team (even if it’s only one person) helps you when you’re working to reach a goal, or start out on a new endeavor?