Photo – close-up of It is Rain that Grows Flowers by Bonnie Gordon   Although most people remember childhood as being carefree, I never found that to be true for me.  My desire to perform, and my anxiety about not performing, began at a tender age. My Dad had been deeply affected by his experiences as a young child living in Western Canada’s prairie dustbowls during the Great Depression.  He believed it was his job to school me – pretty much right out of the womb – about the importance of getting good grades and securing a good job.  Financial stability was all important.  I was born with both a natural tendency to worry and a desire to please, and I absorbed Dad’s lessons like a sponge. For several decades, I actually believed that worry was fueling my success.  I was wrong, of course. One of my favourite sayings from my formal life coach training is, “Worry is an emotion only pretending to be useful.”   When I really started to watch my own [...]