I once went to Juarez, Mexico with 40 other people to build 2 houses in about 25 hours. It was July and if memory serves me correct it was 195°. It was crazy and exhausting.

We had laid the foundation. Put up the studs and drywall. Spackled. Etc. All that was left was to lay the roof. All I had to do was bend the shingles over the roof and nail them to the side of the house. Simple right?

Well I think I am doing just a fabulous job and one of the adult leaders - who mind you built his own house with his bare hands - comes up and says, "you've been working hard, why don't you take a break."

I retreat off the ladder and grab a Sprite from the cooler. About five minutes later I look over and see the adult leader ripping out what I had just done!

That's right folks, I sucked so bad at handiwork that it wasn't good enough for an impoverished family who before we showed up didn't have a home. Pretty humbling, huh?

Now I don't blame this youth leader. He was right to do it. The worked suck - despite my hard efforts. The lesson was simple: I am not good at construction.

Fast-forward 10 years later.

I buy a house. And while I have to admit I was a little nervous about the financials (who isn't?), I was more nervous about the fact that I am not real handy around the home.

It's been great though. Since buying the house I have:

• Installed a bathroom faucet
• Installed fingerprint locks
• Installed garage shelves (no pics)
• Installed a kitchen faucet

But nothing like this. You may remember the horrendous day I had back in August.

$1,100 dollars later, I had a fixed air conditioner, a de-molded ceiling and wall, and a giant hole in my ceiling.

After getting sick of spending so much money I decided to try and patch the giant hole myself. So I went to Home Depot and bought what I thought I needed. And at last, the project is done. It looks good. Not great. But good.





Two conclusions came from the project: First, I hate popcorn ceiling now more than ever. I almost didn't buy the house because of it. It aesthetically looks awful. However, I hate it even more now as it is near impossible to spread to match the current ceiling - and was surprisingly the hardest part of this project.

But the more important lesson is how important it is to do things that help us overcome our insecurities. I freely admit I legitimately feel like less of a man because of my lack of handyman skills.

Maybe I shouldn't. And I am not saying all men need to be Mr. Fix-It. Nor should they feel insecure if they aren't. But I do. And it has been very affirming completing these projects.

We all think about our insecurities a lot - that's what makes them insecurities - but how much time do with think about what needs to be done to overcome them?