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I was recently gifted Canva Pro, and you wouldn't believe that I've been having a hard time creating designs.

I know it sounds crazy, but as a Canva designer, one of my greatest dreams was to get Canva Pro. I imagined that since I already did fairly well with the free version, having access to Pro would completely transform my designs. I would have access to better templates, finer elements, and more creative freedom. No more restricting my ideas because I couldn't access a particular template or feature.

But that wasn't exactly what happened.

The moment I got Canva Pro, I became utterly indecisive.

Suddenly, I had access to an overwhelming number of templates, elements, fonts and possibilities. Instead of making magic, I panicked. I couldn't decide where to start, I would scroll through template after template, searching for the perfect one, and somehow end up creating nothing.

I couldn't figure it out. Why was I suddenly design paralyzed?

The more I thought about it, the more it began to make sense.

Perhaps it was because I had become so used to scarcity. I had mastered the art of making do with what I had. I knew how to work around limitations, improvise and create something beautiful with the few resources available to me.

Then, suddenly, I was introduced to abundance, and abundance can be overwhelming when you have spent so long learning how to survive with less.

When every option is available, choosing one suddenly becomes difficult. When you are used to asking, "What can I do with what I have?" and suddenly find yourself asking, "What do I even want?", it can be surprisingly easy to get lost.

Dearest reader, if you had told me that Canva Pro would make designing harder for me, I would probably have laughed.

But maybe that's the thing about access to a level of abundance you're not used to. It can be intoxicating, yes, but it can also be overwhelming.

Sometimes, the problem isn't that you don't have enough, sometimes, you've simply never had this much before, and you're still learning how to navigate it.

And perhaps that's okay too. Perhaps abundance, like scarcity, is something we have to learn.

@favvy_Okwans🖤.