Why is it that we don’t take risks? Why do we let fear of what could happen hold us back from things we badly want to do, that we daydream about doing, but that we get too caught up in the “what if’s” or wondering “how is that going to work”. Sure failure is an option, but so too are beautiful beginnings. What if we dropped all of that foreboding chatter and ignited a path that lived without the fear of regret.
Think about all of the scary things you’ve done at one point in your life, and think about where you are right now. It all pretty much worked out, didn’t it. Were there things you would have done differently? Of course. But did the weird twists and turns of life, some that were down dark alley ways where you couldn’t see your next step, somehow lead you to exactly where you were supposed to be?
A dear friend sent me Jeff Bezos’s Regret Minimization Framework…which requires you to project yourself forward, as if you’re looking back on life at 85-years-old, to decide how to move forward today. Chances are that you’ll regret more of what you didn’t do, than what you did.
You’re not going to regret packing up and moving to a new country
Or taking that big new job when it meant leaving your hometown
Or telling him that you love him
You’re not going to look back and wish you hadn’t published that book
Or spoke up for the idea you passionately think is right
Or participated on that panel when you didn’t feel worthy enough to be on it
You’re not going to say to yourself, “Gee, that solo trip around the world was a bad idea.”
Or that first blog you published was an error
Or paying way too much for a plane ticket to see your family wasn’t worth it
You’re never going to look back and believe following your heart was a bad idea
Or that you shouldn’t have run that marathon
Or that dancing the night away was a silly choice
You’re not going to be 80 and wish you hadn’t had kids
Or flown 5,000 miles to see him
Or tried your hand at learning to code
What will haunt your soul, will be all the things that you didn’t do, that you badly wanted to. Don’t let fear, or pleasing others, or needing to look good, or lack of worthiness get in the way of taking action on your heart, on your dreams, or on your deep-seeded desires. Don’t let it keep you from doing you, exactly you, right now…today.
Project forward. Ignite your path. Push away the fear and do it anyways.
