Take Back Your Life!

“Whatever it is your heart desires, please go for it, it’s yours to have.” ~ Gloria Estefan

Too many of us put off living our most glorious lives. We use all sorts of excuses to stay emotionally safe: when I get more money, when the kids get older, when I retire, when we downsize, etc.
The problem with the do-it-later philosophy is that today’s excuses get replaced with tomorrow’s excuses. Ten years go by and you are still meaning to take that improv class or hike up Mt. Fuji or write a memoir about your childhood roaming through the rain forests of Borneo.

We act like our lives will last forever and we’ve got plenty of time to do that “X” we’ve always wanted to do. It’s hard to know how much time any of us has on the planet. All I’m sure about is that I have today and that’s the best time to commit to something new. Don’t think you are alone. I put off things as well.

For all I do – which is quite a bit because I’m a do-new-things maniac — there are still things that I put off out of fear. And I’m hyper aware of fear and wrangle with it every day, which is why I encourage folks to be more fear-less instead of fearless. There will always be new fears and that’s okay. For example, I’ve been wanting to ride on a zipline for at least five years. They remind me of the space trolley that twanged in my backyard, high above the yard between two giant White Pines. I used to come home from school in the warmer months, hoist myself up the tree, step into the trolley and zip back and forth for hours on end. No safety equipment of any kind and my dad strung it up pretty high for some reason.

I want to feel that freedom again. But have I driven even 121 miles to Western Massachusetts where I can ride a zipline at Zoar Outdoors?  No. I’ve got this weird little voice in the back of my head telling me that the zipline will boing out of control and me and my little harness will go careening through the air never to be seen again. I’ve gone hot air ballooning, waded 12 miles up and down a river in waist deep water with danger of flashfloods, hiked into canyons, biked across Italy, stood up to gobs of people trying to intimidate me, but I can’t get my butt into a zipline harness?

Well, I’m going to make a commitment to myself right here in this article that I’m going to ride a zipline by September 1st. (I just told my husband we are doing the zipline and he said, “okay.” I even found a neat bed and breakfast to make a weekend out of it.)

What is it that you’d like to do, that you haven’t done out of fear? And what excuse do you use to keep yourself from doing it? Please consider sharing what you’ve always wanted to do and when you will do it! (If you dare…)

Giulietta

p.s. Live in the greater Framingham area and want to take a fun, affordable writing class? Please check out my summer writing adventure in late June.