My Daily WAffirmation: What if you do SOMEthing?

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Updated 10 years ago

I've been a dreamer all my life. From my earliest memories, I have looked at life through the lens of "what if?" and, many times, acted on it. Sure, using dad's shoe polish as makeup was probably ill-advised (on several levels). I'll likely never escape the legacy of my iteration of every child's first business venture: the lemonade stand. Note to self: white vinegar and lemons should only be used in cleaning and salad dressing. However, when I reflect on my misadventures, the one thing I really admire about that kid was her follow through; no matter how...er..."creative" the idea, and regardless of anyone else's opinion, she just went for it. The head-first, through-the-looking-glass (literally) kind of went for it. I feel like many of us have that sense of everything being possible when we're young, and then something happens. Life happens. Where once we were bold, we suddenly find ourselves censoring the same daydreams that fueled our spirits, and finding countless reasons for why possibly great ideas won't work. Some might call it growing up. Others, becoming prudent or cautious; perhaps they're partially right. Mostly though, I think we find fear, it finds us, and it flips our "what if"s on their heads: What if I make a mistake? What if I'm no good? What if this doesn't work? What if I fail? Am I the only one with these little voices in my head? (I really hope not!)

I've spent years dreaming about the kind of life I want and the various changes I'd make to realize the dream. I've been successful with some: paying more attention to my health, becoming more active, finding time to do things other than work...occasionally. By and large, though, I've watched countless idea bubbles pop or float away as I mentally delineate all the reasons they (read: I) will amount to nothing. Thus has time continued, and I've definitely gotten older, possibly a bit wiser, but not very much closer to where and who I want to be. I think It's fair to say that I've conclusively proven that, in the story of my life, doing nothing largely results in...more nothing (or worse). SO, it's time to shake things up and do something. I'm going to do SOMEthing. Instead of popping all the bubbles and spending time and energy on why ~~I'm~~ they're doomed to failure, I'm going to try flipping the "what if"s yet again. What if I take time each day to do something I enjoy? What if the worst case scenario is I make something I'm proud of and no one else reads/likes/cares about it? What if I end up succeeding in sharing something I'm passionate about and it might help just one other person? I'm thinking that would be time well spent, and definitely more than doing nothing. And if a little shoe polish or vinegar-ade appears in the mix, so be it!

What's your SOMEthing? I'd love to hear about it.

Thanks for listening!

Tara :-)