Our lives are full of doubt.
Is this for me? Will I pick the right school? Will she say yes? Will it be ok?
More often than not we like to play out the hypothetical situations in our mind as negative ones. We pick the least attractive option and use that feigned reality to deter ourselves from pursuing things that have great potential. Chances are, the negative way you played the situation in your head are not the outcome. We fancy ourselves experts at interpersonal communication when, in reality, we often can not even accurately predict what our own reaction to a situation will be. So why do we disillusion ourselves and deprive ourselves of potential greatness?
The answer isn't fear, or loathing, or no, not even Las Vegas. It isn't that at a subliminal level we are all trying to ruin our own lives. The answer is much more innocent, and it isn't something to be ashamed of. We, as people, are naturally against the unknown. We aren't scared of it as much as we simply do not like it. It is this uncomfortableness with what we do not know that we must become familiar. To succeed you will have to go places you have not gone before. Do things you have not done. These are all unappealing concepts. It is what lies on the other side of conquering them that gives the strength to conquer. Author Neale Donald Walsch once wrote, "Life begins at the end of your comfort zone." If this is to be believed, then we are missing out on more than potential dates and acceptance letters when we do not venture from what is familiar. We are missing out on life itself when we stay where we are comfortable.
When faced with hard decisions and the possibility of breaching the walls of my comfort bubble there is one thing I like to remember. When poet Robert Frost was asked, near the end of his life, about what he had learned about life he responded, "In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life — It goes on." And isn't that the truest relief. You will never be confined to the moment in which you make a poor decision. You will never be shamed eternally. You will never be frozen in glory either. Life is going on, whether you are with it or not, so you might as well jump. Think with your heart. Plunge into the icy unknown. Because who knows? Maybe you like the cold. I will leave you with the inspiring words of one final visionary who has never lead me astray.
"Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy!" - Miss Frizzle
