Take a Chance.

Photo by Powderruns

Take a chance. Be silly, risk embarrassment, try something new. Even though you may mess up, make a mistake or fail, it’s worth the attempt. When you loosen up and give things a chance you’re open yourself to new opportunities, new friendships, and new fun.

Take today for example. A coworker came over and asked if I would put a hat on backwards and join her in signing happy birthday to a coworker turning 50. I was embarrassed, but decided to do it. And it was funny! The coworker was embarrassed too, but pleased about the attention and we got a couple of laughs. It was a great way to break up the workday.

Too many people don’t try anything new because they’re afraid of looking stupid. But that’s crazy thinking. We don’t teach our children not to try – if we did they’d never learn to walk, ride a bike or do a million other things. And most people won’t make fun of you – they’ll congratulate your effort and encourage you to keep going.

If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you've always gotten. Tony Robbins

If you don’t try, you’ll never know. How do you know you can’t draw if you haven’t put in any practice? Are you sure you can’t garden just because you killed your first plant? We all continue to learn and grow every day. Something we were afraid of yesterday could turn out to be our newest talent today.

Isn’t the worst thing to have never tried at all? It’s like the saying “better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” Isn’t it better to receive some love and then lose it, then never to experience love at all? Life is like that. If you do it and it fails, then you’ve learned something. But what if you do it and it works beyond your wildest dreams? Anything is possible.

What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?
Vincent van Gogh

Life is best when experienced firsthand. It’s the roller coaster ride into the unknown. Your first time on a plane. Singing in front of a crowd. Jumping off the high dive. The exhilaration of climbing that mountain, taking that first step of new journey. It’s what keeps our dreams alive.

Take the chance. Dare to dream. Do something different. Even if you fail, you’ll have learned something along the way. That’s a reward in itself.

Live and Learn.

Lesson Learned. Sure by Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Are you an optimist? Studies say that they live longer, are healthier and happier than their pessimistic colleagues. But it can be tough to do.

Take yesterday for example. I had written an interesting article about “constant improvement” and how choosing to improve yourself makes the process much more enjoyable and fun than having it forced upon you by the outside world.

Sadly however – I apparently didn’t check when I copied it onto another document, and I lost the article. Even when you only spend 15 minutes writing that can be frustrating, but when it’s longer it really hurts.

At first I was really mad. Stupid software! Stupid computer! But alas, the truth is that the fault lies with me. I should have double-checked, like I usually do, to make sure I had properly saved the information. I should have made sure, like I usually do, that I saved the original as a back-up until I posted the article. But I didn’t.

Sure I’d like to put the blame on someone or something else – like the software or computer I was using, but that’s not being honest. And – I’m trying to make some of those constant improvements to myself. I am already an optimist, but I still tend to try and put the blame for failure on people or things outside of myself.

So now, I’m admitting it. I messed up. I didn’t pay attention. I let being tired and hurrying to complete my project get in the way of doing things right. I took a shortcut and it back-fired. Okay, no big deal.

But I bet you the next time, after acknowledging my role in this, I’ll be a lot more careful. Next time I’ll pay more attention and do it right. Next time, you’ll actually enjoy reading what I’ve written. Meanwhile at least this will be good for a laugh!