This year I’ve embraced the idea of doing something scary every day. Scary in a good way, you know what I mean? Scary-exciting, not scary-creepy. For each one of us, what scares us in a, “I couldn’t do that. Could I?!” way, is different.
Some days the scary thing I’ve done is as simple as strike up a conversation with a mom I don’t know from my son’s classroom while we were all standing around at a playground together.
Some days the scary thing I’ve done is to disagree (respectfully and out loud,) with someone in my life.
Some days the scary thing I’ve done is speak to a group of people about a subject I’m passionate about, even though I get a little choked up at times.
And some days this year (twice, in fact, so far) the scary thing I’ve done is go on stage and do improv in front of a crowd of people.
The year isn’t half over and I’m proud of what I’ve done so far. The benefits of doing these things—each one something I really wanted to do—have been many.
- I’ve gotten much better at public speaking,
- I’ve made new friends,
- I’ve reinforced the idea that I don’t have to be perfect (which is good, since I’m not.)
- I’ve learned to say “yes,” more often, even if I’m scared, because it’s led to so many good things.
- And, last but not least, I’ve had so much fun!
I want to be a different person a year from now—a little more patient, a little more relaxed, and a little more accomplished. The only way I’m going to become that person is to do things in the world now that lead me to change. I can think about the person I want to be for a long time, but in order to really change and evolve, I need to do different things, and do things differently, than I have in the past.
Who do you want to be a year from now?