The Joy of Finally Doing It

by Phoebe Fox

 

 

What is the thing you've always wanted to try, but so far have succeeded in talking yourself out of actually doing?  You know what it is, without having to stop and think very hard.  In fact, it probably popped into your mind as soon as you read the question.  So what are you waiting for?  What has held you back so long from taking the plunge, or at least getting your feet wet by taking the first steps into the wading end of the pool? 

 

"Half of the things that people do not succeed in are through fear of making the attempt," James Northcote tells us.  Why is that?  Why would we stop ourselves before we even get started?  Just what is so scary that it can make us deny ourselves before we begin?  Perhaps this happens because, in keeping our eye on the risk, we lose sight of the joy of reaching the goal.  "The man who knows it can't be done counts the risk, not the reward," Elbert Hubbard reminds us. 

 

What is the risk, you may ask?   Most likely it is the fear of making a mistake.  "There are no mistakes," Richard Bach teaches us.  "The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they're necessary to reach the places we've chosen to go."  This lesson is true whether one is facing a new task or hobby, or whether one is facing a difficult conversation in a relationship. 

 

"When you make a mistake, don't look back at it long," Hugh White advises us.  "Take the reason of the thing into your mind, and then look forward.  Mistakes are the lessons of wisdom.  The past cannot be changed.  The future is in your power."  Think about that for a minute.  The past is already behind you; there is nothing to be gained from dwelling on it.  The one constructive thing we can do is learn from the past, so that we do not repeat the same futile behavior in future situations.  The past has one purpose -- to serve as an object lesson and the foundation of future wisdom. 

 

If your courage has been hiding when it comes to trying new things, lately, then it's time for you to seek it out.  Basketball great Michael Jordan put it quite simply, "You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them."  You will never acquire that new skill if you never require it of yourself.  So what if the thing you would like to do appears difficult to do, at first?  American Revolutionary writer Thomas Paine wrote, "The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.  What we obtain too cheaply, we esteem too lightly; 'tis dearness only that gives everything its value." 

 

So go ahead, grant yourself the joy and release of finally doing the thing you've been thinking about for so long.  Let go of the idea that you have anything to prove to others.  Instead, focus on proving something to yourself -- that you can do it.  "Twenty years from now," Mark Twain writes, "you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in your sails.  Explore.  Dream.  Discover." 

 

What are you waiting for?   For more on this subject check out Phoebe's column titled Summon Your Courage.