Chances

"If you never try, you'll never know."

Thanks, inspirational quote. 

I finally get this one. 

As I speak, know that I am not necessarily talking about actually uprooting your life or stepping off a cliff into the unknown (I am a planner at heart as we know). 

I am speaking to the power of dipping your toes in the water, the power of getting your hands a little dirty, the power of [one more metaphor that fits with the former].

"Don't allow yourself to wake up one day and look back realizing that the whole time you were waiting, that was your life."

Or something like that. 

We fear waking up in 10, 15, 40 years still in the same spot, doing the same things, looking back wondering "what if."

And this fear of the "what if," is almost what hinders us the most. 

We know we must go, we know we must try. We know we must take chances. 

Except for, what if we make the wrong ones? What if we try the wrong things? What if we fail? What if we mess up our chances?

What if we mess up our chance? 

What we forget, is that we don't have just one. 

What we forget, is that we don't have to go "balls to the wall" the first time. 

You're allowed to be strategic, you're allowed to try something out and then change your mind. 

This mindset of fear puts us into paralysis. 

Why haven't you stuck your head out there to see what comes of it? "Well, I don't really know what I want yet."

Duh. 

Duh you don't know what you want. 

You're waiting for your chance. 

You're waiting for your chance that is never going to come when you think there is only one. Your chance that is never going to come when you think that it will immediately change your whole life.

There's a reason we take every subject in school growing up. There's a reason people switch majors. There's a reason there are coaches for career changes. There's a reason people don't always date the first person they go out with in sixth grade (lolz).

You have to test the waters. 

You have to get your feet a little wet. 

You have to try something. 

Because, even if you decide it is not for you, or the opportunity does not work out, or any other reason under the sun that your life appears the same on the outside after trying, you are now one step closer to your chance. 

You can now narrow down the playing field. You may have been so close that you could taste it, and now you might know exactly what it is that you want. 

And now you can go get it. 

Because, if you never dip your toes in the water, the temperature will always appear freezing. I'm not saying you have to immediately jump off the rock, I'm saying you have to go to the beach. 

#metaphorsandstuff