Reminder: Take the Leap and don’t look back
I’m writing this on a blustery autumn day, the wind is howling, rain is pouring, and the golden leaves are falling. And as I look out of my window, while writing this, a beautiful vibrant rainbow peeks through the grey clouds. It’s only peeking through for a couple of minutes before disappearing into the rain cloud. A beautiful small nod from Mother Nature that even in the darker times, vibrancy and a little joy can find a way through.
Now, how does this relate to the title of this blog post? Well, let me explain.
What I hear so much from clients is, “How do I start?” or “I don’t know where to begin…” or “What if I fail?” or “I can’t seem to get myself started on something that I so desperately want…” We often get stuck at the beginning and can’t quite figure out even where the start line is. And we can put this immense pressure on ourselves to feel like we have to have it all figured out to even get started. That we somehow have to have our journey mapped out and tied up in a nice bow for us to even embark. But we all know that this is NOT how journeys go. Where the start line is most certainly is not where the finish line is, and sometimes the finish line is not even in sight. But what IS in sight? Our next step, and the one after that, and so on.
What I also hear are messages of regret: “I just wish I started therapy sooner…” or “Ya know, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be,” or “I can’t believe I waited so long for this,” or, the really hard pill to swallow, which may be, “I really regret that I never did it. I wish I could go back and do it.” Regret is a lot harder to process and accept than failure ever will be. Failure comes from action, it means you tried, maybe you didn’t succeed at something but you can learn something from the effort. Regret is harder because you have the ‘what if’ questions to deal with and to accept that you may never have the outcome you wanted. Regret and failure can both define our life stories, but the intention behind each is vastly different. Personally, I would much prefer a life of failure rather than one where I didn’t try at all.
When we take leaps of faith on ourselves, and embark on something that is scary, big, or daunting, we will fail at some point during that process. The journey may be dark and hard, like an autumnal day, but inevitably a rainbow will peek through. A breakthrough, a moment of why this was all worth it. A little glimmer of beauty in the midst of change. When we take leaps of faith we take a gamble on ourselves, and that can sometimes be a gamble of everything we got. But like with most leaps, we know where to jump from but don’t really know where we will land. Still, in the process of jumping, we can trust our legs and feet to catch us. So remember, you got this, and always will. Failure is a part of any process but can be the best thing to happen to us sometimes. Don’t live in regret, and if you feel like you could have regret about something, lean into that resistance and just start. Don’t let your thoughts stand in the way of you choosing yourself.
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