Do Something Scarry

My son asked me recently what lessons I had learned in the first half of life. The one that immediately popped into mind was a philosophy that I adopted recently that has turned out to be quite beneficial.

Do something scary on a regular basis

I'm not talking about doing something physically dangerous here. I'm talking about taking a step with your life that you may be a little scary. We often are faced with options that have only a small downside if they don't work out, but have a potentially significant benefit if they do work out. A reasonable view would normally say such is risk is well worth taking, but we to often fail to do so because of fear of failure or embarassment, uncertainty, or just lack of initiative. The philosophy of "do some thing scary on a regular basis" is a way of saying - take that risk. It could be submitting a letter to the editor, joining an organization, attending a conference, creating a business venture, starting a new project, or making a phone call.... Or starting a new blog as an experiment. So far, this philosophy has worked out very well for me.