Are you thinking about it or are you doing it?

In my effort to continue growing into my best possible self I have started reading a book called “The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth” by John Maxwell. Having not even gotten halfway through the book yet it has already blown my mind a million times over and again. One particular thing that keeps running through my head is a riddle that the author’s father told him. “5 frogs sat on a log. 4 decided to jump off. How many frogs are left”? Of course we would all answer 1, right? The answer is 5. The author’s father continues “There is a difference between deciding to do something and doing it”. HOLY SCHNICKEY’S!!!! MIND BLOWN!!!! A life of actions will take you a 100% further than a life of good intentions. When faced with something in which we have no guaranteed outcome, which in reality is everything, our brains and bodies go into self preservation mode. Our brains start convincing us that this new thing we are considering is dangerous and we shouldn’t do it. It disguises fear as practicality and we don’t pursue what we really want. The truth is there are ZERO guarantees in life. Whatever it is that you truly want out of life you might as well pursue because as Jim Carrey says “You can fail at what you don’t want so you might as well take a chance at doing what you love”. Remember, if it was easy everyone would do it. Think about the worlds most successful people. Whether their success comes in the form of money, power, social movements, athleticism…you choose. Those people did not just fall into those positions. They pushed through! They failed many times before finally getting to those statuses…and then they failed some more. Failure is nothing more than proof that you are trying something. If there was a piece of advice that I could go back and give my “young self” it would be “fail as many times as it takes to succeed”. It is never too late though. Whether you are 7 or 70…it is never too late to reach for the stars.