Be Daring

I love what Maya Angelou said, "Success is loving life and daring to live it." Usually I think of daring as being adventurous and really pushing the limits. Lately I have been thinking of a different sort of daring, daring to do what you want in life even if it isn't exciting and especially if it isn't what is expected of you. I have had the chance to be daring in both ways. I went through phases where I did a lot of mountain biking, hiking, rock climbing etc. I moved around on my own for jobs and school. I pushed myself to do hard things. It all took some daring. I had a great job doing things that took a little daring as well, at least for me, speaking in front of large groups and traveling to far off places. Now I am daring to give that up for awhile and do things that are sometimes hard in a different way. I enjoy it, but it is less than exciting. Friends call and ask what I have been up to lately and not much has changed. I am just enjoying the day to day life. It took some daring to get off the track.

In a slightly different way I am enjoying life more since I dared to ignore other people, or more accurately, what I thought others expected of me or what they thought about me. It wasn't any one person in particular, mostly just "the people" of "What will people think?" It is quite liberating to realize that people just don't notice you as much as I once thought many years ago and just do what is right for me. What will people think, probably nothing. They really aren't thinking about you all that much, if at all. This started when life didn't go as planned and I couldn't do anything about it, and when I had a little bit more life experience and the confidence that came with it. I made the best of it and now it's OK to do what I need and it has turned out good so far.