Inspire Your Inner Lion
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Being Brave with Mary Tyler Moore (The Secondhand Inspiration Project)
The Secondhand Inspiration Project begins with a motivational quote and ventures wherever the creative path meanders.
“Take chances, make mistakes. That’s how you grow. Pain nourishes your courage. You have to fail in order to practice being brave.” — Mary Tyler Moore
We spend so much time tiptoeing around trying to avoid mistakes. But sometimes gaffes are what we need to experience in order to achieve great things.
People love the comfort of sure things, security blankets, and safe bets. But these things are myths, propaganda pushed to the masses by the thumb-sucking, play-it-safe-committee. No outcome is ever completely guaranteed or 100% certain. Finding success often means taking chances.
Now I’m not talking about reckless action or silly moves just for the sake of claiming that you tried. Being bold doesn’t mean being foolish. We make progress and evolve by taking calculated risks. As the saying goes, “Fortune favors the brave.”
You cannot advance if you’re too frightened to take a leap of faith. You’ll just loiter in your comfort zone, a bystander watching as life passes by. You cannot live a fulfilling life if you avoid taking chances.
The fear of uncertainty will always be there. But you cannot let it dictate your future. You cannot let it prevent you from pursuing your aspirations and living a purposeful life.
The world has programmed us with a litany of easy excuses. “I don’t have enough money to take that coding class.” “I just don’t know how to write a novel.” “I can’t lose that weight.” “I’d like to take that job, but the timing is wrong.”
Bullshit. The circumstances will never be perfect. There will never be unlimited resources. There is never a perfect time to take action. So don’t let a fear of failure stop you from starting a project, taking on a new hobby, or changing a habit. If the missing pieces are money or time, find a way to work around that shortcoming. Chip away and make progress in a non-traditional manner to overcome that constraint. These are your dreams. Aren’t they worth coping with discomfort in order to attain them?
Tap into your internal power to achieve meaningful success by embracing risk and working with it. Go for it. Take that leap of faith. Unleash your inner lion and roar.
