To some extent I’m pretty much a ‘live and let live’ sort of person. I don’t tend to jump on bandwagons for whatever ‘the thing of the moment’ is either . So I am always fascinated by ‘crazes’. For one thing they seem to be momentary and for another they also seem to alienate people who aren’t ‘on board’.

Some people wish, some people do. Some people dream, some people build. Many people talk, few people do.

For many years I promised myself that I’d rather live with the regrets of what I did than with the regrets of what I wished I’d done. I told used that I only had one life and I have to make the most of it. That a life lived without purpose, is a life not lived to its full potential. That there is no such things as failure, there’s only learning and growing.

Yet, self-doubt is a wonderful personal bully. It means that though I believe all of the above to be true, it is somehow more true for others than for me. I looked at every possible reason I could find to continue talking about my wishes and dreams… and the excuses I could come up with for not taking any action are actually quite spectacular…maybe I should write a book about that…

Well, long story short tonight I ran out of excuses. I became my own best cheerleader as opposed to my own worst critic… heaven knows the world has enough of those.

So here goes… I am ‘writing’, no more excuses. And just like this I feel like I’ve conquered my own Everest. No clue where this journey will take me or where it will end, but I am excited beyond measure that it has started.

Woop woop! Still reveling a bit in the glow of actually putting ‘fingers to keyboard’ and hitting ‘publish’. So before the glow and excitement wear off; any good coach, mentor, inspirational-type personality will tell you that you need to keep going and build momentum. Before you know it the shine will wear off, boredom will set in, life will get busy, ‘stuff’ will happen, that doubt starts creeping back in, the excuses build up…and oh my word what am I doing?! Queue running to bed, hiding under the covers, eating ice cream and emphatically confirm to myself that this clearly was a mistake, I have no perseverance, I am an abject failure, anyone else in the whole wide world would have achieved success by now and seriously, who did I think I am?!

Not this time!

I got a supportive, motivational, master of the art in my corner and thinking of her makes me avoid the running for the covers scenario…though I’ve not been able to avoid the ice cream. Because: summer and beach and yummy chocolate motivation…some excuses are good ones OK!

(Trying to ignore the ‘come on now woman, you are typing nonsense’-comment swirling in my mind).

So I got the nerve to have a go again. I know some day I’ll look back at this and laugh at how it began. And wonder why it took so long, and why I gave myself such a hard time. Because life has already thought us some lessons right? We are old enough to know that hindsight is an amazing thing. With the knowledge that we’ve overcome what seemed like an impossible mountain to climb we grew stronger. It gave us the courage we needed to tackle the next mountain. And when we look back at the first mountain it doesn’t seem like so much of a challenge anymore. Sometimes though we look back with regret. And we wish. If only I… From that I’ve learnt that I’d rather live with the ‘regret’ of things I tried and learned from than regret what I was always too afraid to give a shot.

So knowing these things now, I try to preempt what my hindsight will be (nope, I don’t have any special powers…unless you count that time that I found the perfect pair of jeans. Now that was magic!). If I know that I will wish that I started 5 years ago and imagine where I could have been ‘by now’; and know that today this mountain feels like it puts Everest to shame but tomorrow, after being a bit battered and bruised I would have kicked some dust in its proverbial face; why would I not start? And if I took the step to start, why would I not back myself to push on?

So here’s to putting on my hiking boots, picking up that massive backpack with my survival kit (wine…heavy…must…take…with…me…), strapping myself into that wonderful (though somewhat crazy) support network and push myself one step further on this journey.

It might be slippery and I might stumble and fall. But I will brush myself off, put a Minny Mouse plaster on it, pull up my socks, take a sip (or ‘glug’) of wine and keep going.

Until next time…next time I’m packing the gin too.

Some people dream, other people take action. Some people wish, other people go for it. Some people talk, other people do. Today I stopped talking and dreaming about putting words down and I am putting some words down!

For many, many years I’ve thought that I wanted to write but the excuses for not starting…oh my word…it showed my creative side. They were beautiful and elaborate. Grand and ridiculous. If I had a penny for every excuse I had, well, I wouldn’t exactly be a millionaire but you get the idea.

Generally when friends come to us with a dream we are quick to encourage and cheerlead them all the way. I say ‘generally’, as we all know that friend with the craziest idea that sounds amazing at 4 in the morning after a loooooong night but in the bright, sobering sunshine of the morning is just a bit too dangerous? Enough said.

Yet somehow we only seem to support ourselves when it comes to our perceived shortcomings. When I try to encourage myself to write I end up with this long list of why I shouldn’t and can’t and it becomes quite an energetic affair. By the time I am done being my best ‘supporter’ I am very sure that I should rather just wash dishes, nevermind writing, and I am not even good at washing dishes and only do it as I need a plate to eat off and even the saucers are all dirty!

So why do we do it? I wish I knew. I’ve explored some of my own thoughts. For one, I am scared of being judged. That ‘who does she think she is?’ mentality. Being raised in my culture, religion and as a female where you are humble to the point of forgetting that you are here for reason, that you have something valuable to contribute, that even if you don’t know it, there is someone out there hungry for what you have to offer.

So I’ve stopped with the excuses. No one might ever read what I write and that is fine. I am doing this for me. Maybe someone does read it and it helps them not feel alone. Maybe someone reads it and it gives them a laugh at how silly some people can be. Maybe…

Regardless of all the potential ‘maybes’ I have taken a step, I have taken action. I have faced a fear, I have given up on my excuses.

Let’s begin.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton