Y’know the age-old saying… don’t knock it til you’ve tried it.
Your parents used to say ‘how do you know you don’t like it? You haven't even tried it?’ when you would wrinkle your nose up at brussel sprouts (which, to be fair, I now find absolutely delicious).
Get out there. Try the things.
I was terrified of paddleboarding. I wasn’t very adventurous as a child. As much as I love to travel and gawk at extreme sports on Redbull TV... I am a bookish soul. I don’t think I’d ever enjoyed splashing about in a natural body of water.
My anxiety kicked in. Filling my head with thoughts of dread.
What if you DROWN?
What if a fish nibbles your toe (yeah, I know they’d be more afraid of me than I am of them)? What if you inhale a load of sewage water?
What if you fall in and everyone laughs at you?*
*naturally the biggest worry, even over actual drowning
But, with the guidance of my closest friend, a seasoned paddleboarder, I tried it.
I knelt down the whole time. Due to the pins and needles, I didn’t think I would ever stand up again.
I fell in. Spectacularly. Spectacularly slowly. We're talking slow-motion backwards roll off the end of the board. And it was bloody freezing.
But nowhere near as bad as I imagined. In fact, it was exhilarating.
In his memoir 'Greenlights', Matthew McConnaughy said;
"The road less travelled may not be a dirt road; for some, it may be the autobahn (motorway). Robert Frost was right, taking the road less travelled can make all the difference. But that road isn’t necessarily the road with the least traffic. It may be the road that we, personally, have travelled less. The introvert may need to get out of the house, engage with the world, get public. The extrovert may need to stay home and read a book. Sometimes we need to get out there, sometimes we need to get in there."
Your default is to stay safely tucked away in your little corner of the world.
To remain with what's familiar.
It's said a lot. And maybe, because of that, it can lose its impact. But there really is magic to be found outside of your comfort zone.
This is your sign. Do the things.
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