Today, I choose to be fearless

Today is that day: The day you silence the anxiety and shout boldly.

Today is that day: The day you attract new energy and purge dead energy.

Today is that day: The day you stop thinking and start creating.

How often do your fears inhibit your growth? How often do you get in your own way? How many great ideas have you let sail off into the distance?

When weighing risk versus reward, very few impulsive decisions have failed me. Often, I experience the weightlessness of spontaneity, coincidence, and synchronicity.

Nearly always, I am exposed to people and perspectives I wouldn’t have encountered otherwise and from which I move, grow, shift, pivot, realign—become more truly me.

By contrast: Nearly every time I overthink a situation or make assumptions, I am disappointed or disempowered either over time or in the long run. Joy disappears. Anticipation creeps in. Drama looms (truly: anything but that). That whirring, churning process can be demoralizing and unsettling, causing me to second guess what I know to be true about my judgment and capabilities.

I often return to the clever yet modest instruction manual The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz.

1. Be Impeccable with your Word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the Word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your Word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t Take Anything Personally
   Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don’t Make Assumptions
   Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
   Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

Sometimes easier said than done. But well worth keeping top-of-mind.

Now: There are exceptions. Common sense has to be your guiding principle. Otherwise, you risk becoming a late-night tweetstorm of chaos and idiocy, an over-sharer, an endless source of drivel and drama. In other words, if you’re drawn to act impulsively because you think perhaps others will notice and comment, please don’t jump on this bandwagon. I’m not talking about creating the next Jackass or YouTube starlet or increasing your follower count.

This isn’t about fame or attention or praise. And that may be hard to wrap your head around, given that we’re so conditioned in our social media–fed world to “create” solely for reaction.

Not this time. This is just for you.

Maybe eventually the idea, project, whatever it is becomes “a thing” people pay attention to, but reaction can’t be the prime motivator. It cheapens the experience.

For the independent-minded, the flutter-in-the-stomach moment is upon you. When you boldly walk up to that next adventure or person or gig (or all three) and see it not as a possibility, but as an opportunity—no matter what happens—and JUMP.

Stay out of your own way. Fearless movement is spectacular.

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