#neededtoreadthis

it’s always a surprise to listen to friends and acquaintances talk about what they’re going to do. my question, politely phrased i think, is just how much longer do you think you have? when exactly are you going to live out this dream and what’s holding you back? if you really want to do it, why don’t you? the reasons, of course, are many: time, money, resources, training or lack of knowledge. but from where i sit, it all just sounds like more excuses. what if Christopher Columbus had said, “But I don’t know the way,” or if Steve Jobs thought, “I didn’t finish college.” then there’s Ken Burns who could’ve said, “I don’t have the right camera.” or Bill Gates who didn’t realize, “You can’t do that in a garage.” and how about if Thomas Jefferson had said, “We don’t have 15 million dollars.” west of the Mississippi, we’d all be speaking French. Thomas Edison could’ve said, “Whoops, guess that’s not going to work.”

interesting what happens when we break free of excuses and how they can get in the way of our progress.

life is a challenge as you well know, and each day if you’re out in the world there are more challenges. Dave Freeman and Neil Teplica wrote in their popular title 100 Things to Do Before You Die,that you could be crushed, gored, burned, frozen, drowned, run over, electrocuted, infected, punctured or dehydrated, all of which are fairly good reasons for not doing something. but consider this, more than half of those negative experiences could happen when you get out of bed in the morning.

are you going to get to the end and say, “My gosh what did I miss?" or will you run down the litany of one of our favorite themes of shoulda, coulda and woulda? well chances are good there’s still time. maybe it would be worthwhile taking a quick read through the 100 Things to do Before You Die and then create a list of possibles.

keep in mind, we’re only going this way once and the clock is ticking. isn’t it time to live that dream, or leave that mark, or make a change, or finish that bucket list? don’t you think it’s time to be done with the excuses and get on with it? as my friend Laurie, a no-excuse kind of girl, says, the choices come down to would you rather have it end by falling off the couch or by schussing down the double-black diamond ski trail? your choice.