I sat in the hairdressers chair working up a sweat. I looked over nervously to my boyfriend while he was giving me a thumbs up. I just kept thinking “I can’t believe I’m doing this.” The hairdresser asked what I wanted and I gave her a vague and nervous description and showed her a few pictures from google images. She said she had some ideas and began. The first lock of my 14 inch hair was cut from the back of my head. She held it up and showed me. At first, panic struck. But then I realized something: I am okay.

Have Your Voice Heard: Become an Odyssey Creator

Recently (and by recently I mean literally a few hours ago) I cut off my beautiful, red hair for a short pixie cut. Why? What was going through my mind? Well… I did it not for some deep, meaningful or otherwise brave reason. I just did it because I wanted to.

For all you people out there with long hair who have never cut it short in your life (like me) and you’ve been thinking about doing it, ask yourself: why not?

I believe everyone should try new things in life. It could be something big, like a bold haircut or something as small as trying a new dish in a restaurant where you always get the same meal. We get stuck in comfortability and familiarity and often find ourselves doing the same old things in the same order over and over again. But why?

There’s a lot of benefits to trying new things. Not only does it give you the ability to say “I did it," but it also gives you a broader spectrum of ideas about what you just did. For example: my haircut. I have always had my hair my shoulder length or longer. I never thought I would be the girl with a short haircut. I thought I knew everything there was to know about my hair and that’s all I needed. But now, I feel as though there’s a whole new canvas to work with. There’s new ways to style, shampoo, dye and brush it. I can now say “Yes, I’ve styled my hair that way before," or “I should try that with my hair." There’s so much more to learn and so many new things to try. But this isn’t just for hair though, this can apply to almost anything new that you try.

New experiences alter our ideas about the world around us. It’s eye opening, mind opening and it turns you into a different person. When you meet a new person or take a class you never thought you’d take, or go to a country and experience new cultures and ideas. This takes small amounts of bravery and a lifetime of benefits to prove that you are not only an intellectually rich person but one who will be ready for any task life throws at you.

“Live life to the fullest.” People like to say. But as you’re reading this really ask yourself about the opportunities you’ve missed out on, about the times your fears ran your life and took control of your choices. (Let it be said that there’s a difference between reasonable fear where your life is at stake and anxious fear which only creates worry.) Is there a way to take the helm in your life and let the “what-ifs” become realities? If you say no for some reason you should wonder if these reasons are because of reasonable fear or anxious fear? Is your fear going to control your life? Or will you set aside the excuses your brain makes for yourself and say “No more!”