Every day we are given 86,400 seconds. Every. Singe. Day. Until the day we die.
86,400 seconds to use however we like. The possibilities are quite endless on what we can do with those 86,400 seconds.
But how much of those 86,400 seconds are spent worrying, fearing, or even more wasteless things that we can’t control? How much productivity truly comes out of worrying and fearing?
Fear is your number one enemy.
Off the top of your head, how many times has fear stopped you from doing something that at one point, you thought would be amazing?
Probably more times than you want to admit.
In the last year, I have found that some of my greatest blessings came from decisions I made in a matter moments.
I chose to apply to a college that I thought I had no chance of getting into and was even five hundred miles from home. I filled out that application without even thinking about it for longer than twenty minutes. But as soon as I found that acceptance letter in my mailbox something sparked inside of me.
I began to have a feeling that place was meant to be for me. And even after more and more research, the school became a perfect fit for the education I needed.
After I had got to college I found myself one day searching on Odyssey, like I usually find myself when I’m in need of meaningful life answers, and saw an opportunity to apply to be a creator. After about three minutes of debate, I said to myself “the worst that can happen is you get denied.” And now almost a year later I have found my own voice. One that I didn’t even know needed to be found. And I thank God for that.
My brother looked at me one day and said, “Hey let’s go get tattoos.” And me just brushing him off, I said “Heck yeah! Let’s go do it!” I had been talking about going to get a tattoo for MONTHS. I even had plans to go get one the day I turned 18, but later backed out of it simply out of fear.
However, next thing I know my brother and I are in a truck on the way to get tattoos. And I’m still not sure how I managed to go through with it, but now I have an amazing watercolor fox tattoo across my ribs. And to be honest, it makes quite the party talk.
I am truly proud of the tattoo I have. Maybe it’s not perfect and maybe it even needs to be touched up a bit cause my pain tolerance tapped out towards the end. The point is, I did it. I have it. And I love it.
Most importantly, the same brother asked me one day “wanna go skydiving soon?” Skydiving always seemed like one of those things people always talk about doing, but never actually get in a plane and jump out the door.
Well, I did. I drove four hours to Skydive Atlanta and suited up and jumped out that plane less than 48 hours after he asked me.
I don’t know the exact statistic of how many people have been skydiving, but at least I can say I am one of the few who didn’t wait until they thought they were dying to take the jump.
So many people fear jumping out of a plane, but in that fear I found bliss. I thought the moment I jumped would have been filled with rushing thoughts of my face hitting the ground, or even just my life flashing before my eyes.
But honestly, I found peace. I found peace because at that moment it was just me and gravity (and the guy strapped to me.) I truly came to understand that the one thing you can count on here on Earth is gravity. So why do I spend so much of my time worrying about things that are out of my control?
I quite honestly don't understand why so many people sit back and allow fear to stop them from doing something. Had I allowed fear to stop me from doing these amazing things, I never would be where I am today. I would have denied myself the chance to grow. The chance to flourish.
Now I’m not saying run go out and get tattoos, or move five hundred miles from home, or even jump out of a perfectly functioning airplane. But I am saying you have the ability if you want to.
Once you set your mind to something, I promise, truly anything is possible. Never let fear stand in between you and what you want to do.
