Barrie Davenport at LiveBoldAndBloom.com posed a question to her readers, “What’s the boldest thing you’ve done?” The article really spoke to me on a personal level because I’ve dealt with many of the same issues she has.
Some of the things I’ve done might seem bold to others, but don’t feel bold to me. I’m not sure why, maybe because in some instances I had to do them or because I knew it was the best thing for me, as scary or stressful as it may be. The past decade has been one of constant change and new challenges. I’ve gotten married, moved two states away from my hometown, worked in a male dominated high stress field, been the sole means of support for my family when my husband was laid off, and many other things. A lot of these decisions and circumstances caused great stress for me, and yes, a little fear.
Perhaps the boldest thing I think I’ve done is to decide to work on myself. It’s easy to justify staying in “safe” habits. They’re comfortable and change isn’t. I’ve done a great many things that I balked at before because of fear, I’ve pushed my comfort envelope a bit, and I’ve done some great work I didn’t think was possible simply because I took the time to push myself a little bit. I still struggle with some bad habits, slip back into unhealthy mental attitudes, but I’ve learned to “kick my own ass” as it were, to get myself out of the negative as quickly as possible.
I know I’m going to fail eventually, whether it’s on one of my projects or on a personal level. I hate failure because I’m a recovering perfectionist. I don’t always live up to my high ideals. But I’ve learned to look at failure as a learning process. When I started to change my attitude, I learned how to identify the positives in almost everything and make the most of learning from the experience.
I’m still working on myself. It’s a lifetime project, but one that’s the most important to me.
So, inquiring minds want to know. What’s the boldest thing you’ve ever done?