A Life Half Lived

Have you ever seen the movie Stictly Ballroom?

 I love this movie in all its fantastic dancing cheesiness but mostly the message. 

"Vivir con miedo es como vivir a medias" roughly translated means "A life lived in fear is a life half lived."  

How many times do we let fear rule our decisions?  The fear of failure, rejection or the unknown.  I know personally it controlled my life for far too long.  I am now trying to squelch that fear when ever it starts to creep back in. 

This weekend, I am leaving for a two week cross country trip to Pennsylvania.  I will be vending at Return to Roots hoop gathering with my friend and fellow hoopster, Cally Chavez.  (More to come on R2R in upcoming posts!)  We will be selling homemade items from paintings and chimes to aromatherapy products and healing stones. In June when this trip was first conceived, I was excited and a little in disbelief that it was happening to me. The planning and crafting leading up to it has been fun and helped me realize how much work I will be putting into my future endeavors. 

As the time is getting closer, those feelings of fear are becoming more prevalent and are showing up in my dreams (and keeping me from good sleep). But I am pushing through the self-doubt (mostly) and fear of failure (mostly) and looking forward to a fun adventure!  Somtimes the risks are high, but that makes for a greater reward, right? And if things don't measure up to the success I'm hoping for, I'll be ok. Cause if you know me, I already have 5 or 6 more projects just waiting to start! Plus, if anything, it'll be lots of hooping with lots of amazing people. 

"The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one."

                                                                                                    -Elbert Hubbard

Not taking chances, I believe, keeps you from acheiving your dreams. 

And that is a life half lived. 

Fellow bloggers, I challenge you this week to squash a fear you have! Afraid to try something new? Afraid you'll fall flat on your face or be told no?  Fearing an unknown outcome? Do it anyway...you never know what'll happen. Could be even better than you imagine. Feel free to share about it in the comments.

Better yet?  Blog about it and share with all!