Note to Self (06.09.23)
06.09.23
You’re afraid to die - and that’s okay - but it’s not an excuse for why you shouldn’t allow yourself to live.
Consciously, you may not be afraid to die, but we live out this fear every day through hesitancy, inaction, and self-doubt. In all that we are faced with, fear has the opportunity to consume us.
You don’t take a risk because the negative may outweigh the positive. Something causes you to feel anxious, so you avoid it at all costs. There’s a chance that something could go wrong, and it just sounds easier to hang back. Stop acting like life is existence alone. No, life is action, experience, and connection; not safety, comfortability, or isolation.
Just because you breathe doesn’t mean you know what it means to be alive. What are you doing with that breath? You can see, but are you seeking to discover more? People surround you, but do you value them?
Yes, you've been given a life, but only you can expand upon it. However the fear of dying manifests itself in your life, overcome it through action.
“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid.” (Les Brown)
Seek discomfort. Be curious and pursue new challenges. Take on new obstacles and value all that you learn and experience from each one. A life well-lived is, in part, a life that embraces challenge, and does so often enough to never lose the acuity and approach necessary to endure and overcome.
What are you doing to ensure that you are living, making the most of your time in this life?
Chances are, you can do more, be more, and discover more. Today’s world gives us the easy ‘out’ to true life. You can pass up an opportunity in favor of time at home, scrolling through social media, observing the lives of others while you allow yours to pass.
Embrace what you’ve never done and never known. Become attuned to the natural feelings of resistance and fear that will well up inside of you. When that feeling presents itself, you are alive.
“You can commit injustice by doing nothing.” (Marcus Aurelius)
The options are endless, and the pursuit is unique to each of us. We can’t continue to accept a fear of dying at the expense of the life you’re living. Expand your comfort zone and you expand your consciousness, said Les Brown.
Life: if you fail to live it, you will eventually recognize all that could’ve been - all that you should’ve done.
Flip the switch. Make the decision today to live more fully.
Note to Self: Identify the things that will take you outside of your comfort zone. Choose them. Pursue them. Embrace struggle as a way of life.
