The Porcupine

I came across a porcupine the other day sitting at the edge of the forest, casually chewing on some nice young growth. I decided to see how close I could get to him before he scurried away.

I slowly moved closer, closer, closer...and he didn’t move. He sat there still calmly munching on leaves and berries. I started to talk to him and slowly he turned his head, looked at me with a “WTF are you doing?” kind of stare. I had to almost jump on top of him and raise my voice before he slowly lumbered off into the forest.

It must be interesting to strut around life with that kind of confidence. What does it feel like to think that almost nobody can hurt you?

We (human beings) tend to be driven by fear. Wouldn’t it be a different world if we were driven by our dreams? We hold ourselves back from living the life want for fear of failing, being hurt or just fear of the unknown.

I am lucky that I have developed a few quills along the way that have given me the confidence to take some risks in my life. Without that confidence I would not have married, had children, changed careers (a few times), skated, skied, traveled or blogged. Sure, I have had my failures and struggles along the way, good golly what wife and mother hasn’t? But, the benefits of living life fully far outweigh the struggles. There are still many things I wish I had done, and I know fear was a factor in many of them.

I decided to set out on another business venture recently (more on that later). Before making the decision I had to deal with many fears. Fear of being too old, wasting time, too busy, losing money and looking like a fool if it doesn't work?  I won't know the answer to that "what if" unless I jump in and do it. One thing I know for sure is that if I don't try it I will always wonder if I could have done it. I may start to feel stuck in my current work and resentment may set in. Isn't that what can happen when we deny ourselves our dreams?

The thing about being fifty years old is you start to get a “now or never” attitude. And never is not an option when it comes living!

What fears hold you back from living a bigger life? Where will you get the quills to get to it?