“Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death.” – James Byrnes

From a young age, I believe we’re taught that fear is something that keeps us from harm. While I think that’s true, I think that what fear does at the same time is make us avoid the bigger things in life. The bigger things meaning the things that could be the difference from living a comfortable life and a life that has minimum regrets. The things we think of when we turn 25 and say, “man, I should’ve done this, or that, while I had the chance.” Now, I understand that somethings are just depending on perspective, and there are people who wouldn’t agree with my bucket list because they have other things that are more important, but that’s the thing. I believe that people need to always have something to chase.

We’ve come super far as a human race, at some point we were killing wild animals just to stay alive and have a bite to eat. I highly believe that we always have to keep evolving. One of the reasons that I think people have become so comfortable is that they look to other people to fulfill their dreams instead of working on themselves accomplishing those dreams they’ve always wanted to do. I believe the closest we ever were to being ourselves was before we started going to school. We didn’t have any pressures of people telling us what to do and what was right. We just did what we wanted. I think that what we have to do is remember who we were. Every now and then we run into people who remind us of our childhood, who have us talk about our positive childhood memories and occasionally we smile. I think that’s a sign that we’re on the right track. We see glimpses of it. At some point in our lives, fear stopped us from going all out and chasing what makes us happy. Fear made us believe we aren’t working hard enough to go on that vacation we’ve always wanted to go to. I mean, think about it just for a second. Being stuck in your house without having the option to do anything, what’s your favorite memory? What is it that you liked to do and just stopped doing? What made you jump out of the comfort zone but made you feel something that you’ve never felt before and think back to what stopped you. It’s easier said than done, but I promise you, it’s well worth it. As someone who’s done a lot of things that I’ve always wanted to do I can say that living through great times only makes me want to go find more and more good times.

With that all being said, I have a few fears. I fear of getting old. I don’t want to depend on others when I get older. I don’t want to be the reason someone cancels their plans at some point. I want to live long enough to the point where I can take care of myself and be content with being by myself. I don’t want to be an older guy that has kids and grandkids that only visit me because I’m old.

I fear being on my deathbed and thinking to myself that I could’ve gone harder for whatever I wanted. I fear that the last person I love wasn’t the person I loved the hardest.

I fear failing at doing what I don’t want to do because I was too scared of doing what I wanted to do. I fear giving not giving a shit and still failing. Imagine that…

I’ll end on one of my favorite quotes that I hope motivates you just as hard as it motivates me.

“Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. The fearful are caught as often as the bold.”
— Helen Keller