Challenge Accepted

"Sometimes it’s like: If something terrifies you, you should totally do it because it terrifies you. And then you’ll do it and you’ll realise what you’re capable of.” ~ Jonathan Saccone-Joly

I have a number of hobbies that I enjoy, most of which I am good at the basics of but have never bothered to dig deeper to pro level. It’s been fine getting by with basic level expertise and it serves me well. . .until I shared one of my basic creations with a friend I’m currently enjoying hating!

Where’s the problem? She sees a ‘potential’ I do not want to see or have been denying for a while or maybe she’s just calling BS on my lazy ass. And that’s where the problem arises – for me. Do I love myself enough to endure the pain of growth and hopefully celebrate the joy at the end of the season?

Needless to say, she left me no choice so this coming weekend, I will have to do her bidding. In the meantime, I have already got down countless hours of research, learned a ton of new things and put together my tool kit. I have also been constantly in prayer because I will be honest – I am scared of letting everyone down!

Somewhere in my vast collection of books read is a book titled Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway by Susan Jeffers. I found it at a time when I was stuck at the point of making some decisions. She made me realize that not deciding was in effect choosing the opposite of what I wanted. It was a reminder that since I don’t know everything about everything, the sooner I picked a course of action, the sooner I got to discover where that path led and, if I could keep going on it or beat a hasty retreat out of it. And that led me to the next book – Eat That Frog by Brian Tracy. A reminder to not get stuck in the planning stage – get on with it. The earlier the better, the sooner you make your mistakes, the earlier you get in your learning.

I choose to take the challenge afraid instead of fighting it and hating my friend (but so far she thinks I really hate her . . . ha ha ha don’t tell her the truth yet, I’ll thank her later).

I have always said I love challenges – here is one.

I have it down that continuous learning is one of my values – here is a learning opportunity.

I do enjoy the particular hobby – why not take it to the next level?

That right there is an external challenge. The internal conditions leave me no choice but to accept it if I am to remain true to myself. So help me God - as I walk to the challenge afraid yet curious about what lies on the other side of fear.

I choose to do it anyway. I choose to eat my frog.

What do you need to face afraid in this season of your life? What decision have you been putting off making yet you feel the direction you should go deep in your gut? What shadow has been scaring the living daylights out of you and which light switch do you need to flip to chase it away?

“Don’t live the same day over and over again and call that a life. Life is about evolving mentally, spiritually, and emotionally.”~Germany Kent