New things terrify me. And to make it worse, the more I love them, the more they haunt me.

I wanted to learn animation and make cartoons, but that craft has so many moving parts getting started feels like climbing up a mountain.

I wanted to learn to write, but who cares what I have to say? I’m not an expert on anything. What if I just make myself look silly.

I want to learn to dunk a basketball, but if i couldn’t do it in highschool should I even try doing it now? It might be wasted time and effort.

I used to listen to all these thoughts to stay comfortable and avoid failure. But now I rather fail at everything I love than regret never trying anything I love.

At the end of life I imagine 2 possibilities running through my head:

1. Memories of me chasing my dreams and falling short sometimes but nailing it others
2. Thoughts of how my life could’ve turned out if I didn't play it safe

The second one is scary.

I want the reason why my ambitions didn’t work out to be because of failure, not because I didn’t even try.

If I fail I at least have closure. If I don’t try, I’ll be left wondering what could’ve been. The door stays open.

An article thrusted this mindest on me. It’s called “The Most Powerful Lessons People Learn Too Late in Life”

It had a list of things you're not going to care about when you reflect on your life.

These stuck out to me:

• ‍How safe and practical you were: You're not going to look back and be grateful that you didn’t try starting a business or travelling the world. You won’t be proud that you simply played it safe and saved up a good retirement after working for 40 years.
• ‍How much embarrassment you saved: You're not going to reflect on your entire life and be glad you never risked being laughed at for having an idea that's outside the box. You won't value the comfort of NOT taking a shot over the feeling of your ideas coming to life.

Now I don’t say “one day” anymore. I just start and welcome failure.

***

This post was from my newsletter

I share ideas from great thinkers so we can stand on the shoulders of giants, instead of figuring life out alone