It’s that time again.
The best time of the year.
Fall brings the energy, opportunities, and weather that make you feel like you can do anything.
It’s like the seasonal dopamine shot of the year.
AND – what could be a fresh start, can easily turn into a lost opportunity. This is one of the KEY inflection points in the year and if we aren’t paying attention, it can become something we’re actually trying to avoid: a period of regret.
There are multiple types of regret, but research tells us that regrets of omission are the ones that haunt us most. These include the paths we didn’t take – the things we wish we’d done that we never did.
As I think about where I am right now and how many important things matter to me, I think about how easy it would be not to show up for them. To replace opportunity and vision with distractions, limiting beliefs, excuses, and busyness.
These are the easy buttons and I’ve pushed them many times. I bet you have, too.
One of the tell-tale signs I’m not showing up for myself involves some version of a classic statement. It’s a sentence that indulges the delay of doing something out of our comfort zone.
It’s not Netflix or scrolling or venting. It’s always something important, which likely includes some type of inconvenience, commitment, or expense. Before a big payoff.
My resistance to something great always includes some version of Next Time, Not Now, Later, Some day.
I’ll start.
I’ll stop.
I’ll call.
I’ll plan.
I’ll sign up.
Every time we use one of these statements, we lose part of ourselves. Because every time one of these phrases crosses my mind or my lips, I waste something important.
I waste opportunities.
I waste connections.
I waste potential.
I waste unexperienced joy, service, and fulfillment.
So what do we do?
Your brain wants to make it hard, but it’s actually really simple.
Notice the next time you feel called to something (it happens if you’re paying attention), notice where you ruminate and debate. Then ask yourself, where can I start? What’s the first thing I would do to move on that “thing”?
It’s the only way to get closer to ourselves and to the things that we’ll ultimately be proud of.