-by Kaari Allen
“True success means asking yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not NOW?" -James Allen
There they were, all of them, sitting there lurking by me and challenging me to give myself the green light. After hemming and hawing and attempting to create some sort of on-the-fly personal permission slip, I finally surrendered to them.
So picture this, there were three people ahead of me in line at the checkout while I waited to purchase a couple of romance paperbacks for my elderly mom. The location of the freezer with the ice cream sandwiches and the frozen Snickers seemed strategically placed to dare me. Why not have one for breakfast? Why the hell not? I will admit, the amount of thought I had put into this decision prompted me to start thinking a lot about WHY NOT?
Everyone asks themselves “why,” but my friend and the Director of Women In Networking (WIN),Teresa Thomas, propelled me to ask “why not.” Those two little words became the new mantra for me after learning about what Teresa dared to create for her 50th birthday.
How cool is this - she made a list of 50 Fun Things to do in a year. Given that there are 52 weeks in a year there truly IS enough time, so the ‘I won’t have time’ excuse just doesn’t fly.
Why not eat an ice cream sandwich for breakfast, learn to play the guitar or just go listen to someone play one? When is the last time you went to a matinee or went skinny dipping? If the answer is in high school, well…go get out there and do something fun and be liberated!
No one really cares what we all look like anyhow. You won’t regret it, I promise! For example, I recently had the joy of singing karaoke with Teresa as we checked off one of her 50 things that she had never done before.
Keep this in mind - there isn’t any Governing Board of Life that determines whether or not each of us have permission to look ridiculous, or be child-like, or whether we can or should do something different. Quite frankly, if there were such a board, I can guarantee they are not having any fun.
Go ahead, grab some ice cream, think of something that you have been yearning to do or are curious about, and take just one step toward something special this week. Our world craves our participation and our contributions, especially given the negative and fearful current state that things are in. We owe the world the little joys of our courageousness.
Come on, I will take a step if you do.
(A special thank you Teresa Thomas - on the left with me in photo below - The world needs many more encouraging people like you!)
If you would like to learn more about Teresa's 50 Fun Things tool or attend one of her workshops, click here to read a blog about the WIN event where I learned about her process.
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