out on a limb

driving home yesterday i was "talking" to myself. telling myself what a jerk i was for doing something/saying something. sometimes i go out on a limb & take a chance on something. sometimes it turns out ok & other times it flops. i usually feel like a jerk until i know for sure that it hasn't flopped. i think it may have flopped this time. why do i always do or say the wrong thing? how can i face certain people now? "myself" wasn't giving me any answers.

then when i got home, i read one of the blogs i read, "pioneer woman" by ree drummond. she was talking about a review of a book written by a friend of hers, a professor right here in houston. the title of the book is "daring greatly" by dr. brene brown & it's about taking chances & daring to be vulnerable. i'm not advocating the book since i have not read it nor do i know the author or what she stands for. the title is taken from a speech given by theodore roosevelt in 1910 & it just made me think. an excerpt from the speech:

"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly…”



here's a link to her blog post

(click on the word "link" above)

it got me to thinking. it's good to take chances. it's good to go out on a limb sometimes. it's good to TRY. if you do, you've got a 50% chance that you'll succeed. and if you don't, you've got a 100% chance that you won't succeed. so if you TRY, you just might get it. and if you DON'T TRY, you surely WON'T get it.

if cinderella hadn't GONE to the ball, she wouldn't have lost her shoe & the prince wouldn't have found it & he wouldn't have found HER.

so i'm going to hold my head high & go out on that limb. i'm going to live my life as if life is my ball! i'll be me & i'll take those chances.

self, are you listening?