What’s holding you back? Is it work or responsibilities? Is it just life getting in the way? Is it you making a commitment to taking that next step? This morning I was overlooking the Rio Grande into Mexico and I thought that there's no place I’d rather be than right here in this moment. This is what getting out of your own way feels like. It’s happiness and adventure and exhilaration. It’s when we’ve overcome ourselves and have accepted the fact that we just have to move. We have to pick a direction and go.
I drove most of the day yesterday and made it to Big Bend National Park just before dusk. I love Big Bend with the Chisos Mountains at its center and Santa Elena Canyon standing tall over the Rio Grande. The night skies are some of the darkest in the U.S.A. where you can capture the Milky Way looking over the Chihuahau Desert. It’s incredible but it’s a nine to ten hour drive for me just to visit. The weather has been sporadic the past several months which isn’t always great for star images, and for such a long drive is a big deal. I could fly to Idaho Falls and be in Grand Teton National Park in less time and I’m not stuck in the car as long. Personally, I’ll take a plane flight over a long car ride any day. That drive is what makes me want to not go. It's the worst part about one of my favorite places and it can be something that makes it easy to say, “I’ll just go another time.”
Here’s the issue: the best time to do anything is almost always right now. Waiting for a better time, a better attitude, or a better set of circumstances just about never makes the decision easier. It’s just as easy to keep procrastinating or making excuses for what we would like to accomplish but we have “things” that are in our way. Earlier this month I wrote about what can happen when you get out of your own way (and my immense fear of snakes).
The worst thing you can do as a creator is nothing. We all have times where taking another step is down right painful but happiness is just on the other side of uncomfortable. Get uncomfortable, pick a direction, and you’ll see those excuses fall away and be happier for it.
Jerk! You're trying to take away my excuses for not doing stuff! ;-) But, you're right. Every cool thing I've ever done was the result of just doing it. I've always heard, and find it to be true, it's easier to stay out than to go out. :-)