your personal Everest

A while back I heard Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind mountain climber to summit Everest, speak on T.V. He said...

"When I am climbing - the scariest part is when I'm reaching out and I'm not exactly sure what I'm gonna find - I mean I'm hoping and praying and predicting I'm gonna find what I'm looking for.

He went on...

"I think sometimes the fear of reaching out into the unknown paralyzes people to the point where they decide not to reach out at all."

"For me all of the greatest things that have ever come have come through me reaching out into the unknown."

For me that looks like an honest blog post. It may be reaching out to someone in a text or email. Sometimes it is getting up and dancing when no one else is.

But whatever my personal Everest is at the moment, it is usually marked by my heart beating out of my chest while fiery heat rises to my face. It is an indication that this reaching out means something important to me.

When I was in middle school I chose not to audition for plays because I wasn't "that good". I thought to myself that miracles of miracles if I did get the part then I didn't want the mean girls to make fun of me anyway. So I didn't try out. Instead I sang and acted with my friends at home.

But that wasn't enough. I missed out on challenging myself and experiencing something different with new people. I ignored my souls request which left me feeling stifled. And like every single human being, I had something to say, something to share. Something creative was stirring inside of me but it didn't know where to go.

I didn't reach out because I was scared of the outcome.

So now I am reaching out to you and wondering...

What does reaching out into the unknown mean to you? What are you not doing because you are scared of what you may or may not find?

What if you quit everything to try this one thing and you fail?

And maybe the most important question is...

"What's worth doing even if I fail?"  Brene Brown