Taking a Chance

We are dreamers. What makes me say that? Because I am sure at least once in your life you thought about doing something to better yourself. Whether it was health, financial, or career related, we all want to do better for ourselves. But what is stopping you? I had to ask myself this same question once before. I had changed my life for the better. I had lost a lot of weight and was getting in great shape. But yet I still wanted to challenge myself. I wanted to run in a race and put all my hard work I had put in at the gym to the test. Was I intimated by this idea? Yes I was. I had already ran a 5k and did so much better than I thought I was going to do. But this was a half marathon I was considering. It was 10 miles longer than my last race and the most miles I had put in during a single run was 8 at this point. I heard somewhere before that the main reason why people do not try something is because of the fear of failure. I did not want to fail. So, I changed my thinking. I asked myself "Would you rather try and possibly fail? Or not try at all and wonder what could have been?' I would rather try and give myself the chance I deserved. So I trained harder and ran longer. I put myself through uncharted territory and pushed myself past my comfort zone. The half marathon creeped up fast on me. Before I knew it, the day was here. Not only did I do so much better than I gave myself credit for, but I placed in the top 10 overall and took second in my age group! Because of this half marathon, my confidence grew a lot and I was hooked on racing. It only took me a month and I was already registered for my second half marathon. So whats my point? My point is that you just have to take that leap even if scares you. Even if you have your own self doubts or are unsure what the outcome may be. Will you fail? Well, you might, then again, you might not. But even if you do, you took that chance. And you can learn from your downfalls. You can use them to build yourself back up and come back with a different game plan. So if you are debating on taking a chance on something, ask yourself this. Would you rather regret taking a chance on yourself, or regret not taking a chance at all and wondering what could have been?