How many of you are fed up? If you want to do something, but you're letting fear hold you back, conquer it! Ever heard the saying, "Just Do It!”?

As I say all too often, "Things aren't getting any easier, so don't lay down. Get up and get out!" Now I'm not talking about quitting your job and leaving yourself open for failure financially or otherwise. I'm talking about trying new things and if they don't work, at least you've tried them.

May I take you through a walk in my shoes for a brief moment? Okay, for those of you who know me by now, a semi-brief walk in my shoes...

I didn't realize what a profound effect trying just about everything I wanted to try had on me, my family and even my friends. While the grass isn't greener on this side, I can say that I've tried doing almost any business I thought might be fun. I've been a butcher's apprentice, sold cars, ran a supermarket deli, worked for many different years at hardware stores in the plumbing department as they changed names from Oles, to Ace, to Builders Emporium, then worked at Lumber City and Home Depot. I also worked at JC Penny, Hickory Farms, B. Dalton Books, and even ran a day care. I've sold Discovery Toys, Herbalife, Melaleuca, Tupperware, Mary Kay, Amway, you name it! If I needed it for the stage of life I was in, I sold it. I usually worked two jobs at once and then even added children to the mix! Then in 1999, I purchased The Busy Woman's Daily Planner®.

I've lived in six different places I wanted to live, including the beach. I've gone to college in different cities picking up a class or two here and there, while working, while parenting, and on, and on...

What appeared to me to be indecisiveness intrigued my friends. They'd call just to see what I was up to. After many years of feeling like I was doing all of the talking, and thinking that I was self centered, one of my friends told me she was living vicariously through my life. She didn't have to try those things that might fail. She could just listen to me, hear the good and bad and be satisfied. Not me! I needed to experience it for myself.

Most of my friends had neat and tidy lives with 2 or 3 children, a home they owned for so long that they weren't house poor, a dog, their mom nearby, a husband with set hours who was home by 5, etc... So listening to my experiences usually made them feel better about having a mellow life. Mine was often hectic and fast paced. Did I say, "Was?" I meant, IS. (Ohhhh what I'd give for a mellow life.)

I was throwing a semi-pity party while sitting at lunch with my college guidance counselor, telling her how I wished I had a neat and simple life, when she all of a sudden stopped and said, "Do you realize how many people would kill for the life experience you have?" She smiled and proceeded to tell me how she went to college right out of high school, got into counseling and followed this neat and tidy path into her present college counselor career and never veered outside the box. But "I" got to try anything and everything (except for traveling out of the country or to Hawaii, but I didn't dare interrupt). She said that since my husband had a stable job it left me the room that many never have. That room was to explore all that intrigued me.

So instead of saying, "I wish I could try this. One day I want to do that. When I have some money I'll do what I want or buy what I want." See what you can do NOW. Don't have regrets if you can avoid them. Talk yourself into a positive attitude and an, "I know I can" attitude.

Easier said than done? Maybe. But it's worth the work to try to change your focus and be happy. Try one new thing a week, month or year. But try it! Don’t sit around saying that you don’t have the time. Look in your planner, find an empty date RIGHT NOW and write this in, ‘Try something new and fun!” What haven’t you done that you have wanted to do? Ask a friend if there’s something you talk about doing but never seem to get around to. If you have a yearning, chances are you friends have heard about it.

If you do something new, we’d like to hear about it! Please send email to DID_IT@thebusywoman.com. If we print your story you’ll get a FREE Busy Woman Basics!

©2003 Susie Glennan – The Busy Woman, Inc.

Article reprinted with permission through www.IdeaMarketers.com

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