Shorten the Gap

Glimmering Butterfly Project – Day 27 // Cross-post from Facebook.

“What do you have to lose?”

Six words that pushed me to action about 8 years ago. And one of my favorite quotes. Because sometimes you just gotta’ have a ‘f*ck it’ moment.

Casey Neistat talks about a gap when thinking about goals in life:

You are “here.” You want to be “there” where the goals are.

The only thing standing between “here” and there” is a bunch of work.

And I’m becoming more aware of a similar “gap” in parts of my life, too. Anytime I’m facing something unusual and particularly weird, it takes me a long time to really make that first step.

There was a time I couldn’t even LOOK at, let alone go into, certain aisles in a store.

But once I made that first step, it started to get easier. The gap between “I want to do X” and “I did X” gets a little shorter.

And moving towards the next thing makes that gap to X shorter yet.

Whether it’s something big or something silly, each time I do something and #EmbraceTheWeird in any way, the gap between “I have this idea” and “f*ck it” gets shorter and the severity of doing that thing gets less intense.

That step makes me realize, “Oh, I didn’t die from that, maybe it’s not quite as bad as my brain wants me to think.” And I start to question my original beliefs and fears.

This photo wasn’t on the agenda today, it just kind of happened, but it’s helped me to realize how short that gap is becoming, just by taking little steps and doing little things on my own. Not just in these #EmbraceTheWeird moments, but in many areas of my life.

Because what do I have to lose? A little bit of comfort? A judgemental person in my circle? A fan/follower/subscriber? I can’t even think of any substantial loss besides having to deal with with embarrassment, teasing, not knowing how to react, etc.

And that’s a silly thing to not be yourself for.

I’m already experiencing first hand the impact of being surrounded by people that are pro-YOU.

People who don’t immediately lead with a teasing remark to put me on the defensive (even if well intentioned). People who don’t make you feel like you’re doing something abnormal (even if by all accounts, you are).

But rather people who cheer you on and help you to feel like being yourself is actually the most normal thing you could do, despite how weird you feel at first.

That gap shrinks so much faster when the people around you are giving thumbs up instead of trying to hide snickers. And sometimes that may mean finding new people to be surrounded by.

“What do you have to lose?”

austinpranger.com/embrace-the-weird-secrets