A friend recently described to me her new outlook on life: After years of lamenting family, career and relationship disappointments; of dwelling on the past and living a life wrapped in regret for what it wasn’t, she changed.
She explained that she now attempts to purposefully view her existence from a third-person point of view. She sees herself as the main character in a movie and makes every major life decision based on what would be the most exciting thing for her to do in each instant. She writes her own script, and she’s trying to make it epic.
I think she makes a lot of sense. We don’t cheer for our big-screen heroes and heroines to play it safe and live life at a lesser volume. Fortune favors the bold. Sure, you can calculate the odds and approach the game of life conservatively—go to college, get a decent job, claw your way up slowly over the course of decades and maybe even make enough money to retire into part-time work as a big-box store greeter. That’ll probably work out OK.
Or you can choose to go for it. Put yourself out there. Take a risk. At every step in life, there’s a daring detour we can make to realize a new and exciting existence: Skip college and start a business; introduce yourself to a cute stranger at the coffee shop; take off mid-career for a year or two and backpack through South America.
The greatest rewards of wealth, love, experience and joy come from doing something big—something epic.
The February issue of SUCCESS is a testament to that idea. It’s about people who refuse to set limits for themselves—from our transformative cover guy, Joel Osteen, to our seventh-annual Achievers of the Year; to James Lawrence, the man who completed 50 grueling Ironman endurance races in 50 days last summer. Our pages offer incredible profiles this month. But, as is the case every month, February’s issue is ultimately about you.
I hope SUCCESS can be the muse to the epic screenplay of your life.
This article appears in the February 2016 issue of SUCCESS magazine.
