Saying Yes to Adventure!

Yesterday, in our recent post about epic friends Cindy & James, I mentioned something about trying on her immersion suit. While it was fun, and I’m sure quite hilarious for everyone else in the room, I had no idea what a huge life lesson would come from this – a lesson on saying YES!

I feel like I’ve been hearing and reading about learning to say no more courageously – to anything that we feel we should do, or are supposed to do. And yet, I haven’t put much thought into saying a resounding YES to the things we feel pulled to do, or just really want to do. But this has come up a few times in the last few days so I wanted to pass it on.

First was the experience at Cindy’s house on Sunday. When she started talking about the immersion suit, she looked at me and said, “Do you want to try it on?” Before I even let the question fully resonate I heard myself say, “Nah.” Then I paused, let me brain catch up with the situation, course corrected and said, “Actually….Yes!” I didn’t give the situation much thought when it was initially happening because I was having way too much fun trying to figure out how to put on the “lobster suit”, as I nicknamed it. It only has 3 finger pockets so you can only use your thumb, pointer finger, and a clumped together mass of your middle, ring, and pinky fingers. We all laughed a lot!

On the way home though, I was reflecting on the experience and quickly recalled the internal dialogue that happened in a split second; the no that transitioned into a yes. Greg and I had a pretty deep conversation about how many times we’ve kept ourselves from saying yes to something because of a fear of other people’s opinions. I thought back to many times when I had neglected to say yes because I was afraid to look silly, seem too eager, or be pegged as that girl who is “way too excited”.

And then yesterday, I ran across a TEDx video about Saying Yes to Adventure. It hit the point home hardcore! The moral of the 18-minute talk is this:

The call to adventure is usually not ours – it is a divine inner impulse that surfaces within us. But the act of saying YES to that adventure, that’s an act of free will only we can exercise. And that decision is the part that matters most.

I don’t want to neglect this divine inner impulse any longer. Not only will I practice saying a courageous no when the situation warrants, but also an enthusiastic and unashamed YES!

What will you say YES to this week?