How to Be Bold

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams!  Live the life you've imagined.

Henry David Thoreau

This is something I've been considering.  I am a work in progress and am not expert at this, but here's what I think.

1- Don't be afraid to change course.

Braeden is in the throes of charting his high school course.  He had a plan.  He wouldn't be swayed.  He's rethinking it.  It's causing him stress.

I told him about when I was in high school and decided between my sophomore and junior years to change the extracurricular activities I was involved in.  Things like that mattered in my tiny school and I had one teacher that didn't talk to me for the rest of high school because he was mad that I quit.

And that was awkward in my tiny school.

But I was happier.  Ten thousand times.

2- Just start.

I've mentioned before our slow and steady approach to running.  A 5K (for me) seemed a little impossible but we chipped away at it, improving a little each day.  It worked.

3- It's not too late.

When I was growing up, my mom taught me piano lessons.  I hated it.  (I think my mom hated it too...I didn't practice very well...or very often.)  She'd always tell me I'd regret it someday.  I sort of did.  Lately I've started practicing the piano a little.  Not because I'll be in trouble Friday if I don't (Friday used to be my piano lesson day-- I dreaded Fridays) but because I just want to practice the piano.  And I have more time because of my 2/3 drop in home school enrollment.  I set the timer for 10 minutes and sit down and play.

I'm getting (a little) better.

I'm enjoying it.

4- Don't listen to critics.

My family is good to me.  They sometimes balk at my ideas though.  (Mostly because a lot of my ideas involve them and furniture moving.) I've been completely rethinking our school room.  (We have had a 2/3 drop in enrollment after all.)  They have all said, "What are you doing?" and "Why?" with an incredulous tone.  I tell them to just go with it and pick up that corner of the futon because we're moving it.

The other day I was dismantling a desk with a screw driver and Mark told me I'd lost my mind.

I moved the futon three times...and it weighs as much as several large elephants.  Then I moved it back to the original place.

I might leave it there.

But I might not.