Remember when as a kid, your friends would throw out a challenge and then emphatically add, “I Dare You” to entice you to step up? How often did you take the dare only to regret that you did? My guess is, more times that you care to count! Now in all fairness, some dares were definitely worth the risk. You might have actually gotten a date with that girl you were so shy to approach. You might have discovered that you were better at some task than you previously believed. You might even have found yourself in a position of influence as a result! One never really knows what the outcome will be when accepting the challenge inherent in “I Dare You!”
I’m guessing that many if not all who read these words have something you would love to put into play if you could just muster the courage to do so! I often wonder how many life-changing ideas lie lifeless on the cutting room floor of our personal editing room due simply to the fact that we did not possess the courage to give them a shot! How many solutions to business problems are cast aside because we talked ourselves out of acting? How many relationships remain troubled only because we lack the courage to reach out in reconciliation? How many innovations gather dust in the queue of intention never getting the chance to alter the course of history? How many . . . ? Well, I think you get the picture!
If you have not read The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews, then you should! One of the last chapters describes a warehouse full of unfulfilled intentions – potential life-altering ideas that never find life simply because one lacked the courage to push through to the end. I remember the first time I read through that book as if were yesterday. I can recall having an extremely vivid visualization of what that vast room looked like! A huge room filled with potential simply gathering dust. In the book, the Angel Gabriel refers to that place as “the place that never was.” So often I believe that I have delivered content to that room – left things undone simply because I lacked the courage to carry through to the end. I’m thinking that you have as well.
So here’s my challenge – to myself as well as to you! I DARE you . . . I DARE myself . . . to step out; to speak up; to put into play; to risk asking; to pursue that dream; to make that call; to seek forgiveness; to grant mercy; to do that thing you’ve talked yourself out of! C.S. Lewis wrote in The Screwtape Letters “The Present is the Point at which Time Touches Eternity.” There is no better time than now – this present moment – to take the face the challenge before you and do what only you can do! I DARE You!
I am hopeful that you will read and share this post today. I am also hopeful that you might be willing to share some of the outcomes of you taking my challenge today! Please take a moment and share your experiences with this challenge! Thanks!
