DTH-X-0071
“I said yes to something that scared me and it cracked my life open.”
Fear was the only thing standing between you and this, and you walked through it — and on the other side was more life, not less. The safe, narrow road feels like protection but it is really just a slow way of not living. A man who keeps death in view stops auditioning for a longer life and starts living a fuller one.
Your Practice
- Name what you almost let stop you. Notice it was smaller than it felt.
- Find the next thing you want but fear, and take the first irreversible step toward it.
- Ask: 'On my deathbed, would I regret the risk or the retreat?' You know the answer.
- Make 'scared but alive' your default over 'safe but shrinking.'
The Architects
“Let death and exile, and all other things which appear terrible, be daily before your eyes; but chiefly death: and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion, Chapter 21 (Elizabeth Carter translation; Wikisource)