Life Is Not A Spectator Sport

By Joanne P. Stein

No matter how many candles appeared on our last birthday cake, we can stay youthful and be happier if we are willing to be a perpetual student of life. But, life can teach us only when we are bold enough to venture into uncharted territory and willing to feel the excitement of trying something new. Notice I used the word “excitement” rather than “nervousness” because the former makes us feel good and the later makes us feel fearful.

Do you want to be happier? Then you need to take positive action and do things that you’ve been afraid to do in the past. If you keep doing the same things, you’ll continue to get the same results.

Emotional and psychological healing always occurs outside the "safe" zone. Real learning comes when we try something we have never done before. We can’t know the result until we do it. Your mind may tell you that something will never work or you’re too old to start taking ballroom dancing lessons but you won’t know that for a fact until you actually put it to the test.

If everyone sits on the bench in fear of making a mistake, there can be no ball game. The very way we learn to make hits is by making errors. No one has ever gotten up to bat for the first time and started hitting consistently. The biggest home run hitters are also the biggest strike-out artists. They swing for the fences, and they often do not make contact. But when they do, watch out!

The same holds true for boomers and seniors who want more happiness in their lives. We need to continue to actively participate in the game of life. The more things we try, the more opportunities we have to experience greater joy and happiness.

It takes courage to be the first one to do something or to try to do an activity you were too afraid to try before now, but the payoff is equal to the risk. Participating is always more fun than sitting on the sidelines. Life is not a spectator sport. “You have to be in it to win it.”

If you are the first one on the field, you take the chance of looking silly, but you also buy the right to enjoy yourself immensely, play longer than anyone else, and perhaps change the world while you're at it. Thanks to Bill Gates’ courage computers are now common place. If he hadn’t stepped up to the plate and been willing to try something new, computers might still be the size of a desk and used only by programmers rather than everyday people like you and me. Creativity and genius do not have an age limit unless you throw in the towel and forfeit the game. Where’s the joy in doing that?

The more times you go up to bat, the easier it becomes and your chances for success and happiness improve. If you never make sign up for that computer class, have the heart-to-heart conversation with a loved one, try a new food, go someplace you’ve only dreamt of or do anything else that’s outside your comfort zone, you’ll never gain confidence and your life will never improve. A swing and a miss is better than no swing at all because at least you are in the game of life.