Punishing Caution

A year or so ago, I met a young man with a dream.
He wanted to be a world-champion ice dancer.
So, he left college, found an excellent coach, and started working hard on his dream. 
Admittedly, "Nick" was getting off to a late start, but he was unfazed.

His enthusiasm was contagious!

We talked about training, testing, competing and the mental game that overshadows all that.

I didn't see him again for several weeks.

When our paths crossed again, Nick greeted me enthusiastically and said,
"Thank you so much for your advice!  I wrote it down and stuck it on the mirror."

"What advice?"

"You said skating punishes caution.  It's true."

And it is (especially for jumping), but the same holds true for all of life.
Not "throwing caution to the wind" (aka being stupid),
but committing completely to whatever you want to accomplish.

It doesn't have to be a life-time commitment, or even a five minute commitment.
Just long enough to execute correctly the task at hand.

Fortunately, most things in life don't have a broken wrist or twisted knee as possible consequences
of hesitation or second thoughts, "just" opportunities missed or more time spent correcting mistakes.
But...who wants the regret of "If only I'd gone for it, flat out, I wouldn't be in this situation"?

Or, as I sometimes tell my coach, "Are you videoing this?  'Cause either way, it's gonna be epic."