You are allowed to want things

I have been thinking about the idea of wanting. The idea that so often in life we have moments where we think, “If would be cool if…” and then somehow before the thought is even fully formed we talk ourselves out of it.

It would be cool if I started an Etsy shop.
No one will buy anything.

It would be cool if I wrote a song.
Everyone would hate it.

It would be cool if I started a podcast.
No one will listen.

There are so many things in life that we have the capacity and potential to do. You are capable of so much more than you can probably even imagine, but in order to get there, you have to overcome your number one critic, yourself.

My experience has been that I project my fears onto other people. I assume that everyone will be as critical of me as I am and the reality is this: in everything I pursue the response is generally the exact opposite of what I think it will be. Good people want to support you. Good people want you to thrive. Good people want you to go after what you want.

Maybe you feel like what you want isn’t rational, or doesn’t make financial sense, or is a waste of time. But guess what, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO WANT IT.

It doesn’t matter if other people think it is dumb. It doesn’t matter if logically you can talk yourself out of it. If there is an internal desire where you keep coming up with the same idea over and over and you feel drawn to it… believe me when I say that your life will be incredibly fulfilled once you start going after it.

I have had this happen to me many times over the course of my short life, but the most recent example is with music. My whole life I have been saying, “I would love to write music. In another life I would be in a band.” Why the hell would I hold myself back like that? Why would I deny myself that opportunity for no reason? What other life was I even talking about? As far as I know we only really have this one life and thats it.

So it took me 27 years to get to the point where I knew this was not something I wanted to look back on and have never even tried to pursue. I started writing songs. I got on craigslist, answered some really sketchy craigslist ads and eventually found someone to start making music with and let me tell you, it is thrilling and I love it. Are we making any money? No. Does it take a lot of my free time? Yes. Does any of that really matter? Not really.

All I want you to know is this:
If you want something, it’s okay. I think you can do it. And you should.