It’s 9:30pm, I’m curled up on the couch in my Airbnb rental. I’ve been curled up there for the last hour. I can hear a few birds making the most of the remaining daylight, but no cars, no buses, just the occasional couple chatting as they pass by enjoying the warm summer evening breeze.

To be honest, I’m ready for sleep but there’s something I want to see before I leave Strasbourg and it’s getting to that “now or never” time.

Notre Dame Cathedral is celebrating it’s 1000 year birthday with a light show on the back of the
 cathedral. It starts at 10pm, and is a 10minute walk away.

I want to stay on the couch and then crawl into bed. I know if I don’t go I’ll feel a small tweak of regret, but nothing huge.

What to do…. ?

***

In recent years, I’ve learned something valuable…

I rarely feel like I’ve missed out on most of the things I didn’t do. In fact as far as I can tell, it 
doesn’t really impact my life or me. My life stays the same.

And that’s the learning. The big, hairy audacious learning.

Not doing stuff means me and my life stay pretty much the same.

Comfortable, familiar, known, somewhat predicable, with manageable amounts of the less predictable stuff to deal with.

But what goes hand-in-hand with this comfort is a dull ache, sometimes sinking feeling, that something’s not right. Which it isn’t. Part of me is drowning in a corner of my soul – aching to be set free to make some magical sh*t happen.

We’re not designed to stay on the couch. And deep down we know it. We know when we’re short-changing ourselves.

***

So I went to the light show.

And it was beautiful! Moving, creative, lots of people oooh-ing and aaaah-ing. So well done, and completely worth it! I left having been part of something cool, my spirit was a little lighter, my dreams a little closer, and my imagination sparked,

I also left feeling proud of myself for that awesome gift!

This is what happens when we get off the couch.

And as I’m a Career Coach – I’ll say this… when you put yourself in places you wouldn’t normally go – you’ll discover answers and insights into who you are that you wouldn’t normally find.

And these nuggets, as wonderfully uncomfortable as they can be to discover – have the power to propel you into an opportunity that you’ll like much better than the one you’re in.

It takes one decision, and maybe a few minutes, to push bed-time back an hour, and get up off the proverbial coach. So today, choose one thing you’ll apply this to – and go do it.

• Go to the event
• Read the book
• Explore the neuroscience job you’re interested in
• Start dance classes
• Reach out to that person who might be able to help you
• Book that vacation

You’re worth it.