Quote Challenge Day 2 - Sail away from the safe harbor

What ambition did you give up on because failure would have hurt so bad?

What dream did you allow life to subdue?

What scared you from doing what your heart once aspired for?

Think about those questions today. And if some memory stirs within your mind, follow that train of thought and see where and why it halted. It could be not chasing the career you were really good at. It could be giving up on a vocation that made you happy. It could be just telling someone you cared about what you thought of them.

And now ask yourself one last question -

Do you still wish you could do it?

If so, today is as good a moment as any to start. It is the nature of life that we get set in routines expected of us and give up on the life goals we once grew up with. Safety in the mundane, I consider it.

Except that is not who you are. You are capable of so much more. Yes, it is scary to take a step away from normalcy and be viewed with raised eyebrows by everyone around you... but then it is also the first step to you rising above the crowd. More importantly, it is the first step to being true to yourself.

It is something I always tell others and I share it with you too now - If your teenage self met you today, would he/she be proud of what you have become in life? If not, what can you do to change his/her perspective of you in five years?

Take a chance. You may fail... but you may also succeed in achieving a life goal that, at this moment in your life, you have labeled impossible for yourself.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things 

that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. 

Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. 

Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Today's quote first appeared in Godyears in 2013 when I was chasing one such dream that seemed outlandish. For the record, I did not attain that dream. But even in failing, there was a lesson of reaffirmation for me. You see, it reminded me of the good I am capable of and who I wanted to be in life.

Over the last five years, I have made that teenage self proud of me. I know that. I stopped complaining about some of the ridiculous cards life had dealt me and chased more dreams than I had ever done in three decades before that. 

The end result? I ended up going from a random one-in-a-million doctor to a one-in-thousand doctor/author to being one in twenty five alongside the Prime Minister of the country and finally one in one with a bonafide trophy. 

None of this and the other accolades that I received would have been possible had I listened to what everyone told me about what was 'expected of me'.

The best part is that I know that I am still on my journey to being the best me I can be. 

I hope you too find it in yourself to be the best you that you can be. I hope you too find it in yourself to make that teenage version of yourself proud of you five years down the road.

Author's note:

Aseem tagged me for the 3 day quote challenge. The rules are as follows - 

1. Post one of your favorite quotes (different quote on each day) on three consecutive days. The quote can be from your favorite book, author, or your own.
2. Nominate 3 bloggers to challenge them.
3. Thank the blogger, who nominated you.

Each quote I have chosen represents a part of my life. Somewhere in the course of these ten years in the blogosphere, they have appeared in the blog at defining moments. 

My first quote was an altered take on  "The light at the end of the tunnel..."