A lot of folks like to come up with a motto for the new year (yes, I know the year isn’t quite as new anymore, but there’s still way more ahead than behind). I don’t like to limit myself to calendar years generally, as life is more linear and complex than that, but the beginning of year is still a great time to reevaluate yourself.

A good friend has a great “life motto” that I’m kind of adopting. The idea is: never turn down the opportunity to experience something new.

I’m not sure if that’s the exact wording my friend used, but the idea is pretty good. If you are given the opportunity to try something new or do something different…don’t turn it down. (I mean, except for obvious reasons, such as, you’ll end up in jail, it hurts people, you have a prior commitment)…but for instance, that’s why I ended up auditioning for the TSO tribute band I mentioned. Initially I thought, huh, that’s ridiculous and not something I would be into. But then I thought, well, I don’t always love everything I’m doing now, and it might be a great opportunity and a ton of fun, and I just might love it. Worse case, I learn a lot and do something totally different.

This idea continues into many aspects of life: seeing movies that are a bit strange (over the weekend I broadened my horizons by seeing The Great Beauty, which is so not my sort of movie, but it was a neat experience), trying new restaurants (always up for it), going to shows, talking to people, going for a run, saying YES to a lot of things that you want to say no to because they frighten you or you are afraid you’ll be bored or you won’t like it…because the worst that will happen is that you will spend a few hours being bored, but you might potentially spend a few hours experiencing something amazing or even life changing.

Not to be cheesy (mmmm cheese) but it reminds me of that whole thing about how growth occurs outside of your comfort zone.

That’s an important graphic to remember. (I usually hate this kind of thing, but I don’t have any other pictures for this blog post, so there you have it. Obviously you should pin it.)

So those are my thoughts for today. Nothing too deep, just deep enough. In order to make 2014 a better year than last year I have to face my fears and get out there into the world. Even on those days where I just want to stay in bed because it’s safe and warm there…

Do you have a motto for 2014? Or a life motto?