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Courage, perseverance, and determination can mean the difference between actively chasing your dreams and merely daydreaming about them. But letâs not be naive. Finding the bravery to go through your plans can be incredibly difficult. Suddenly, thereâs a genuine chance of failing. Itâs much saferâbut far less rewardingâto always stay in your comfort zone. And, weâd argue that a well-lived life is done with lots of courage.
Today, weâre featuring some of the AskReddit community membersâ best stories about the moments when they decided to say âto heck with itâ and went for their dreams, regardless of how hard things might get. Scroll down to read their tales and a huge dose of inspiration! Oh, and if you were looking for a sign to do what youâve always wanted to, dear Pandas, this is it. Youâve got this, go for it!
Bored Panda was curious about how we can all leave our comfort zones and what to do if our risks don’t actually pay off, so we got in touch with Jodi Wellman, MAPP. She is the founder of ‘Four Thousand Mondays’ and the author of the book ‘You Only Die Once: How to Make It to the End with No Regrets.’ You’ll find the insights she shared with us below.
Quit my stable accounting job to open a bakery. Everyone said I was insane, but three years later I’m making double what I used to and actually wake up excited for work. Best part? I get to eat cake scraps for breakfast.
Forbes, reporting on a survey conducted by Choice Mutual Insurance, looked at what 2,000 Americans put on their bucket lists. The average respondent had 19 items on their list. And, somewhat surprisingly, many of these aspirations were related either to travel or to finances.
The most widespread aspiration was to visit specific landmarks in Europe, followed by that same goal, just in North America. In fifth place was traveling via cruise, followed by traveling by train.
Meanwhile, the eighth most common bucket list item was visiting all 50 states in the US. In thirteenth place was the desire to visit specific landmarks in Asia. The nineteenth spot was for plane travel. At the same time, the twentieth spot was for folks who wanted to see all US national parks.
The main reason why the respondents said they couldn’t fulfill their bucket list goals was financial. Most people who participated in the survey also wanted to become millionaires, retire early, start a business, buy a vacation home, learn a new language, and try skydiving.
Went to a concert by myself. Missed out on a lot of great shows because I couldnât find someone to go with me, or those who did werenât really into it as much as I was. After realizing I can have just as much fun if not more going on my own I went from going to a couple concerts to 29 in that year. Best decision.
Years ago, I had the thought that I wished a second hand store for art supplies would exist. Last year, I found out about creative reuse centres in the US and UK, thought they were amazing, what a shame they don’t exist in Belgium!
Then I got pregnant. Then I quit my job.
I’m opening the first creative reuse centre of my country next month!
“The Roman philosopher Seneca was spot-on when he wrote, ‘Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.’ It can be stiflingly hard to press the ‘Go’ button on our dreams and goals and ideas, because they represent disruption to our current comfy way of living, and they activate fear that we might face rejection or failure or success or any other outcome that will require emotional agility to handle. It’s just easier to do nothing!” Wellman, the founder of ‘Four Thousand Mondays,’ explained to Bored Panda via email.
If your goal is to live with more intention, Wellman suggested that one step you could take is to imagine how you’d feel on your deathbed. “Looking back on your life, and the paths you didn’t take… what might you regret not doing? Research is clear that we most regret the things we didn’t do, more so than the mistakes we made,” she said.
“Would you rather feel proud that you pursued a goal, even if it didn’t pan out, or would you rather feel like you had played it safe? Most people need this nudge to take action because we don’t like the idea of what we might lose (the distinct feelings of pride, possible success, and happiness, the awareness that we cared enough about our lives to ‘give it a go’).”
Bought a one way ticket to Alaska and lived in a cabin for a year. Learned to fish chop wood, and survive without Netflix. Hardest but most rewarding year of my life.
When I initially got divorced, my ex husband basically had a much better lawyer and got 60/40 custody. When the kids were a few years older they told me they didnât want to live with him anymore. I was a single mom (obvi) trying to make ends meet and honestly kinda failing at it. I asked them to their faces, look- this is going to be hard, you sure you want this? Itâs going to cost a lot of money and likely a lot of heartache.
Thatâs when they told me stories of him drinking and driving with them in the car and worse. I had to go for it, no matter the cost, the heartache.
We went back to court, it was ugly. He would call CPS and accuse me of things that werenât true just to have an investigation on my record. He would call the police to my house and say I was abusing the kids. It costed around $10k in the end, but I got them at about 85% of the time and as the primary custodial parent. Theyâve grown up safe, with education as a forefront (which he never cared about at all). Sports, (I would pay for sports and he would refuse to take them to practices and games), friends (he never let them go out with friends as weekends were âfor family timeâ) and healthy examples of how a relationship should be.
My now 19 year old is in college with a full scholarship for nuclear engineering, and my 16 year old is thriving in hs with sports and a gpa of 4.0 and a lovely little gf that I like. Things worked out so much better than they would have had they been with their dad. Heâs been basically an alcoholic with no job for years.
Got tired of waiting for ‘the right time’ to have a baby as a single woman. Used a donor, and now my daughter is the light of my life. Society’s timeline isn’t everyone’s timeline.
The reality is that far from every risk is going to give you the results you intended. (Though if you’ve been on a non-stop winning streak, we’re happy for you!) We asked Wellman how someone might bounce back from failure after putting in all of their effort toward a goal. She noted that it might be helpful to redefine what failure means.
“Failure isn’t an indictment on our deeply flawed selves, it’s an indication of something profoundly important. Failure is an indication that we’ve tried something new, that we’ve chosen the possibility of aliveness over stagnancy. Living a vitally alive life requires us to venture out into new territory, take risks, and sample what life has to offer,” she told Bored Panda.
“Framed this way, failure is a litmus test of living like we mean it, and a lack of it is an indication that we’re playing it maybe a bit too safe. Seeing a plan or goal or dream not pan out is a chance to learn, recalibrate, and celebrate that we cared enough to make an attempt at something that mattered.”
Quit my job, this was in 2011, to be an indie game developer.  I had 40k saved and thought of course I’d make money in no time.Â
I did nothing for four years while money ticked away.Â
I had $37 left when I finally got a job again.
I’m happy I tried. I learned I can’t work for myself like that, and two of those four years were probably the happiest time of my life. .
Moved across the world and gave up my very high paying job to marry a long distance partner and become a stepdad.
Itâs pushed me way out of my comfort zone and has been the most rewarding experience of my life by far.
I once decided to move to a new city with no job lined up, just figuring it out as I went. It was super stressful at first, but eventually, it paid off. I made great friends, found a career I actually enjoy, and learned to trust the process more!
Though your career doesnât reveal everything about you as a person, itâs still an indication of the general things you value and how youâd like others to see you. And the professions that young people aspire to can tell a lot about society as a whole. According to a 2021 survey by YouGov, teenage boys and girls in the United States have different dream jobs, but thereâs still a large overlap in some key areas. Wanting to entertain others is a very popular, unifying goal.
For example, 12% of American male teens want to be professional athletes in the future. Furthermore, 11% want to be online content creators, 6% see a future as musicians, 6% want to be professional gamers, and 5% hope to become doctors or nurses.
Meanwhile, 13% of female teens aspire to be doctors or nurses, 11% dream of being actresses, 9% want to be musicians, 7% want to be artists, and 6% think that being YouTubers or streamers would be cool as a job.
I’m an artist but managed a bookstore for years because my alcoholic gambler husband was so unreliable.
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When he divorced me for his AP, (1990), I made a connection with an antique store and started doing hand painted furniture for them, which expanded into wall murals and museum reproductions.Â
I was a full time professional artist for 25 years until I retired, I made slightly more than a teacher and was fully self supporting and loved what I did. I had 4 employees, we had a blast.Â
Never would have happened if my scum first husband hadn’t cheated.  .
I went to finish my degree during my divorce. I lived on less than $18,000 for a family of three for two and a half years. Now my income is $45,000 and I have a dream job teaching 6th grade reading. I finally feel like Iâm where I belong.
I’ve never had enough self confidence to be myself or say what i think around strangers. Then i met this girl that was a friend of my friend, we met at a party and nobody introduced us to each other. I just decided that i liked her and i would show confidence even if i didn’t have it, because “fake it till you make it” sometimes works. I just started talking to her like she was already my friend, and we actually became friends in a couple of hours. Then she applied the same tactic and kissed me like we already were a couple. We are still a couple after 8 years.
Being brave doesnât mean acting recklessly or not feeling fear. Quite the opposite: itâs about doing what you want, need, or must despite feeling utterly terrified. Not every risk is going to work out well. However, if youâre optimistic about the future, feel confident in your skills, and generally have Hope (with a capital âHâ), you can decide that somethingâs worth trying.
Youâre essentially putting your time, energy, money, and health on the line for the sake of your dreams. And these aspirations can be incredibly personal. Some will naturally be easier to achieve than others.
One person might never have left their home town, so their goal is to expand their horizons with travel just a bit. Another might aim to live a bit healthier or theyâve always dreamed of playing the guitar well enough to amuse their friends. Someone else might want to travel the world, start a business, become a globally famous athlete, finally quit that soul-sucking job of theirs, publish a book, or go into space (hi!).
Changed my profile from Male looking for Female to Male looking for Male on a whim.
I matched a cute guy shortly after, March will be out 5th year together and I’ve never been happier.
This was back in 2000 I was 40, had worked in Warehousing my whole adult life, worked my way up to manager, and got laid off after 13 years.
I saw that programmers made a lot more money than warehouse managers so I told my wife Iâm going to teach myself how to code. Spent a lot of money at Barnes and Noble and slogged my way through books on SQL, VB, Perl. God what a beating.
But here I am 24 years later Director of Analytics and still coding!
After reading dozens of threads from people who quit their jobs and just went and travelled, in 2022 I decided I’d do the same. Quit my very nice and comfortable job and went on a one year sabbatical in Japan.
Greatest decision of my life. Met so many people, journeyed all across Japan, staying in different locations all the time, no work stress, just me thinking about what I’ll eat the next day.
Yeah, I spent most of my savings and the year afterwards was a bit rough but I’d do it again. The memories I’ve made are priceless. I guess the only downside is that I just keep thinking back to that year and wish I could go back because regular life is so a*s in comparison.
All of these aspirations lie in the realm of possibility. But theyâll require effort, research, and a lot of persistence to see them through. Courage, while necessary, might not be enough. Itâs one thing to get things started. Itâs another entirely to find the discipline, willpower, and mental fortitude to see them through to the end, despite any setbacks you encounter. So, courage has to become a habit where you find the energy to actively move closer to your dreams every day.
You have to believe, on a deeper level, that all the pain and self-doubt is going to be worth it in the end. Moreover, you have to genuinely enjoy the process. If you want to be a famous painter or writer, you canât get there without being passionate about painting or writing. Meanwhile, if you donât actually like those activities, you might be more after the prestige they offer and need to look for some other way to be authentically creative.
Used to see a really pretty girl across the library in college, spent an entire semester telling myself that one day I’d work up the courage to go talk to her.
I was hanging out with the librarian one day (old family friend), when I heard someone walking behind me. Told myself, “if I turn around and it’s that girl, I’m gonna ask her out.” I knew full well it wouldn’t be her when I made that little pact; there were thousands of people at that college.Â
Well, I almost fainted when i turned around. Guess who? I managed to choke up a two-liner from my favorite movie, and we became friends. She was just out of a bad breakup and wouldn’t commit to anything, but after months and months, she gave me a chance.Â
Over a decade later now, and we’re still together. Two wonderful kids and a pupper.Â
If you got a chance, take it.Â
Take it while you got a chance.
Forewent my boring “only buy mutual funds” approach and dropped 20k on an individual stock. I’m now the proud owner of an individual stock worth 6k.
After backpacking for 3 months, I decided to continue backpacking. Send notice to work, cancelled my University spot that was about to start in 4 weeks.
Spent close to 10 years traveling after that. So, can say that I went pretty far. Now from last year, starting to settle down because of a serious relationship.
So worth it. 10 years have felt like 50 years of experience sometimes.
Which of these stories motivated you the most, Pandas? What are the biggest risks youâve taken in life that have paid off? What are the biggest opportunities youâve taken that youâre glad you didnât ignore? On the flip side, are there any risks you took where you failed? How did move past that?
Weâd love to hear all about your current and past dreams and aspirations, so if you have a moment, tell us all about them in the comments!
I started dating this guy who would go on trips into volcanos. He invited me with him to Vanuatu when weâd been dating for about three months. I said no because it was so expensive and I didnât feel like I could take the time off work. Iâve never felt deeper regret, realizing this was an opportunity very few people get. The day he got home I told him, I donât care when or how much it costs, next time Iâm going with you.
He came to me super excited about a year later to announce the next trip was in the works. I matched his energy until he was like, âguess where weâre going?â I assumed back to Vanuatu but he told me, no pack your bags weâre going to the Congo.
My dad is famously referred to as âLiam Neesonâ by my friends because he has made a point in the past to prove that he can get boots on the ground to find me anywhere in the world. When I told him about this trip he was scared. He begged me not to go, but I wasnât going to miss the opportunity again. As the trip got closer he called me and told me emphatically, âPlease donât go, I CANNOT help you there. I can help you anywhere. But not thereâ. That really freaked me out. But I didnât back down.
It was the most challenging, most rewarding, and most bada*s thing Iâve ever done and probably will ever do.
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