The Act is the Outcome

This week perusing my friend Diane's Blog I noticed a badge that said: One Thing Be Brave. So I clicked on it and was brought to a project started by a woman who decided to do one act of bravery a day for a month. She inspired others to do the same. Like so many daily acts it brought great changes to her life. I believe fully that when we can break free of ourselves and truly risk the ideas that keep us shackled and "safe" it is a moment of divine grace. Miracles occur. I can think back to many experiences of this in my life that created living, breathing things in my life.

It made me think of the "theme" I created for 2008--SCREW IT. Like so many resolutions I go in and out of remembering it, but when I have, it has nudged me out of places where I get stuck or lost. When I read the first thing on Jessie's list, where she applied for a portrait artist job and she noted: "I never heard back from them--doesn't matter though, because it got the ball rolling," it was like a big A-HA! moment. I thought, that's it: The outcome doesn't matter, it's the ACT of doing something brave, or anyway, or just to do it that is the REAL outcome. Or for a sort of shorthand: The Act is the outcome.

So today, I revisited my SCREW IT year and I wrote down a list of things I have been avoiding and a list of things I am afraid to do. Some of them feel big, and some of them are just the places where I hide:

Today, for example, I had a doctor's appointment earlier this week, but I really didn't want to go. For one thing, the office is literally 2 blocks from where I work, which is an hour commute, and I wasn't going there that day. It would be much easier if I could wait until I was going to be at work. Normally, and what I had told myself was that it's probably hard to reschedule especially the same day of the appointment. I should be a "good girl" and not inconvenience anybody. Well, SCREW IT. I called the doctor's office and they were more than helpful about it. It wasn't an inconvenience to them at all--and it freed my ENTIRE DAY!

Another example: Money has been SO TIGHT this month. I am about to get paid, but I had a feeling that my bank account was riding on fumes. Normally, I might just hide from it and hope that it would be okay, but you know what? SCREW IT. I decided to "get current" and check to see how much I ACTUALLY have. It turned out I was in better shape than I thought, but the point isn't the money--it was that I didn't go with the scared machinery in my brain. I stepped into the light.

Honestly, this is stuff I already know--and I bet you do too. But I like the reminders or the clear moments that make me break free of my own spell. It helps me feel my own spiritual checkbook is balanced and accounted for. Also, such acts are a reminder that I really can do anything. That's not a bad thing to remember.