The season of liberation.
By Roy Spence
“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.” — Mark Twain
OK, people. It’s springtime in Austin and Central Texas. It’s the beginning of the rainy season—please, please rain—and thanks to Lady Bird Johnson, the heart of the wildflower season. It’s the time for planting flowers, prepping and planting your vegetable garden and it’s time for that ol’ spring-cleaning too.
Well, Austin men, I am adding one more thing to the list. But this one should not be a have to but rather a want to. I have a great and longtime friend named Jim Collins, who is the author of the best-selling books Built to Last and Good
to Great. He is a serial rock climber, speaker, lecturer, teacher. You get the picture. He is a man for all seasons when it comes to living large in the world of throwing off the bowlines, sailing away from the safe harbor, catching the trade winds, exploring, dreaming and discovering. He once told me in a conversation about what’s next, “You know, Roy, you are only as young as the new stuff you do. When you are a kid, teenager, young adult and even a family man with kids, doing new stuff is not an act of will, but rather an act of the natural course of growing up. Exploring, dreaming and discovering is nature’s path of surviving, hopefully
thriving and literally season, the precise season of life’s cycle to explore. Dream. Discover. In short, the season
of want to rather than have to. The time to begin writing the book you have always wanted to write. To start the mobile-vending diner you have always wanted to build. Start the actual mapping out of the route you will take cycling across America, which you have always wanted to do. Go into the studio and record the songs you have written creating and raising the
next generation. But as
one gets older, nature
says, ‘I’ve done my job.
Now it is up to you to explore. Dream. Discover.’ ”
Indeed it is. It seems that New Year’s Day in cold January is perfect for new resolutions in an effort to promise oneself that this is the year you will never again overeat, overspend, under-exercise. And the guilt-driven list goes on.
I always thought of springtime as the liberating season, the precise season of life’s cycle to explore. Dream. Discover. In short, the season of want to rather than have to. The time to begin writing the book you have always wanted to write. To start the mobile-vending diner you have always wanted to build. Start the actual mapping out of the route you will take cycling across America, which you have always wanted to do. Go into the studio and record the songs you have written and always wanted to record. Enroll back in college and finish what you started and always wanted to finish.
This is radically different than a bucket list. This is amping up life’s miraculous journey and doing new stuff you have always wanted to do, all for the purpose of staying curious and young at heart. So spring forward and sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Love and hugs to all.
Photo courtesy of Roy Spence.
