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Thursday, June 14, 2012

1 Year

Today is a special day for me. Today marks the 1 year anniversary of #brianswordsofadvice. I know it is nothing amazing, but I like to think there is something to say about lasting 365 days without missing a daily post. The #brianswordsofadvice started as a thought a little before June 14th of last year (2011) when my good friend and fellow O-leader Colleen Meenan said she pictured me being very insightful with my tweets. That one comment turned into an idea and that idea turned into #brianswordsofadvice.

Today's advice is what I would consider the most important advice I have given throughout the year. It is not only something to remind others, but also to remind myself.

You miss 100% of the life you never live.

This advice came from two different sources of inspiration. The first is my good friend Meaghan Neary who yesterday tweeted "I'd rather swing and bat a zero then not swing at all." Both words of advice have a similar concept.

The second inspiration for today's advice came from my good friend and former teammate Ryan Brown. Ryan is on a journey across America on his bike. He tweeted a quote from Michael Jordan which read "I can accept failure. Everyone fails at something, but I can't accept not trying. " I had texted Ryan wishing him luck and telling him I was very impressed. He responded that there was nothing to be impressed about because he had not accomplished his goal yet. I feel this is a typical runners response (I would have given the same one). However, I also feel there is much to be impressed about with Ryan so far. Mainly, we should be impressed with the fact that he even attempted to accomplish his goal.

These two people made me think about the relationship we have with our lives. I believe all relationships are a two way street. Yes, sometimes we have to give more than we take, but other times we take more than we can give. No relationship is perfectly balanced at every moment, but over the days, weeks and months everything balances out. We rely on others at times and they rely on us at different times. Well, I began to realize our relationship with life isn't much different. With our lives we have a lot of giving and a lot of taking.

Life has a lot to offer, however the only way we can experience everything it does offer is if we start living our lives. Life gives us opportunities that we need to take and by taking those opportunities we are giving back. Ryan took an opportunity and whether or not he succeeds or fails he is still living his life to the fullest. Just as Meaghan's quote mentioned, if you never step up to bat you'll never hit the ball.

We miss 100% of the opportunities we fail to take. We miss out on 100% of the life we never live.

Let's live our lives.