#347: Find Inspiration by Asking 'Why the Hell Not?' Embrace New Opportunities for Personal Growth

My friend, this is the 347th episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I'm excited you're here, and I'm excited for us to dive into today's topic.

Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life? Because those bad days, they're just doors to better days.

And that's exactly what we do here at Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

Your host, Kevin Lowe, he's been flipping the script on his own life, turning over 20 years of being completely blind into straight-up inspiration, motivation, and encouragement just for you.

So, kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

I don't know if you caught my interview with Nia McAnally in our previous episode.

That would have been episode 346.

But if you did, then you got to hear her amazing story. Now, if you didn't, let me paint a picture for you, because it's going to set the scene for today's topic.

Nia, she was in her mid-50s and suddenly jobless, homeless.

Literally, the only home she owned were the shoes on her feet.

And if you want to be honest, talk about a horrible situation.

Her future looked bleak. It looked discouraging to be at this point in her life and to have everything gone. But thankfully, Nia understood that she had more life in her. She had more life to live.

And so what did she do? Well, maybe she didn't actually say these words, but just go with me for today's topic.

Because I'm thinking that whether she said them out loud or not, she was thinking, why the hell not?

Why would I not go ahead and start traveling the world? She would set off on a trip around the world, volunteering, making enough money just for housing and food.

She was living the life because she said, why not?

Now, I'm sharing that with you not to suggest that you should quick grab a backpack and take off around the world, although why not?

But more so to get across this idea that amazing things can happen when we simply say, why not?

And here's the whole meaning behind today's topic.

We are all experts at coming up with reasons why we can't, why we shouldn't.

Why we will never. We have so many of those, it is ridiculous.

We say it all the time. No, I don't have enough money.

No, I don't have enough time. I'm not qualified enough for that.

I'm not smart enough. I'm not pretty enough, strong enough.

We come up with every excuse under the sun as to why we can't do something.

So what I'm suggesting is what if you flip the script?

What if you instead say, why not take that Spanish class?

Yeah, I might be older and learning something new might not be so easy, but why not?

Why not take that vacation? Am I ever going to get this opportunity again?

Probably not. So I might as well do it.

Why not just go for it? It's been something I've been dreaming about for so long, and yet I keep coming up with reasons why I shouldn't.

Today is your day, my friend, to say why the hell not to your dreams, to your goals, to those last minute invitations that you get.

That on one shoulder, you have a voice telling you you shouldn't.

No, that's irresponsible.

You got bills to pay. You got things to do, responsibilities.

But on the other shoulder, you have the other voice saying, what the heck?

Go with it. How many times do you get to live? Once.

This is your time to shine. And that is exactly what I'm encouraging today.

Now, I guess it's important to note, I'm not suggesting doing anything reckless, crazy.

No, I'm literally just talking about you giving yourself permission to live life the way that you want to live it.

Referring back to the story of Nia McAnally, when she decided to take that opportunity to crew a sailboat, she was done traveling. She knew she just wanted to do one more trip.

She said yes to that opportunity, to set sail on a sailboat with a stranger, to help him sail his boat from Florida to the Bahamas. And what happened then?

She said yes, and it led to a lifetime of happiness.

It led to her healing past traumas, finding love, and igniting a whole new passion of riding.

She found love on the sea because she adopted this idea of saying, why not?

If you think about it, every time you say, ha, why not? And throw your hands in the air, let your hair down.

You are giving yourself an opportunity to open a new door.

And behind that door, who knows? You never know what lies on the other side.

If we are willing to just go for it.

Now, I will admit, I get it. The unknown is scary. I understand completely.

But you know what's worse than playing it safe?

It's regret.

The regret of the decisions that we didn't make. Regret of the things that we didn't say yes to.

More times than not, my friend, you're going to regret the things that you didn't do than the things you did.

You're going to regret not answering the phone and going out on that date.

You're going to regret not taking a chance and starting that business.

You, my friend, have to be willing to put life on the line because the payoff is so amazing.

It's worth the risk for you to simply say, why not?

I deserve it. I'm able to do this. I'm capable.

So why not do it? And if we look back at Nia McAnally, she could have played it safe.

Heck, when she was at that point in her life, divorced, homeless, jobless, She could have thrown it all away.

She could have just gone back home and called it quits on her dreams.

And yet, what did she do? She said yes.

Yes to one last opportunity that led to years sailing with who would become her husband.

And when it came time for them to get married, what happened?

She didn't say yes just once. She said it three times because they got married in Antigua, back in her home country in Ireland. and in America.

Yes, three weddings, three yeses.

Three is better than one all day long. And she is proof of it.

The biggest thing I want you to understand, my friend, is that life, it's not about following a script.

Life is crazy as it is, and life, honestly, is going to do what it's going to do. But it's up to us to make the most of it.

We all have the same amount of hours in every day. We have the same amount of days in a year.

But what separates us is what we choose to do with that time.

Do you choose to live it out loud? Do you choose to say, why not, a little bit more?

Or do you continue to just think, no, no, no, I'll wait till tomorrow.

I'll wait till next year. Well, friend, maybe right now is your opportunity to just go ahead and say yes.

To say, why the hell not? I deserve it. I'm going to do it.

That is what I want for you. That is what I want today's episode to instill in you, is this confidence, this bravery, this willingness to just say, why the hell not?

My friend, if you could ever use somebody to talk to, maybe it's about deciding whether or not you should say yes, no, or why the hell not. Well, you reach out to me.

Contact information is inside of today's show notes.

You can book a free virtual coffee date with me, or you can also just send me a private voice message all right there in today's show notes as well as on the website.

Gritgraceinspiration.com Until next time, this is another episode of Grit, Grace & Inspiration. I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

And just because, why not say it one last time? Why the hell do you want to say it?

Music.