Are you willing to pay rent for what you want?

Once there was a man who decided to live life by the motto that “It’s better to be fooled than be suspicious.”

If someone took advantage of his trust, he brushed it off and reasoned that his loss was simply ‘rent.’

Rent on what?

On his ideals, on his faith in human nature. He figured it would cost him more to live life as a suspicious person, cutting himself off from opportunity, than to live openheartedly and pay the occasional cost, i.e. rent, to maintain his convictions.  

Ever since I first encountered him (he’s a character in the E.M. Forster novel Howard’s End, by the way), I’ve been fascinated by his story.

While I’m a big fan of setting boundaries, I’m an even bigger fan of taking risks.

What about you?

… Is there something you’ve been holding back on, because you fear the consequences?

What, exactly, have you got to lose? Will it be as devastating as you might be imagining, or is it merely a rent payment? Maybe what you’re doing is far more costly than a little rent payment now and then.

…Or did you try something in the past, only to get burned?

Maybe you need to stop being so hard on yourself, brush it off as a simple rent payment, and get back to living your life.

As we head into fall, often one of the most productive times of the year, it’s worth thinking about your choices. 

Will you go for it, or hold yourself back?

Here’s to calculated risks,

Jenna