{"id":157,"date":"2009-08-13T09:45:11","date_gmt":"2009-08-13T09:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html"},"modified":"2009-08-13T09:45:11","modified_gmt":"2009-08-13T09:45:11","slug":"you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html","title":{"rendered":"You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Just finished the first class in my PhD program. Six credits down and 54 to go&#8230;ouch. Beginning new things, especially things with a long timetable or uncertain outcome, can sometimes feel so daunting that it seems more prudent not the start at all. And yet, the certainty of a predictable black-and-white life pales in stark contrast to the vibrant colors of a passion-driven adventure. \u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>So what&#8217;s your techni-color dream? What have you been putting off starting because the time isn&#8217;t right or the money isn&#8217;t there or the move is not practical? Secret: the time will never be right, there will neve be enought money and significant and worthwhile changes are rarely practical. Do you have an &#8220;I always wanted to&#8221;? What&#8217;s the worst that can happen if you took one single step in that direction today? What&#8217;s the best? The journey starts with one single step.\u00c2\u00a0<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.popmodal.com\/nvplayer.swf?config=http:\/\/www.popmodal.com\/nuevo\/econfig.php?key=4f584974e92d025a75d1\" width=\"480\" height=\"370\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" pluginspage=\"http:\/\/www.macromedia.com\/go\/getflashplayer\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\">                <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Just finished the first class in my PhD program. Six credits down and 54 to go&#8230;ouch. Beginning new things, especially things with a long timetable or uncertain outcome, can sometimes feel so daunting that it seems more prudent not the start at all. And yet, the certainty of a predictable black-and-white life pales in stark&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-growth"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It - Flirting with Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It - Flirting with Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Just finished the first class in my PhD program. Six credits down and 54 to go&#8230;ouch. Beginning new things, especially things with a long timetable or uncertain outcome, can sometimes feel so daunting that it seems more prudent not the start at all. And yet, the certainty of a predictable black-and-white life pales in stark&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Flirting with Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-13T09:45:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Joan Ball\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It - Flirting with Faith","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It - Flirting with Faith","og_description":"Just finished the first class in my PhD program. Six credits down and 54 to go&#8230;ouch. Beginning new things, especially things with a long timetable or uncertain outcome, can sometimes feel so daunting that it seems more prudent not the start at all. And yet, the certainty of a predictable black-and-white life pales in stark&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html","og_site_name":"Flirting with Faith","article_published_time":"2009-08-13T09:45:11+00:00","author":"Joan Ball","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html","name":"You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It - Flirting with Faith","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-13T09:45:11+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-13T09:45:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/581859119d5895db46006b4beb0c1f27"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/2009\/08\/you-know-that-thing-you-always-wanted-to-do-you-can-actually-do-it.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"You Know That Thing You Always Wanted to Do? You Can Actually Do It"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/","name":"Flirting with Faith","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Joan Ball","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/581859119d5895db46006b4beb0c1f27","name":"Joan Ball","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b5\/6b5b96362ce68b986f37a822881ca1f5x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/6b5\/6b5b96362ce68b986f37a822881ca1f5x96.jpg","caption":"Joan Ball"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/author\/jball"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/157\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/flirtingwithfaith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}