Closed Path, Open Future | Nerd Fitness

I’m a huge Stephen King fan.

I’ve read the entire Dark Tower series, It, The Shining, Doctor Sleep, and my favorite movie is based on his novella, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank’s Redemption.

So, at the request of many friends who told me it was their favorite book, I finally NumberStart reading November 22, 2063Number.

This is the head-scratching premise:

On November 22, 1963, three shots were fired in Dallas, President Kennedy died, and the world changed.

What if you could change it back?

Stephen King’s heartbreakingly dramatic new novel, about a man who travels back in time to prevent JFK’s assassination, is a thousand-page masterpiece.

Like every good nerd, I put too much of my brain power into hypotheticals about time travel, the butterfly effect, and altering the past. I bet you have too.

Time travel is such an alluring idea because our brains can’t help but think about “the road less traveled” and “what if I did X instead of Y?”

Which brings me to today’s newsletter topic.

Accepting that some roads are closed is incredibly freeing.

Some paths are closed

My friend Tim Urban is here NumberWaitButWhy.comNumber Make this chart that shows the life choices we make today and the branching paths open to us tomorrow:

It’s easy for our brains to become overly focused on all the black threads of the past: the roads that were closed to us, the decisions we didn’t make, the decisions we made, and how our lives now often feel “certain.”

“Because that’s what I’ve done in the past, so that’s the way it is.”

“It’s a pity that I never did XYZ. It’s too late now. I regret it so much!

“I don’t deserve to be happy because of this mistake I made.”

We often forget that we can only connect the dots in our lives by looking back, where we make every decision based on the best information we have at the time.

(If you’re looking for a solid read, Matt Haig’s Numbermidnight libraryNumber is a thought-provoking fictional story about alternative life paths and acceptance. Haig draws inspiration from the past NumberAlmost decided to end his lifeNumber.)

So let’s talk about the possibilities of those black and green lines.

Maybe some roads are closed!

I bring up all this stuff to make two points.

Author Chris Guillbeau, who greatly inspired my love of travel and influenced the way I build nerdy fitness, recently published an article about NumberCelebrating behind closed doorsNumber.

We’ve all heard stories of people who started certain careers later in life.

An example is, “It’s never too late! Samuel L. Jackson didn’t get his breakthrough role in “Pulp Fiction” until he was 46.

Chris points out that sometimes… it’s too late:

While these stories are inspiring, the “it’s not too late” lesson is not universal. Sometimes it’s too late! To do otherwise would be to believe in fantasy.

Some things in life have real deadlines—not all, but some.

In other words, sometimes we often hold on to something that we know we will eventually do “one day” and maybe we refuse to accept the reality that… yes, it’s too late.

Maybe we’re still holding on to hope that we’ll eventually run a marathon… even though we hate running.

Maybe we still hold on to the hope of writing that cookbook… even though we don’t actually enjoy cooking anymore.

Maybe we can decide that a few roads are closed to us. We can accept this.

The future is not static either

A few weeks ago I wrote about how to NumberThe past is not staticNumberbecause our perception of the story changes.

It’s okay to accept that maybe a dream we had in our 20s died.

However, it is equally sad to assume that it is “too late” to make any changes to our future, that everything has already been determined.

Bertrand Russell once said: “You are under no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago.”

As Chris said:

It’s “not too late” for a lot of things, and that’s fine. But sometimes it does, and that’s okay.

It’s not too late to learn something new. It’s not too late to try something new.

But it might be too late for a particular path, and that’s totally fine.

In fact, this is cause for celebration.

Letting go of certain paths, or accepting that certain paths may be closed to us, can make room for making different decisions in life going forward.

You can decide later today:

• start lifting weights
• Take online courses for new careers.
• Try a new hobby.
• Discuss with your doctor Numberweight loss helpNumber.

We cannot go back in time to prevent Kennedy’s assassination.

Some paths in life are now closed to us.

Maybe this will do!

Instead of spending more brainpower regretting the black roads we closed down, we can start working on deciding which green road to take next.

-Steve

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