By Kristina Mills

About 8.30 am yesterday morning I was sitting in my office checking emails when I heard a frantic shout from my husband,” “Kriiiiiiiiiisssssssssss, come and looooooooook at thissssss!!!!!!!!! NOW! Do-ooooooo something!!!”

I rushed into the kitchen and saw my husband as white as a ghost, pointing to something outside our window. I looked in the direction he was pointing and there it was … a massive 2.5 metre carpet snake climbing up our fence 6 feet away from us.

“Wow!!! Isn’t that incredible,” I said, in awe of it’s size and grace as I watched it elegantly slide its massive frame over our fence and into our neighbour’s garden.

Now, of course I felt obliged to let my neighbours know and their reaction was quite alarming. After the shrieks of terror had subsided one of them even said, “Can we poison it?”

Another wanted to get a shovel and hit it over the head.

And another said, “Poor thing, it’s a shame to have it taken away, it’s just that it makes me a little nervous having a little child an all.”

I spoke to my mum and her reaction was an intrigued, “Wow, did the boys (my sons) get to see it?”

(NB. The reason why my mother and I weren't scared of carpet snakes is that both of us had been brought up on farms and seeing carpet snakes was a common occurence for us)

It’s quite amusing when you think about it:

How one person can look at something and see an evil creature that threatens their existence and somebody else can see it as a thing of beauty - a majestic creature just going about its business.

People have preconceived notions of what something is or should be.

Because a snake isn’t fluffy and cute like a koala many people are scared of it.

After all, snakes can kill people so all snakes kill people and because he’s big he’s even more dangerous?????

People fear anything that is different NOT because it’s evil but because they really don’t understand it.

The moral of the story …

People base their opinions on what they think is right given their model of the world. Everyone’s model of the world is different.

So …. anyone who goes through life obsessed by what others think of them is setting themselves up for disappointment because you just CANNOT please everyone all of the time.

What’s important is that you do what sings to YOUR heart and that you go with YOUR gut … not what you think everyone else thinks you should do.

PLEASE ….

Don’t live a life of regret … being too afraid to do something for fear of getting egg on your face.

Don’t live a life of analysis paralysis, so consumed by getting something perfect before you launch it to the world.

Get out there and dip your toe in the water of that new career.

Test that marketing campaign that you’ve been too scared to try just in case it doesn’t work. If it bombs … at least you’ve learnt what not to do next time.

Now I’m not saying go and bet your entire life savings on a new venture or a new direction or to burn your bridges on your old life.

What I am saying is that if you have a dream, and to achieve that dream requires going out of your comfort zone into areas that could make you look foolish, for goodness sake, don’t just sit there, do it.

DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you fail, you’ve learned something.

If people berate you for it, so be it. All it is is their opinion. It doesn’t make you any less of a person. In fact, it makes you so much more.

At least you have had the courage to do what you wanted to do, to say what was important to you, to live life the way you wanted to.

After all …

“Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”

Albert Einstein

“Often the difference between a successful person and a failure is not one has better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on one’s ideas, to take a calculated risk — and to act.”

Maxwell Maltz

“It is impossible to win the race unless you venture to run, impossible to win the victory unless you dare to battle.”

Richard DeVos

“It often requires more courage to dare to do right than to fear to do wrong.”

Abraham Lincoln