A while back, I was watching a Facebook Live with happiness expert, Gretchen Rubin. Rubin was talking about the process of decision making. One of her points that struck me was when she is in the process of decision making, she considers what decision is going to afford her to play big in her life.

This resonated with me because I am driven and motivated by having as many experiences that I can despite my disability. This includes experiences with my family, experiences with the people I love, experiences with my parents, experiences with my friends, professional experiences, and experiences that will fulfill my spirit. I take a lot of risks and put myself out there. I want to play life at a high level.

So often, we let our circumstances dictate the way we play and the way we live. Although limitations and challenges are a big part of life, they should not dictate how we go through life. Instead of letting our circumstances dictate our lives, we should let our desires and motivations dictate where we are going. This is not to say that we should ignore our challenges or our insecurities, but rather we should not let our circumstances dictate how big we play.

This battle is a continuous struggle that we have to deal with in order to achieve amazing success. There are more reasons not to play big than reasons to play big. Anytime I wanted to play big, whether it is writing a book or becoming a speaker there were more reasons not to play big than to do so.

This really crystalized when I became a father. I always had a thought that made me ask the question: Is it right for me to have children? The hundreds of mundane activities that most fathers enjoy, such as helping their children in the car, or helping them change their clothes, or even picking them up when they cry were taken away from me. I decided that I could be a good father despite these challenges. This decision made me play big. Thank goodness I made the decision because it is really a blessing in my life. I get the sense every day that my two boys, Andrew and Tyler, don’t care if I am not able to be there like I had hoped. All they care about is that I am their father.

What decision in your life is going to make you play big? Did you make a decision in the past that made you play small? My theory is that if your dreams don’t scare you, then you are not playing big.