I’m a big fan of Stephen King.

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

So, at the behest of several friends who told me it’s their favorite book, I finally did ,he started reading 22/11/63,.

Here’s the mind blowing premise:

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

What if you could change it?

Stephen King’s heart-wrenchingly dramatic novel about a man who travels back in time to prevent JFK’s assassination—a thousand-page twist.

Like all good nerds, I’ve devoted too much intelligence to hypothetical time travel, the butterfly effect, and altering the past. I bet you did too.

Time travel is a very attractive idea because our brains can’t think “the road less traveled” and “what if I did X instead of Y?”

Which brings me to today’s newsletter topic.

Accepting that some paths are closed is incredibly liberating.

Some roads are closed

My friend Tim Urban ,WaitButWhy.com, put this graphic on the life choices we’ve made so far and the branching paths that will open up for us tomorrow:

It’s really easy for our brains to hyperfocus on all the black lines in our past: the paths that have closed to us, the decisions we haven’t made, the decisions we’ve made, and how our lives often feel “determined” right now.

“Because of how I did this in the past, that’s the way things are.”

“It’s a shame we never did XYZ, now it’s too late. I’m so sorry!”

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

We often forget that it is only possible to connect the dots in our lives in retrospect, where we made every decision with the best information we had at the time.

(If you’re looking for a solid read, by Matt Haig ,Midnight library, is a thought-provoking fictional story about alternative lives and acceptance. Haig draws from a past ,almost decided to take his own life,.)

So let’s talk a little bit about those black lines and green options.

Maybe some roads ARE closed!

I bring all these things up to make two points.

Author Chris Guillbeau, who greatly inspired my love of travel and influenced how I built Nerd Fitness, recently published an essay. ,celebrating behind closed doors,.

We’ve all heard stories about people starting certain careers later in life.

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

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

Although these stories are inspiring, the lesson of “it’s not too late” is not universal. Sometimes it IS too late! To believe otherwise is to believe in a 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 IS too late.

Maybe we hold on to the hope that we will eventually run a marathon… even though we hate running.

Maybe we’re holding out hope that we’ll write that cookbook…even though we don’t like cooking anymore.

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

The future isn’t set in stone either

A few weeks ago, I wrote how ,The past is not set in stone,because our perception of the story changes.

It’s okay to accept that it’s okay to kill a dream we had in our 20s.

However, it is equally tragic to think that it is “too late” to make changes in our future, and that it is already determined.

Betrand Russell once said, “You have no obligation to be who you were five minutes ago.”

As Chris says:

It’s “not too late” for many things, and that’s great. But sometimes it is, and that’s okay.

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

But it may be too late for specific paths, and that’s perfectly fine.

Indeed, it is worth celebrating.

Letting go of some paths, or accepting that some paths have been closed to us, can clear the space to make another decision to move forward in life.

You can decide later today:

• start powerlifting
• take an online class for a new career.
• try a new hobby.
• talk to your doctor about it ,weight loss aid,.

We can’t travel back in time to stop Kennedy’s assassination.

Some paths of life are closed to us now.

It might be okay!

Instead of spending more mental energy regretting our closed black roads, we can get to work deciding which green road to take next.

-Steve

PS: Need guidance and accountability to reach your fitness goals? Nerd Fitness has helped 10,000+ people over the past 8 years with 1-on-1 online fitness coaching. ,Click here for more details,.