SOMETIMES, I WANT TO MAKE TIME STOP moving so quickly. If I don’t grasp this moment, it feels as though this season will fall through my fingers.

How do we make time slow instead of passing us by? We do the things which cause us to wake up from our dream, the things which scare us, move us, and cause our heart to stir where we can no longer stay asleep.

It’s in this mode of being when time begins to slow.

We push against the outer walls of who we are; we try something new, where each incremental step is a challenge that makes us grow from the inside out.

It’s easy to think that we should have done better in the past; perhaps we missed our opportunity. But we’re alive, here and now. We have today.

What will it take to change? A willingness to try, to fail, to fall, and grow.

Personally, at work, there are countless moments to make small talk with co-workers. It feels like people could work together for years without actually knowing anything about one another.

What’s easier than small talk is to say nothing at all. We usually fill the space with unsaid words; the questions I honestly wish to ask flow through my mind: how are you really doing? Are you okay? What do you like to do? I want to know about you.

It takes a leap of faith — this is no small thing. Speaking up and transcending small talk is a modest step to change our DNA and cause it to shift; when we do, we come alive.

We awaken to a new reality where we’re no less afraid, only more courageous. Incrementally more courageous. There’s a difference.

We’ll always be afraid to try — but life is split between those who let their fear control them, and those who confront that fear. To let your fear win is to stay where you are. To confront it is to transcend.

That is liberation.

When I spoke up and asked what’s going on in my co-worker’s life, they asked me in return what I’m working on. I began honestly to discuss my thoughts on religion, spirituality, and my search for meaning. This is indeed what I’m working on, and I wanted to explore the concept.

Safe to say I dove right into the deep end! When others walked by, they noticed a genuine conversation. Some people were deterred; it wasn’t for them.

A genuine conversation between two interested people is rare — yet each of us is rare. Every human being is an individual jewel, yet we hardly speak of our glistening facets and iridescent color — afraid of the response, afraid to sound a certain way, afraid to be different.

I came away from the conversation, wondering if I said too much. But what happened? Time slowed down, and I felt sincerely alive.

I challenged myself to impart what’s truly on my mind, and my entire day changed. I may have stumbled over a few words, trying to articulate the concept that I’m grappling with.

That stumbling is our spirit transcending the “known.” We’re in unknown territory, exploring the wilderness of opportunity. We may stumble, we may fall, we may feel like we’ve lost a grip on reality.

We feel like if we try and we fail at anything at all — starting a conversation, something new, being who we want to be instead of who we are — then we’re a failure.

But failure is a feature, not a bug. Perhaps we have this wrong. If we’re not failing, we’re not trying to grow. It doesn’t matter what others think when you try and it doesn’t work out.

You took a leap of faith, something that people only dream of doing. To try and fail is to transcend who we are; if we’re willing to try, the opportunity to grow is boundless.