I'm a huge fan of Stephen King.

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

So, at the urging of many friends who told me it was their favorite book, I finally did it ​I started reading 22/11/63​.

Here's the mind-boggling premise:

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

What if you could change it back?

Stephen King's moving, dramatic new novel about a man who travels back in time to prevent the assassination of JFK is a thousand-page tour de force.

Like any good nerd, I've devoted too much brainpower to hypotheticals about time travel, the butterfly effect, and changing the past. I bet you do too.

Time travel is such a tempting idea because our brains can't help but think about "the shorter way" and "what if I did X instead of Y?"

Which brings me to the topic of today's newsletter.

Accepting that some paths are closed is incredibly liberating.

Some paths are closed

My friend Tim Urban at ​WaitButWhy.com​ place this chart showing the life choices we have made to date and the branching paths will open up to us tomorrow:

It's really easy for our brains to focus on all the black lines in our past: the paths closed to us, the decisions we didn't make, the decisions we did make, and how often our lives now seem "determined."

"Because of how I've done it in the past, it is what it is."

“I wish I had never done XYZ, it's too late now. I regret it very much!”

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

We often forget that the moments of our lives can only be connected by looking back, when we made every decision based on the best information we had at the time.

(If you're looking for a solid read, Matt Haig ​Library of the North​ is a thought-provoking fictional story about alternative life paths and acceptance. Haig draws from the past ​the decision to almost kill himself​.)

So let's talk a little bit about these black lines and green opportunities.

Perhaps some paths ARE closed!

I bring all this 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 on ​we celebrate closed doors​.

We've all heard stories about people pursuing certain careers later in life.

An example would be "It's never too late! Samuel L. Jackson didn't get his breakthrough role in "Pulp Fiction" until he was 46 years old.

Chris emphasizes that sometimes... it's too late:

While these stories are inspiring, the lesson of "it's not too late" is not universal. Sometimes it's too late! To believe otherwise is 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 "someday," and perhaps we don't want to accept the reality that... yes, it's already too late.

Maybe we still hope to eventually run a marathon…even though we hate running.

Maybe we still hope to write that cookbook… even though we don't really like cooking anymore.

Maybe we can decide that a few paths ARE closed to us. We can accept it.

The future is not written in stone either

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

It's okay to accept that maybe the dream we had in our twenties is okay if we die.

However, equally tragic is the assumption that "it is too late" to make any changes in our future and that it is already decided.

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 a lot of things, and that's great. But sometimes it happens 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 certain paths, and there's nothing wrong with that.

Indeed, it is worth celebrating.

Letting go of certain paths or accepting that certain paths may be closed to us can clear the space to make a different decision about how to move forward with our lives.

Today you can decide that:

• start powerlifting
• take online classes to start a new career.
• try a new hobby.
• talk to your doctor about this ​help with weight loss​.

We can't go back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination.

Some paths of life are now closed to us.

This might be okay!

Instead of spending more time regretting closing the black paths, we can work on deciding which green path we will take next.

-Steve

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