Don't ask permission... just do it.

I learned something interesting from my dog last night. This is the aforementioned "Naughty Golden Retriever" who is so nice to let us live in his house. The past couple of months have been an ongoing struggle of whether he gets to sleep on our bed or not (I like to say it's a struggle, when really - he wins every time.) He has this whole routine down - he beats us upstairs, takes his position with his head resting ever-so-sweetly on the bed, and gets progressively more adamant by the minute. That's when my dear husband folds like a cheap deck chair and let's him up. Lately, it's gotten even worse. He doesn't even bother with the routine now - he slyly adjourns to our bedroom when we're not looking and lets himself up. We don't know this until we walk into our bedroom and see him spread out over the entire bed, without one trace of remorse. (Pictured here)

It got me thinking, who needs permission? I think that when we are faced with the option of doing something out-of-the-norm, we hesitate for fear of overstepping our bounds... "Is that too pushy?", "Am I allowed to do that?"

I recently read an article about bestselling author, Karen Salmansohn that quoted her as saying, "The biggest risk I have taken was probably going up to Madonna at a restaurant with my books and showing them to her. I put down my first book, How to Make Your Man Behave, and she said, 'I own this book. You wrote this?' I said, 'Yes, I'm writing books to empower women.' She grabbed my arm and said, 'God bless you.' " Salmansohn said that everything she's gotten was because she did something she wasn't supposed to... she wasn't "supposed to" interrupt Madonna, but she did, and got blessed by Madonna!

You want to do something? Just do it. (I hate Nike for commercializing that line) What are you waiting for?