Dark nail polish; do you wear it? Up until 2 weeks ago I had never tried it. I always thought it looked good; on other people. I never thought it would look good on me. I didn’t think I had the right shaped nails, the right skin colour, the right attitude…..perhaps.

But 2 weeks ago sitting around with some cool chicks at my dining table a bottle of dark purplish kind of hue nail polish started doing the rounds. When it was passed to me I hesitated; you’d think I was offered illicit drugs.

“Oh no”, I said with a coy and quavering voice. “Dark nail polish never looks good on me.”

As I was about to pass it onto the next person a wave of clarity overcame me. I don’t actually ever remember ever trying dark nail polish. I just always assumed it would look bad on me.

I’m sure everyone was wondering why my face was making weirdo expressions as the internal dialogue in my brain raged.

What if I would actually TRY the dark nail polish? This is a good a time as any. In fact, it’s perfect. I’m with trusted company and if it actually doesn’t look good, I can always remove it. No harm, no foul.

My whole approach changes from coy and quavering speech to confident nail polish risk taker. I sit higher in my chair, my excitement showing through my body language. My shoulders are back and my tongue is sticking out of my cheek as I brush my first fingernail. I hold it up to assess and am quietly and pleasantly surprised. It doesn’t look too bad at all.

The chatter around the table fades into the background as I continue to paint my nails and watch my 36 year old slightly weathered hands transform into funky looking hip hands.

Why hadn’t I done this before? I don’t know. There was no need to be scared. But there it was? An unfounded fear kept me from trying something new. How many of us are guilty of that?

When you are a growing up everything is an experiment; a risk. It’s the beauty of growing up. And it’s all by default. But obviously as we head into our 20’s, 30’s and 40’s and we “settle down” our risk taking minimizes, again by default.

Should it ever cease? NEVER!

But unfortunately it does and then we hit middle age, suffer a mid-life crisis and wonder where did all the years go and what have we got to show for them.

Well it got me thinking what kind of message was that sending my children? Don’t try anything new kids because it might not work out. Well what if it doesn’t? What’s the harm? And it if does work, you have everything to gain.

Growing up I generally didn’t listen to adults who seemed to not practice what they preached. The ‘do as I say, not as I do’ kind.

So I imagine it would be a difficult lesson to teach your children about going out and taking risks when we forget to do it ourselves. I think our children need to see us take risks.

As parents we tend to put ourselves last while we nurture our children through life. And it is easy to forget to do things for ourselves; discover and rediscover ourselves.

I like the new dark nail polished me. Wish I had done it years ago.

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Is there something you have always wanted to try, but have never dared?