Leap…and_Grow

It’s only human nature to stick to the things we already know, socialize with our old friends, and to do the same things time and again. There is comfort in this. And there is fear within new things. Learning a new language, knowing we will make mistakes, embarrass ourselves with errors, and feel silly when we are grasping for that perfect word. The only way to really learn those foreign languages is to do just that: fail toward success, and learn with each mistake. Fear of looking foolish is natural, yet we all do so at various times in our lives with no harm done but a bruised ego. In the classic fable ‘The Golden Key,’ an old man shows a boy the reality of the world around him and that there is no progress without some risk. He moves an enormous stone from the cave’s floor, and shows the boy a hole that seems to be bottomless. The boy objects, saying that it’s impossible. The Man only replies that he must throw himself in the hole, that there is no other way, and that while it is truly scary, it is the way.

We are here on this earth for such a really short time. In a particular job. As a single person. It also seems that far too many of us let the fear of something—looking foolish, being thought stupid, failing—stop us in our tracks and we simply go on existing without challenge or satisfaction. Fear is to be respected as it can, indeed, protect us from all sorts of unpleasant things, but if we can change that paradigm to feel fear…of what we will miss if we do not take action, our lives begin to change. To say ‘yes’ to those things that frighten us, like running a marathon, writing a book, or starting a business. Like the boy facing the bottomless hole shown to him by the old man, knowing that everything will change should he take that leap into the unknown.

Taking action, and making tough decisions can be difficult. Largely, there are no easy choices, and it is hard to judge the consequences of the decision made today and of the effect we will face tomorrow. This is, of course, what really scares us: making the wrong choice. And the questions haunt our thoughts, things like, ‘what if it doesn’t work?’ or ‘what other options are there?’  So, by doing so, we paralyze ourselves with analysis, and our idea, our project, our work comes to a grinding, screeching halt, and we find no progress is made.

As Kierkegaard reminds us, ‘What cowardice fears most of all is the making of a resolution, for a resolution instantly dissipates the mist.’ We can choose or we can not choose, but if we bravely choose, and then act, our lives have changed forever. We are no longer deliberating, we are no longer procrastinating, but we are moving forward! Forward toward whatever goal we decide we want to accomplish, from that leap in the dark, into thin air and the heretofore unknown life we only dreamed about living before that moment.