Are you ever just drifting along, not paying much attention, when unexpectely you hear something rather profound that then gets stuck in your head and makes you feel like you've had a mini revelation? This happened to me.
I was watching a silly sitcom I like, Modern Family, last night, when
one of the characters said something that struck me. The situation was,
the father wanted to walk a tightrope and kept falling off a wire
stretched just inches above the ground. Then his young son said,
"You fall because you can." The father had a sudden realization and
then raised the wire to maybe six feet, and managed to walk across without falling.
As I watched I kept thinking about that phrase, "You fall because you
can." I changed fall to fail. I fail in some of my goals because I
have a safety net, I know I'm not going to suffer any great consequences
if I fail. It's when something big and important is at stake that I
can really step up to the challenge.
So if that's the case, do I
need to insert risk into my challenge in order to be successful? And
how to do that? Anything I do would be an artificial risk. I don't have an answer to that question--just thinking aloud, so to speak.
Anyway, this is something I'm thinking
about today: I fail because I can. How do I change my personal goals and challenges so
that failure is not an option?
2 comments:
I think it's true. Maybe it's a matter of attention. No risk. No big deal. How bout "I failed because I wasn't paying attention." Flyfishing fishing in Montana's grizzly bear country taught me to pay attention. :)
Oh, you do want to pay attention in the vicinity of any wild animals. They just warned us today at work that a cougar had been seen in the parking lot late at night. Another was found in neighborhoods just a ways further to the south. Good idea to pay attention, indeed.
You make a good point: Pay attention, focus, concentrate.
I suspect my biggest problem right now is laziness due to a comfortable life, a fear of rocking the boat. I need to get out of my comfort zone.
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