Thinking about tightrope walking these days.
No, I haven’t been watching The Greatest Showman, but also, this is me:
My metaphor looks like this:
The tightrope walk is dangerous. Lots of risk.
Before you take your first step, the journey looks crazy. Impossible even. No sane person would take this walk. Death or worse, embarrassment, is LITERALLY on the line.
You can see the end of your walk. The platform on the other side. You start doing the calculations in your head — is the danger of this walk WORTH getting to that side? “I don’t know… life is pretty good right here.”
Even worse, the spotlight moves off the far-away platform and you can’t quite see it anymore. Now you’re really struggling to justify this.
The walk requires much more than you have to give. You are not ready.
Even those fleeting moments when you can see the end of the walk, you realize how careful you must be at each step of the way. The focus required is immense. And you must sustain it for longer than you want.
Here’s how this metaphor has played out for me:
I took a step out onto the rope. I knew I needed to for years. Years. Writing and sharing a little bit online was my first step this month. To align my thinking. To be myself. To connect to others. To not hide.
But here’s the thing — I didn’t realize that I was already five steps out onto the rope and about to fall. The jolt of self-correction needed was more than I was ready for. But the focus I’ve gained in just three weeks has been monumental. More awareness. More openness to what I am good at. More focus. More vision into how I impact the world around me. More awareness of the possibilities.
The platform is still far off, but I’m steady and focused. I’m ready for the walk.
But that’s me. I wouldn’t pretend to know what your far-away platform looks like. But I do want to know: are you out on the tightrope, or still considering your first step?