Post #3479376

Today is the culmination of about a week of – what – meditation? reflection? And I came to a realization clear enough that I can now articulate it. I was waiting for the water to heat in the kettle for an afternoon cup of coffee when it finally all came together. Now, with coffee brewed and by my side on the desk, I’m going to write it down while it’s still fresh in my heart and mind. There’s an expression about jumping out of the tree and figuring out how to fly on the way down. Life actually really is kind of like that. Not always, but in certain scenarios that will randomly happen to all of us. You see, there are some things that we just can’t figure out in advance. We can’t plan for them. We can’t map out the route we’re going to take. We can’t see the future, and if there is anything the future is full of, it’s variables. Those variables defy all our desires and efforts to orchestrate things just so. At the other end of the spectrum, far away from learning how to fly after leaping, is analysis paralysis. We don’t leap at all. “If I can’t know in advance how I’m going to accomplish this, I’m not going to do anything. I’ll just sit right here.” No, that’s not good. The weight of inaction grows heavier every day you choose not to act. And every day it gets harder to lift yourself up. Today, in the middle of something big that my wife and I began together about a year ago, I saw the path forward. We had reached an obstacle: “this is what we want to do, but there’s a problem that makes it look impossible to reach our goal.” And today, after about a week of considering this problem, I discovered a solution that is at once obvious, and at the same time impossible to see from a distance. I could never have seen this solution until we got right here on the journey. What if we hadn’t started? What if we sat right there where we were? What if we insisted on having all the answers before we would start our journey? Here’s what I’m trying to communicate to you, something that I’ve learned before, but somehow have to keep rediscovering: your perspective is different when you’re doing it than when you’re thinking about it. There are solutions that you can’t see until you get in the midst of the adventure. Have a little faith in yourself. Keep moving toward your goal, even when you’re not really sure how to traverse the distance from where you are now to where you want to be. You’ll figure it out. Or maybe you’ll realize it’s the wrong goal and you’ll change direction. But you’ve got to start moving before you get to the place where you can see the circumstances with a new perspective. In some ways this post is very vague, I know that. But in other ways, I think there is someone who will read this who will understand exactly why they needed it. It will make perfect sense. Go for it. The answers will appear when they’re needed. The answers don’t come to you. The answers are waiting for you to come to them.