“The world is full of lonely people waiting to make the first move,” Tony Lipp.
I’m not going to tell you the context of this quote from the movie Green Book as I think you should see it. However, hearing this quote reminded me of a conversation I recently had with a friend.
We were having lunch when he told me of a challenge he was facing in his life and his thoughts about how to deal with this challenge. What the challenge is isn’t important, as it could be any number of things.
This is the kind of challenge that will take great courage to face. This is also the kind of challenge that doesn’t need to be faced, at least immediately. This is the kind of situation where you can avoid it, or pretend it’s not there, at least for a while. The longer it is put off, the worse it’s going to get.
Often times the need for courage comes to us. I’m reminded of the movie Apollo 13. Tom Hanks plays astronaut Jim Lovell. Upon recognizing major issues with their space ship Hanks/Lovell declares, “Houston we have a problem.” The space ship’s crew didn’t have a choice as to whether or not to be courageous. The choice was be courageous or die. The reality was they could die whether they chose courage or not.
More often, however, we have a choice in whether or not to be courageous. I’ve faced similar types of situations to my friend, and, I’m sure you have as well. We have a choice to deal with it or not. With each of those options there are consequences. When I faced these kinds of circumstances far too often I would put off taking action. My hope was that it would go away or, maybe, be forgotten. It didn’t and it wasn’t.
There are consequences if we allow fear to lead the dance. We remain in the unknown. In the unknown, we create all kinds of “what if” scenarios. None of them are good. At times, we’ll convince ourselves that everything is all right. In reality, we know it isn’t but we continue to fool ourselves in a false hope. The weight bears down so subtly we hardly even notice until it becomes unbearable and we wonder how we let it get so bad, and, even worse, we wonder how we’ll ever get to where we want to be. The heaviness now affects every area of our lives. We feel we have no power and there is no way out.
On the other hand, there are consequences if we choose to deal courageously with our condition or circumstance. We may not get the result we were hoping for. The situation might get worse, or, better.
Regardless of the outcome, I do believe we feel better for taking action. A weight is lifted off our shoulders. We now know where we stand. We can begin to take real action to make life better based on what we know rather than on what we wonder. We can move forward instead of slogging through the pit of the unknown. We have a sense of control. While courageous action may give us a different result than what we originally wanted we are regaining a sense of hope.
Making the first move is a choice. Not making the first move is a choice. Fear is a choice. Courage is a choice.
Whether you like it or not, it’s your move.
Do you need a speaker for an upcoming event? I’d love to be that guy. You can reach me at dave@cultivatecourage.com or 952-200-7499.
You can now buy the book “Cultivate Courage” on Amazon! https://amzn.to/2L4axey
