You’re Never Gonna Be Ready!
“YOU’RE GONNA HAVE TO MERGE!”
Those are the words of Barley Lightfoot as he yells at his younger brother, Ian, in the animated Pixar movie Onward.
The two are being chased by some tiny, but very nasty, creatures. Ian is afraid to drive and now, in order to escape, he has to merge onto a freeway so they can make their getaway.
Ian screams back to his brother as he is coming to the end of the onramp and being crowded by fast moving traffic, “I’M NOT READY!”
Barley shrieks back, “YOU’LL NEVER BE READY!”
If you Google “fearless living” you’ll have 57,600,000 options to look up to find out how to lead this kind of life. I don’t believe in fearless living. If you wait until you’re fearless you will never be ready. You’ll always find some reason to not move forward. You will say to yourself, just as Ian did, “I’M NOT READY!”
Over the last several weeks I have seen and read too many stories of family members saying goodbye to loved ones from afar because of the Coronavirus. They’re not getting the opportunity to be with their loved ones as life comes to an end.
Two stories have stuck out in my mind. In the first, the daughter of the man who passed away said they were very sad that dad had passed but there were no loose ends. They knew exactly what he wanted for his funeral. There were no family members that were left saying, “I wish I’d have told him…”
In the second, the family was in a much different place. There had been no conversations similar to the first. In fact, they said as we so often hear, “We thought we’d have more time.” Two family members expressed remorse over their broken relationship with the loved one. The family was in turmoil. At the end of the story, one family member said, “We have no idea what we’re going to do.”
This Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on the world. It’s forcing us to live in very uncomfortable and unusual ways. People are dying that likely would not have died if not for this horrendous villain. Fear, both rational and irrational, is heightened for most of us. The virus seems to strike out of nowhere and plays no favorites.
So, what is the state of your family? Are there difficult conversations you’ve been putting off waiting for “the right time?” Have you thought about having those talks but, like Ian, you’re saying to yourself, “I’M NOT READY!”
Courage is all about recognizing YOU’LL NEVER BE READY.
You might be saying to yourself, “This will never happen to us.” If it doesn’t that would be a real blessing! Even if you don’t think it will happen to you muster up the courage to have the difficult discussions anyway. Likely, the families of most of the Corona victims never thought it would happen to them either.
For whatever it’s worth, my advice to you is to choose courageous over fearless. If you need a resource to help through this I recommend Dr. Henry Cloud’s book, “How to have Difficult Conversations You’ve Been Avoiding.”
Have a STRONG and COURAGEOUS DAY!
Looking for 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/2N2PBVJ
