Hedged between fear and opportunity. The tightrope called life.

Life promises that we’ll be rocked by the winds of change. It’s something that none of us can possibly avoid. Uncertainty is the best gift we will ever receive if we are committed to having the proper perspective. These challenges can keep us humble, radical and plowing ahead.
Fear is a natural reaction to change. However we cannot allow it to dominate and control ANY aspect of our life.

I recently had the opportunity to see a famous tightrope star named Tino Wallenda of the Flying Wallenda’s. He shared some insights which are useful to each of our lives.

He began walking tightropes at seven years old. He didn’t begin on the highest tightrope. It was about the height of a standard kitchen table that he was taught foot placement & how to maintain his balance.
As things became second nature, he learned various salutes, & how to shift directions on the tightrope.
He rehearsed countless hours between ages 7-13 to set himself apart & in order to join his famous tightrope walking family on the road.
As a tightrope walker, he’s had several setbacks & hurtful falls. The thing that’s kept him going is to ALWAYS focus on an unmovable endpoint.

This got me thinking about my life & each of our lives. Each of us must establish an unmovable endpoint a.k.a. “what we desire in life & in-depth understanding of what it’ll take to see that desire fulfilled.”
It means that we’ll need to persevere and become unrelenting, to accomplish the impossible in life.

We all need support to balance the tightrope of our lives…

You have to learn to follow whoever or whatever has mastered a particular area of life you desire to achieve.
The closer you stay to this expert or process the easier it will be. Life is easier when you stop trusting only in yourself. In the midst of life’s troubling times, you can have peace and find strength when pulled in multiple directions when you stick close to RELEVANT and timely protocol.

I’m sure some of you might say “it’s too late for me; I’ve done too many wrong things to turn things around. I just might as well stop reading this one.”
Well you’re wrong. None of us, no matter how many curveballs life has thrown us should throw in the towel.

Let’s begin on the road to recovery by thinking what it would look like to live completely free of your past & what your better future would actually look like.
To do this, we need to understand the difference between VISION and SIGHT. Vision is a function of the heart and shows us what can be, while sight is the function of the eyes and identifies what is.

One of life’s greatest gifts is vision & its greatest enemy is sight. Vision, when focused on an unmovable endpoint enables us to contradict what we currently see in our personal, professional, emotional, relational and physical circumstance. No crisis can last forever…unless you let it.

President Obama was elected to office because he kept telling US Citizens about HOPE. Obama masterfully sold vision. He provided confidence in the future for us and for much of the world.
Whether you are Republican, Democrat or Independent, his speeches ignited something profound in each of us. It reminded us that our current situation doesn’t have to last forever.

The identical is true of our lives. We have to do the work of 1) Examining fault, 2) Admitting these faults, & 3) STRATEGICALLY admitting these faults to someone else.

But why?

None of us will ever understand or see the solution, as long as we are uncertain of the underpinnings of the problem. How can you really know when and if things have changed, if you remain unsure of what change is EXACTLY necessary. How can you create and sustain hope if you are uncertain of why you need hope, strategy or to focus on an unmovable endpoint in the first place?

The thing that gets me excited about being an American is all of the freedom we have. At any moment we are free to log-on to the internet, go to our local library, enroll in classes at a university or local community college and discover the world. Literally the world’s knowledge is at our very fingertips.
With unrelenting strategy, perseverance and courage we are able to get past so much of the bad stuff we’d rather forget about in our lives.

Peel away the layers!

It’s time for us to do the work of changing our lives and focusing on our unmovable endpoint. This is accomplished by reflecting and answering…with pen and paper the following:

1. What is the unmovable endpoint you’ll focus on?
2. What do you need to identify? Examine your personal, professional, emotional and relational life for places of pain, shame, regret, frustration and joy.
3. Face this reality with someone that you can trust. Practice some discernment because you’ll need this person to provide you with support and to keep you accountable to what you ultimately strategize to do.
4. Strategize your comeback from setback. This is the place where you get into gear & clearly identify your plays and what you’ll do in advance to bounce back from every setback you’ll face.
5. Monitor your progress. This is key to enable you to celebrate your sights of land-those things you do right and propel you in the right direction toward your endpoint and to also convert INEVITABLE challenges into growth opportunities.
6. Revise and strategize. Don’t be afraid to drop what doesn’t work. Habits don’t make you better unless they are taking you toward your goal. Habits can be your biggest source of condemnation if you refuse to challenge them. This is the place that it’s key to ask other individuals, read books, search the internet, et al for help to courageously break free of addiction, anger, fear, guilt, or whatever you come to realize is a problem. Remember that you’ll never conquer what you refuse to confront so atone regularly. See 9/26/2009 www.mojoforlifechange.blogspot.com post for more details on atonement FAQ’s.

Isn’t it time you drop all the excuses and become who you really are…that person who’s achieved the target behind that unchangeable endpoint? Remember that conflict is inevitable, yet your response is and always will remain your CHOICE.

To your best life!

P.S. If you’d like to see how this process is unfolding in my life, submit a post. I know you’re out there. Several of you call me, & I appreciate it.