I watched a pretty cool video yesterday. “A Toy Train in Space” documents a father and son sending the boy’s favorite toy, a toy train named “Stanley”, to the reaches of space. With the use of a weather balloon and a box that housed a mounted HD camera and an old cell phone for GPS, the toy train took an hour long trip to the stratosphere and then, once the balloon burst, he took a quick 20 minute free fall back to Earth for the father and son to retrieve 27 miles away from their original launch site.
I’m not sure how the correlation was made in my head (ask my clients, synaptic firings often leave me a bit perplexed) but I began to think of the journeys towards health and wellness that we embark on.
After our initial idea, the journey typically starts out with some deliberation and planning following which we develop something of a loose flight plan. We figure out our strategic approach to moving towards our selected objectives, regardless of what they are. We do some reading and ask some questions. Maybe we put pen to paper and do a bit of fine tuning to our original strategy. Then hopefully we put this into action and set it free. We start journaling our food intake, maybe even do some food preparation. We join the local fitness centre, maybe we actually go. We get some personal training sessions or buy some DVDs. We sweat a little and curse a lot, and eventually start to gain some momentum.
Hopefully this flight path continues. Unfortunately far too often we reach the metaphorical 18 mile mark and our balloon bursts and all of the progress that we’ve made comes crashing down – usually a little ways away from our original starting point (a few pounds heavier, a few more injuries or a little uncertain about what we just endured and what began as a solid game plan – how could this not have worked).
But from here we have a few options:
1/ Pick ourselves up and resolve ourselves to being content where we’re at. Shit, we tried didn’t we? “Maybe I’m just not cut out to [insert goal of choice here]”!
2/ Find another weather balloon and try all over again to see if we can get a bit higher this time. Well, we might, but chances are that at roughly the same proximity to the sun, that balloon will burst. And after a few weather balloons, this game will just get plain ol’ tiresome. Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting a different outcome.
I’m not sure how the correlation was made in my head (ask my clients, synaptic firings often leave me a bit perplexed) but I began to think of the journeys towards health and wellness that we embark on.
After our initial idea, the journey typically starts out with some deliberation and planning following which we develop something of a loose flight plan. We figure out our strategic approach to moving towards our selected objectives, regardless of what they are. We do some reading and ask some questions. Maybe we put pen to paper and do a bit of fine tuning to our original strategy. Then hopefully we put this into action and set it free. We start journaling our food intake, maybe even do some food preparation. We join the local fitness centre, maybe we actually go. We get some personal training sessions or buy some DVDs. We sweat a little and curse a lot, and eventually start to gain some momentum.
Hopefully this flight path continues. Unfortunately far too often we reach the metaphorical 18 mile mark and our balloon bursts and all of the progress that we’ve made comes crashing down – usually a little ways away from our original starting point (a few pounds heavier, a few more injuries or a little uncertain about what we just endured and what began as a solid game plan – how could this not have worked).
But from here we have a few options:
1/ Pick ourselves up and resolve ourselves to being content where we’re at. Shit, we tried didn’t we? “Maybe I’m just not cut out to [insert goal of choice here]”!
2/ Find another weather balloon and try all over again to see if we can get a bit higher this time. Well, we might, but chances are that at roughly the same proximity to the sun, that balloon will burst. And after a few weather balloons, this game will just get plain ol’ tiresome. Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again yet expecting a different outcome.
3/ Look at other ways to get our train into space. There is more than one way to skin a cat after all? (is it still okay to say that or am I going to be condemned by animal rights activists?) Maybe we try the approach of Icarus and mold wings with wax and feathers – maybe it’s a slower ascent, maybe we can’t go as high, but perhaps our goal was too lofty in the first place. Perhaps we spend a bit more time planning and take the approach of the Wright brothers.
And here’s where I move away from my train-in-space analogy...
With respect to The Law of Gravity, Newton was right in claiming that “what goes up must come down”. But as with space travel, we are able to move beyond gravitational pull and we can align our efforts to exceed any forces or urges that we experience that cause us to plummet. We can call this triumph... SUCCESS.
Yes it takes planning. Yes it takes perseverance. Yes it may even take some time. But it is possible. What stands between you and your dream is the willingness to start, the courage to move ahead and the faith to finish.
Suggestions:
1/ Dare to dream.
2/ Develop your game plan.
3/ Follow your game plan to the best of your ability... no half measures, no excuses.
4/ If you don’t meet your objectives, re-evaluate. Honestly. Did you follow your game plan? Did you give it your best shot? Was your initial goal too lofty?
5/ Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Be strong in your conviction to achieve greater heights.
6/ Become addicted to constant and never ending self improvement.
And here’s where I move away from my train-in-space analogy...
With respect to The Law of Gravity, Newton was right in claiming that “what goes up must come down”. But as with space travel, we are able to move beyond gravitational pull and we can align our efforts to exceed any forces or urges that we experience that cause us to plummet. We can call this triumph... SUCCESS.
Yes it takes planning. Yes it takes perseverance. Yes it may even take some time. But it is possible. What stands between you and your dream is the willingness to start, the courage to move ahead and the faith to finish.
Suggestions:
1/ Dare to dream.
2/ Develop your game plan.
3/ Follow your game plan to the best of your ability... no half measures, no excuses.
4/ If you don’t meet your objectives, re-evaluate. Honestly. Did you follow your game plan? Did you give it your best shot? Was your initial goal too lofty?
5/ Don’t give up. Don’t give in. Be strong in your conviction to achieve greater heights.
6/ Become addicted to constant and never ending self improvement.
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