Come to the Edge
by Guillaume Apollinaire
"Come to the edge." he said.
"We can't. We're afraid." they said.
"Come to the edge." he said.
"We can't. We will fall!" they said.
"Come to the edge." he said.
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.
This poem is a favorite of mine because it always reminds me that when I am hiding or playing small, there is a distinct possibility that I could also be flying.
I declare 2010 your year to get clear, get confident and be effective. You have to take the risk to spread your wings and fly in order to do so.
One of the things that holds many people back from taking the risk to fly is their emotions. I have seen this time and time again in my 24 years in coaching and consulting. It is time to remove your fear around your emotions.
Emotions. What are we to do with them? Can we never be safe from them? How about the circumstances that cause these emotions like death, love, disappointment or taking the risk to "fly"?
I wish you all these emotions and more. I sincerely hope that you are NEVER immune in any way from the visceral response of your emotional essence. Emotions are what life really is about...a series of circumstances that either ignite our imaginations or chase us behind closed doors wracked with doubt.
We have all felt them. At times, we feel them again when we are very sure we are healed and way far away from the original kick in the stomach. How about that love affair that happened ever so long ago and yet you can still feel the burn of the betrayal? How about the puppy that was hurt when you were a child and you can still feel the soft fur?
What are those anyway? Why do they get to sneak up on us and...WHAM...completely control the moment, day or year?
That's it you know. Control. You want to feel what you want to feel when you want to feel it. You do not want any sneak attacks when you least expect it and when you feel you cannot handle anymore weight on your scale.
Control is not yours, by the way. It is an illusion. If your emotions did not knock on your door, you would be bland and uninteresting.
I ask you, when would it be convenient for you to feel badly? Sad? Lost? Shame? Fear? Remorse? When we try to control our emotions too closely they will find a way to get our attention.
Our emotions are the barometer of how we are. They make us more humane, sensitive and successful. They support us immensely when we do decide to fly.
If you do not experience loss, you would have absolutely no idea what is like to gain.
Without sadness, you would never feel joy.
Without fear, you would not know when you were being brave by getting up in the morning, so that you could take a big risk that afternoon.
Your emotions are your gifts. Moreover, sometimes they hold your control button down so you can feel them.
In his poem, "On Joy and Sorrow", Kahlil Gibran says:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter
rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain.
Some may say that the depth of the emotion is the depth of the lesson to be learned. Many of life's lessons are just too big in this moment until we understand that we are big enough to learn the lesson. Oddly, the bigger the lesson, the bigger the next steps in creating success. The challenges for creating success just do not seem as daunting after we take the risk to fly.
The privilege of being a business and life coach all these years is that I have been on the inside with my clients "feeling" their pain and their joy. I can tell you that much of their learning came from unearthing the emotions they had forgotten or stuffed because they are now "big deal" business people. Many of my clients believed that feeling or showing emotion is not allowed when you are successful.
These past weeks I have had the privilege of holding many hands during very difficult moments. Some of these moments were associated with terrible pain and loss. Some of these moments were associated with taking steps that they never thought they could accomplish to complete goals that were impossible just minutes before.
Emotions. We want to manage them so we do not look stupid or step out of that place called "control."
Forget trying to control your emotions. They will come and poke you because they love you and they want to reveal to you who you truly are.
There are people who think if they cry, they will never stop. I guarantee, the tears will stop when the cleansing is complete.
There are people who think they will never stop being angry. They will, as soon as the anger has been acknowledged as being important and dealt with in a respectful way.
The best moments in my life happened when I finally let myself "feel" my emotions rather than trying to rein them in all of the time. I learned to trust my emotions as I let them guide me along my path to success.
My emotions, my faith and the support of those who love me the most are what finally pushed me off the edge. Incidentally, these are the same things that catch me when I get scared and feel like I am falling.
I have both confidence and certainty that 2010 can be your year...
...The year you learn to trust your emotions rather than controlling them.
...The year you take the risk to step off the edge and fly.
Go fly. The edge will always be there. So fly anyway.
by Guillaume Apollinaire
"Come to the edge." he said.
"We can't. We're afraid." they said.
"Come to the edge." he said.
"We can't. We will fall!" they said.
"Come to the edge." he said.
And they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.
This poem is a favorite of mine because it always reminds me that when I am hiding or playing small, there is a distinct possibility that I could also be flying.
I declare 2010 your year to get clear, get confident and be effective. You have to take the risk to spread your wings and fly in order to do so.
One of the things that holds many people back from taking the risk to fly is their emotions. I have seen this time and time again in my 24 years in coaching and consulting. It is time to remove your fear around your emotions.
Emotions. What are we to do with them? Can we never be safe from them? How about the circumstances that cause these emotions like death, love, disappointment or taking the risk to "fly"?
I wish you all these emotions and more. I sincerely hope that you are NEVER immune in any way from the visceral response of your emotional essence. Emotions are what life really is about...a series of circumstances that either ignite our imaginations or chase us behind closed doors wracked with doubt.
We have all felt them. At times, we feel them again when we are very sure we are healed and way far away from the original kick in the stomach. How about that love affair that happened ever so long ago and yet you can still feel the burn of the betrayal? How about the puppy that was hurt when you were a child and you can still feel the soft fur?
What are those anyway? Why do they get to sneak up on us and...WHAM...completely control the moment, day or year?
That's it you know. Control. You want to feel what you want to feel when you want to feel it. You do not want any sneak attacks when you least expect it and when you feel you cannot handle anymore weight on your scale.
Control is not yours, by the way. It is an illusion. If your emotions did not knock on your door, you would be bland and uninteresting.
I ask you, when would it be convenient for you to feel badly? Sad? Lost? Shame? Fear? Remorse? When we try to control our emotions too closely they will find a way to get our attention.
Our emotions are the barometer of how we are. They make us more humane, sensitive and successful. They support us immensely when we do decide to fly.
If you do not experience loss, you would have absolutely no idea what is like to gain.
Without sadness, you would never feel joy.
Without fear, you would not know when you were being brave by getting up in the morning, so that you could take a big risk that afternoon.
Your emotions are your gifts. Moreover, sometimes they hold your control button down so you can feel them.
In his poem, "On Joy and Sorrow", Kahlil Gibran says:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter
rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain.
Some may say that the depth of the emotion is the depth of the lesson to be learned. Many of life's lessons are just too big in this moment until we understand that we are big enough to learn the lesson. Oddly, the bigger the lesson, the bigger the next steps in creating success. The challenges for creating success just do not seem as daunting after we take the risk to fly.
The privilege of being a business and life coach all these years is that I have been on the inside with my clients "feeling" their pain and their joy. I can tell you that much of their learning came from unearthing the emotions they had forgotten or stuffed because they are now "big deal" business people. Many of my clients believed that feeling or showing emotion is not allowed when you are successful.
These past weeks I have had the privilege of holding many hands during very difficult moments. Some of these moments were associated with terrible pain and loss. Some of these moments were associated with taking steps that they never thought they could accomplish to complete goals that were impossible just minutes before.
Emotions. We want to manage them so we do not look stupid or step out of that place called "control."
Forget trying to control your emotions. They will come and poke you because they love you and they want to reveal to you who you truly are.
There are people who think if they cry, they will never stop. I guarantee, the tears will stop when the cleansing is complete.
There are people who think they will never stop being angry. They will, as soon as the anger has been acknowledged as being important and dealt with in a respectful way.
The best moments in my life happened when I finally let myself "feel" my emotions rather than trying to rein them in all of the time. I learned to trust my emotions as I let them guide me along my path to success.
My emotions, my faith and the support of those who love me the most are what finally pushed me off the edge. Incidentally, these are the same things that catch me when I get scared and feel like I am falling.
I have both confidence and certainty that 2010 can be your year...
...The year you learn to trust your emotions rather than controlling them.
...The year you take the risk to step off the edge and fly.
Go fly. The edge will always be there. So fly anyway.