Let’s get real for a second.
So I stand up here in front of you most weeks. There may be an air of confidence. I’ve worked hard to get to a place where I can enter any dynamic, any room, any conversation, and create an impact.
And yet, like anyone else – like *everyone* else – I’ve got my humanity. Three kids, a relationship, multiple commitments clamoring for my attention and resources, and plenty of opportunities for fluctuations and sometimes even break downs in what I’m committed to.
You don’t need to raise your hands – I’ll take one for the team and own it for all of us. But sometimes doesn’t it feel like we’re an inch away from it all coming apart? It does for me.
Like we’re walking that line and despite our best efforts, we’re just an inch away from it all going wrong.
Now first of all, no matter who you meet out there – or get to know in here – our humanity is something that’s predictable and reliable. So in terms of relationship building, no matter how different your prospective customer or client, or potential referral partner seems, they’re more like you than you realize.
Secondly, I want you to consider that you – we – are also the exact same distance from it all working out. Just an inch away from everything falling into place. An inch away from peace, power, connection, comfort, and control.
And the simple but crucial difference between these two experiences, between these vantage points, is which seat we’re sitting in.
Are you the passenger, or behind the wheel?
Life is an evolving list of circumstances. How are you navigating them? Do you hoist a sail and hope that the winds blow? Or have you strapped a motor on the back, pulled the cord, and directed your vessel towards a horizon of your choosing?
I’m not saying there aren’t waves. But separate from the circumstances that lie before us, is the experience of how we interact with them.
So again, are you merely along for the ride or have you made a plan and are doing and being whatever it takes to advance the cause?
If you’re up for a challenge, choose one place where you’ve been hanging out in the passenger seat – your money, your schedule, your health, your relationship, your engagement in this community, some other thing that you know you’ve let go on for longer than you planned. And put yourself behind the wheel.
If nothing changes with your road, or even your vehicle, but you become consistent with claiming your seat behind the wheel, everything becomes possible.
We’re just an inch away.
