Two Leaps Across A Chasm
The most dangerous
thing in the world is to try to leap a chasm in two
jumps.
David Lloyd George
|
There are two types of decisions in the
world: you jump over a chasm or you cross over a bridge. The
jump over the chasm is a standard feature of adventure films.
The good guys are running as fast as they can to escape the
bad guys and then they come to a chasm. They have three choices.
Stand and be taken by the bad guys.
Jump over the chasm.
Fall to their deaths.
In adventure movies, the good guys jump.
That is why they are heroes. When the hero comes to the chasm,
the hero leaps across the chasm.
The decision to cross a bridge is more
common. You want to get from one point to another, and have
to cross over some sort of bridge to get there. The bridge
might be stepping stones across a stream, a road, a stairway.
It could even be a real bridge across a chasm. The essential
point is that you can get across by a series of steps, rather
than by one flying leap.
And getting to the other side by crossing
a bridge can be as heroic as jumping across a chasm, even
if it not quite so dramatic. This is the stuff of action plans,
where you keep taking one step after another to get to where
you want to go.
To act is
to be committed, and to be committed is to be in danger.
James Arthur Baldwin
|
Both types of decisions are essential
in our lives when you have to decide if you are going to stay
where you are or cross to the other side. The challenge comes
when you don’t recognize clearly whether you need to
cross a chasm or a bridge. And because it’s not so clear
whether you are facing a chasm or a bridge, it’s not
easy to tell if you need to take a flying leap or look for
the steps.
You’d think it would be easy enough
to tell the difference between a bridge and chasm. Sometimes,
it’s not. When that happens, people mix up the methods.
They come to a chasm and try to take it by steps. Or they
come to a bridge and try to cross it with one big leap. Either
method has its problems, and either method will keep you from
getting to the other side.
So, what does it look like when someone
tries to cross a chasm in two leaps? I used to have a weekly
partner call with a man I met at a Tony Robbins seminar. He
claimed that his big dream was to start his own business.
And yet, he spent almost all of his time looking for temporary
jobs to make money.
Once again,
she decided not to decide. She preferred to be compelled
into her decisions.
Lisa Alther
|
As we talked week after week, month after
month, for at least two years, I began to say to him: “You
have to jump across the river. You can’t build a business
by looking for temporary jobs.” In his case, he needed
to take the flying leap or find a bridge. He didn’t
do either. When we stopped our regular phone calls, he was
still where he was when we started. He claimed he wanted to
get across the chasm, to start his own business, but he wasn’t
jumping and he walking across a bridge In his case, it would
be been good for him to have the bad guys chasing him. With
no bad guys breathing down his neck, he simply talked about
wanting a business without doing anything about it.
An even better example of attempting
to jump a chasm in two steps is that my husband and I have
been talking about selling our house. For a while, we were
thinking about refinancing in order to sell. At first, it
seemed like a good idea, until we both realized that this
was a two-leap-across-the-chasm strategy. If we are going
to sell, we need to make the leap and sell the house. Refinancing
would be an extra step that would not get us over the chasm.
It would simply be a distraction from getting us to the other
side.
Crystallize
your goals. Make a plan for achieving them and set yourself
a deadline. Then, with supreme confidence, determination
and disregard for obstacles and other people's criticisms,
carry out your plan.
Paul J. Meyer
|
Not every decision requires jumping across
chasms—which is a very good thing. Most decisions are
bridge decisions. You get from here to there by taking steps.
It might not be as dramatic as the flying leap across the
chasm, but it is the basic process for most accomplishments.
In some respects, chasm decisions are
easier. You are forced to decide. You do or die. It is the
bridge decisions that are sometime harder, because they are
require one step, one step, one step, and it is so easy to
get distracted. It is also easy to get off course, or simply
stop walking over the bridge.
What happens when people confuse a bridge
decision with a flying leap decision? This is when they want
something instantly that takes time to accomplish.
An example of confusing a flying leap
decision with a bridge decision is a friend who has already
been married several times. In his case, as soon as one marriage
ends, he rushes out to find the new love of his life. He marries
quickly and regrets it slowly. He takes the flying leap into
marriage without walking the path of building a relationship,
and each marriage ends in unhappiness.
Creating an abundant life requires a
combination of flying leaps over chasms and walking across
bridges. Sometimes, you need to make the big decision. You
need to make a dramatic change to put you in a different place.
Most of the time, the way to create abundance is the unglamorous,
non-dramatic decision to keep walking across the bridge, one
step at a time until you get to the other side.
For Your Abundant Success,
Kalinda Rose Stevenson
|
