“Come to the edge, He said. They said, We are afraid. Come to the edge, He said. They came. He pushed them... and they flew.” ~ Guillaume Apollinaire
In my January and February 2010 blogs I told the story of my discovery, while kayaking, of a sign washed up on the shore that read “Road Narrows”. The discovery carried a personal message for me - a man on a mission of personal exploration, discovery and expression. It was very encouraging. The very next week as I set out to recover the sign, I was confronted with a whisper of a message and the realization that preparation and perseverance, while great attributes, will not win the day on their own. Risks must be taken (you can read the Feb 2010 post at this Blog for the details on that “whisper”).
A year later and I am still appreciating the message carried by that sign. My road has indeed narrowed as has the road of a great many people I know. Circumstances have striped many of us of a lot of fluff and excess that, truth be told, has been the source of much un-needed anxiety in the first place. Our “narrowing” has made us leaner. It also kind of smarts - like when you remove a festering splinter from a delicate place. I think that many of us have developed a little flinch, a nervous tick perhaps, that commemorates the stripping of so must so fast.
I’ve talked to many business men and women in the past two months who have entered 2011 with a sort of defiant burst of belligerence that the pain is over and its time to heal and get on. I'm reminded of a WWII poster that was distributed throughout Great Britain when invasion from Germany seemed imminent and fear was high and widespread. The poster read, “Keep Calm And Carry On.”.
The renewed energy and “shake it off“ attitude I’m observing should encourage everyone. There is a gathering strength in the recovery of business. Like the patient surfer who has diligently waited, they are discerning the swell that is mounting and turning their boards toward the shore of success. They have started to paddle – lest the wave, and the ride, sweep past. This requires calculation and taking calculated risks.
Risk aversion takes many forms and the core of it lies in our imagination. The result is fear, extraordinary caution, half-starts, half-measures, indecision and immobilization. I’m not talking about reckless risk taking. Some forms of fear are healthy and make for an appropriate cautiousness. What I’m talking about is fear that makes one anticipate defeat before the fight is engaged. I’m talking about fear in the course of running businesses that we are supposed to be the masters of that makes us insecure and scared. I don’t think that the word “scared” has many good applications. Try in on. Say, “I haven’t done this or that - - - because I’m scared.” Not good.
One of the main reasons why I deliver management consulting services to organization leaders is because they have issues, problems and/or opportunities, not acted upon, that dominate their thoughts. Let’s call it “Inaction Inventory”. Inventories are high.
The bad sort of Fear is a stalking horse for counterfeit solutions. There is a lie that is peddled to and purchased by entities in their vulnerable moments that leverages a deliverance from fear in exchange for shortcuts, postponements and deferred action. Given to fear, reality and truth can go out of focus for a season. And so, inaction, like the splinter ignored, brings infection.
The root of this struggle with fear is our imagination. Fear in a fertile imagination is like a seed that sprouts into a poison ivy that entangles our minds with projections of myriad outcomes and possibilities that simply overwhelm. Our fascination with all sorts of information (now prolific to the extreme thanks to the internet) fertilizes our snarls of ivy with every manner of distortion, misinterpretation and out-of-context factoid. Most of this information is fashioned to manipulate our behavior. We become perplexed and we are tossed to-a-fro by every wave and wind of opinion that hits us.
A favorite story of mine is the well known account in the Bible of the Apostle Peter walking on the water. It appears in the Gospel of Matthew in Chapter 14, verses 22-32.
The “water walking” is one thing but the peripheral stuff fascinates me as well. Before the episode takes place Jesus sends His group of disciples out ahead of Him “to the other side”. There is a storm enroute and the boatload of men are terrified. (I wonder what comments were being muttered under their breaths about Jesus not accompanying them for the "crossing"). Fear is high. Then, in the midst of the torment a ghostly specter appears “walking” on the waves. Fear mounts more as the men think they are seeing a ghost. It is Jesus, of course, and He proceeds to encourage His men to take courage, declares that it is He and tells them not to be afraid. Peter recognizes Jesus and, in typical Peter fashion, takes the adventure up a notch. Peter asks Jesus to invite him out on the water with Him. So Jesus, matter-of-factly, says, “Come.”. Eager beaver Peter clambers across the gunwale and walks toward Jesus. This works well, for a moment, until something reminds Peter of the laws of physics, buoyancy and relative mass – he looks down - and he sinks. Up to his neck in the swirling chaos about him, he cries out for help and it is there. I can see Jesus shaking His head as he says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”. When they return (walk?) back to the boat everything calms down. It’s like the whole thing was orchestrated to prove a point. Duh.
In my January and February 2010 blogs I told the story of my discovery, while kayaking, of a sign washed up on the shore that read “Road Narrows”. The discovery carried a personal message for me - a man on a mission of personal exploration, discovery and expression. It was very encouraging. The very next week as I set out to recover the sign, I was confronted with a whisper of a message and the realization that preparation and perseverance, while great attributes, will not win the day on their own. Risks must be taken (you can read the Feb 2010 post at this Blog for the details on that “whisper”).
A year later and I am still appreciating the message carried by that sign. My road has indeed narrowed as has the road of a great many people I know. Circumstances have striped many of us of a lot of fluff and excess that, truth be told, has been the source of much un-needed anxiety in the first place. Our “narrowing” has made us leaner. It also kind of smarts - like when you remove a festering splinter from a delicate place. I think that many of us have developed a little flinch, a nervous tick perhaps, that commemorates the stripping of so must so fast.
I’ve talked to many business men and women in the past two months who have entered 2011 with a sort of defiant burst of belligerence that the pain is over and its time to heal and get on. I'm reminded of a WWII poster that was distributed throughout Great Britain when invasion from Germany seemed imminent and fear was high and widespread. The poster read, “Keep Calm And Carry On.”.
The renewed energy and “shake it off“ attitude I’m observing should encourage everyone. There is a gathering strength in the recovery of business. Like the patient surfer who has diligently waited, they are discerning the swell that is mounting and turning their boards toward the shore of success. They have started to paddle – lest the wave, and the ride, sweep past. This requires calculation and taking calculated risks.
Risk aversion takes many forms and the core of it lies in our imagination. The result is fear, extraordinary caution, half-starts, half-measures, indecision and immobilization. I’m not talking about reckless risk taking. Some forms of fear are healthy and make for an appropriate cautiousness. What I’m talking about is fear that makes one anticipate defeat before the fight is engaged. I’m talking about fear in the course of running businesses that we are supposed to be the masters of that makes us insecure and scared. I don’t think that the word “scared” has many good applications. Try in on. Say, “I haven’t done this or that - - - because I’m scared.” Not good.
One of the main reasons why I deliver management consulting services to organization leaders is because they have issues, problems and/or opportunities, not acted upon, that dominate their thoughts. Let’s call it “Inaction Inventory”. Inventories are high.
The bad sort of Fear is a stalking horse for counterfeit solutions. There is a lie that is peddled to and purchased by entities in their vulnerable moments that leverages a deliverance from fear in exchange for shortcuts, postponements and deferred action. Given to fear, reality and truth can go out of focus for a season. And so, inaction, like the splinter ignored, brings infection.
The root of this struggle with fear is our imagination. Fear in a fertile imagination is like a seed that sprouts into a poison ivy that entangles our minds with projections of myriad outcomes and possibilities that simply overwhelm. Our fascination with all sorts of information (now prolific to the extreme thanks to the internet) fertilizes our snarls of ivy with every manner of distortion, misinterpretation and out-of-context factoid. Most of this information is fashioned to manipulate our behavior. We become perplexed and we are tossed to-a-fro by every wave and wind of opinion that hits us.
A favorite story of mine is the well known account in the Bible of the Apostle Peter walking on the water. It appears in the Gospel of Matthew in Chapter 14, verses 22-32.
The “water walking” is one thing but the peripheral stuff fascinates me as well. Before the episode takes place Jesus sends His group of disciples out ahead of Him “to the other side”. There is a storm enroute and the boatload of men are terrified. (I wonder what comments were being muttered under their breaths about Jesus not accompanying them for the "crossing"). Fear is high. Then, in the midst of the torment a ghostly specter appears “walking” on the waves. Fear mounts more as the men think they are seeing a ghost. It is Jesus, of course, and He proceeds to encourage His men to take courage, declares that it is He and tells them not to be afraid. Peter recognizes Jesus and, in typical Peter fashion, takes the adventure up a notch. Peter asks Jesus to invite him out on the water with Him. So Jesus, matter-of-factly, says, “Come.”. Eager beaver Peter clambers across the gunwale and walks toward Jesus. This works well, for a moment, until something reminds Peter of the laws of physics, buoyancy and relative mass – he looks down - and he sinks. Up to his neck in the swirling chaos about him, he cries out for help and it is there. I can see Jesus shaking His head as he says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?”. When they return (walk?) back to the boat everything calms down. It’s like the whole thing was orchestrated to prove a point. Duh.
"Walk by Faith" Artwork/Prints available at JTBARTS.COM Gallery
What, I wonder, distracted Peter and made him founder? But, for a glorious moment we know that faith defied science, knowledge and fear. Peter knows Jesus, he trusts Him and he has seen Jesus feed five thousand households with five loaves and two fish. He has witnessed Jesus perform incredible healings and was sent out by Jesus for a time with the same powers to heal. Peter has also traveled and camped-out with Jesus. Peter has left the family business cold for Jesus. He knows this Man. To ask Jesus for an invitation to walk on water with Him should be as sure a thing as there could be. Right? Peter gets distracted. Maybe his imagination kicks in for a split second, he takes his eyes off of Jesus and takes in the chaos all around. It consumes him and he sinks.
Fear feeds on our imaginations and snatches our volition into its shadows. Fear is no minor theme in the human drama. It is fundamental to our condition and it is a fulcrum that the sinister part of our imagination uses with utmost skill. Fear can be found at the root of most conflicts and at the core of Mankind’s worst hours. I dug up a few quotations on the topic of fear to share. They are from a broad spectrum of authors with whom we share our existence as human beings. I hope you enjoy them;
“He who strikes terror in others is himself continually in fear.” – Claudius Claudianus
“Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens.” – John Maynard Keynes
“It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.” – General Douglas MacArthur“Imagination frames events unknown, in wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin, And what it fears, creates.” – Hannah Moore
“Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.” - Christian Nevell Bovee“Fear is a self imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love.” – Rick Warren
“Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it…that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.” – Dale Carnegie
“Jesus promised the disciples three things - that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” – Winston Churchill
“The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.” – Max Lucado
“He that fears not the future may enjoy the present.” – Thomas Fuller
“According to legend, one day a man was wandering in the desert when he met Fear and Plague. They said they were on their way to a large city where they were going to kill 10,000 people. The man asked Plague if he was going to do all the work. Plague smiled and said, No, I'll only take care of a few hundred. I'll let my friend Fear do the rest.” - Anonymous“Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... initially scared me to death.” – Betty Bender
“Since we fear most that which is unknown to us, defining moments of change occur when we choose to know our fear.” – Lee Colan
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.” – Henry Ford
“Fear always springs from ignorance.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson“Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.” – Doug Horton
“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.” – Florence Nightingale
“The timid are afraid before the danger, the cowardly while in danger, and the courageous after danger.” – Jean Paul“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” – Seneca, The Elder
“Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.” – Michael PritchardAll the best!
Bill
Fear feeds on our imaginations and snatches our volition into its shadows. Fear is no minor theme in the human drama. It is fundamental to our condition and it is a fulcrum that the sinister part of our imagination uses with utmost skill. Fear can be found at the root of most conflicts and at the core of Mankind’s worst hours. I dug up a few quotations on the topic of fear to share. They are from a broad spectrum of authors with whom we share our existence as human beings. I hope you enjoy them;
“He who strikes terror in others is himself continually in fear.” – Claudius Claudianus
“Only with absolute fearlessness can we slay the dragons of mediocrity that invade our gardens.” – John Maynard Keynes
“It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear.” – General Douglas MacArthur“Imagination frames events unknown, in wild, fantastic shapes of hideous ruin, And what it fears, creates.” – Hannah Moore
“Men are Moved by two levers only: fear and self interest.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.” - Christian Nevell Bovee“Fear is a self imposed prison that will keep you from becoming what God intends for you to be. You must move against it with the weapons of faith and love.” – Rick Warren
“Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it…that is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear.” – Dale Carnegie
“Jesus promised the disciples three things - that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble.” – G.K. Chesterton
“Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb.” – Winston Churchill
“The presence of fear does not mean you have no faith. Fear visits everyone. But make your fear a visitor and not a resident.” – Max Lucado
“He that fears not the future may enjoy the present.” – Thomas Fuller
“According to legend, one day a man was wandering in the desert when he met Fear and Plague. They said they were on their way to a large city where they were going to kill 10,000 people. The man asked Plague if he was going to do all the work. Plague smiled and said, No, I'll only take care of a few hundred. I'll let my friend Fear do the rest.” - Anonymous“Anything I've ever done that ultimately was worthwhile... initially scared me to death.” – Betty Bender
“Since we fear most that which is unknown to us, defining moments of change occur when we choose to know our fear.” – Lee Colan
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” – Marie Curie
“One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.” – Henry Ford
“Fear always springs from ignorance.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson“Action cures fear, inaction creates terror.” – Doug Horton
“How very little can be done under the spirit of fear.” – Florence Nightingale
“The timid are afraid before the danger, the cowardly while in danger, and the courageous after danger.” – Jean Paul“We are more often frightened than hurt; and we suffer more from imagination than from reality.” – Seneca, The Elder
“Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed.” – Michael PritchardAll the best!
Bill
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Excellent read Bill
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