“If you aren’t in over your head, how do you know how tall you are?”
– T. S. Eliot
My favorite version of this inspirational ditty, the next in a T.S. Eliot-inspired series, is the Bible story (Matthew 14:29…), when Peter steps out of the boat and began to walk across the water to Jesus, only to “see the wind” and begin to sink in to the waves. Peter, for a moment, knew how tall he was, but he lost sight of it and regressed to a less lofty place.
We see it all the time. Heck, sometimes we see it in the mirror. We step out of our “boats” in to water that is over our heads, and we start walking. Too often, though, we “see the wind,” or some jerk reminds us that “it can’t be done,” or “that’s not the way we do it” and we feel ourselves sinking back in to the mediocrity that surrounds us. The wind was blowing when we were walking — we just allow it to affect us when we take our eye off the prize.
Here’s to jumping in over our heads more often, paddling longer, pulling stronger and, realizing just how tall we are (and how tall we can be), setting the bar higher, the expectations in a better place and making a difference.
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