Friday Fix on Fire: It’s Only Natural to Push Your Limits. You’re Sort of a Weirdo If You Don’t.
There I was curling my hair at the mirror, letting my baby girl run free in the bathroom behind me. She can’t walk just yet, but she doesn’t let that stop her from getting around in the least bit. I saw her cruising along the side of the massive tub in the middle of the room and I thought that would be the end of it. But in a matter of seconds I heard this low hissing sound that would stop and start. I looked at her in the mirror and saw she’d discovered the faucet. I pretended not to notice. Next, I heard the hissing sound grow louder and longer followed by a chuckle of delight. She peeked at me to see if I would stop her, but didn’t give me enough time to do so even If I wanted to. I pretended to ignore her still. Then, the hissing turned to a full on swishing as she proceeded to turn the water on more and more fully until finally she was at full throttle. The water was gushing out of the faucet and she looked mighty proud of herself. I turned around finally and smiled at her, cheering her on at her accomplishment. Now when she goes in the bathroom, she goes straight to the faucet and turns it on at full tilt, no questions asked. And she doesn’t even turn it off.
That’s how we’re created to be. You see, even at 11 months, she knew there must be more. She was curious enough to investigate for herself. She checked in to see if I was going to stop her but she didn’t let her fear that I might swoop in stop her from pushing just a little bit more. It’s hilarious how things get warped over time. All the best inventions and ideas and movements were created by people who were pushing it eons ago. But today we call people with big ideas and big behavior “over the top”. The result? Most of us check in with the rest of the world waaay too often and we let the fear that somebody MIGHT try to stop us (or call us weird) turn us away from the pursuit. But what happens if we push it? “It” meaning the boundary, the limits, past the old record, past the norm, outside of what’s usually done, into territory that might cause some friction? What happens if the desire to get where we’re supposed to be outweighs the fear that somebody MIGHT tell us we’re not supposed to be there? I’ll tell you. What happens is what happened with Jasi, pushing it becomes the norm and your constant. Settling and status quo will feel weird as all get out. Chew on it! #Emergence
