Bridging the Gap
“Everything is created twice”
I’m not entirely sure where this saying originated from but it is certainly alluded to several times in the Bible and probably goes back in philosophy even further than that.
The thing is that before anything can exist as a physical or even virtual reality, someone must have an idea.
Someone had the idea about creating the chairs you and I are sitting on right now. It was an idea, a thought, before it became a thing.
But there’s a problem.
Sometimes, perhaps more often than you and I would like, things get in the way.
And I don’t mean the day to day distractions of life and the other ‘stuff’ we all have to do.
What get in the way are the existing beliefs you and I have that filter our choices so that you and I only consider what we already believe to be possible.
The voice in our heads says –
“I can’t afford it” – “I can’t do that” – “I’m not good enough” – and so on.
But you and I need to notice these beliefs when they crop up and to also notice the pattern of what we’re noticing,
There’s a story about a young guy going fishing. He catches a few fish but he notices an older guy along the river who is catching fish after fish and each time measuring the fish against a broken off ruler by his side.
If the fish is bigger than the ruler, he throws it back in; if it’s smaller it goes in his bag.
Eventually the younger guy can’t stand this any more to he goes up to the older guy and asks why he’s throwing the big fish back in. Is there a rule about taking the larger fish or is there something wrong with them?
So the older guy explains. When I catch a fish I measure it against my ruler and if it’s too big I throw it back in and I keep the smaller fish. You see, this ruler here is the exact size of my frying pan back home that I use to cook the fish.
What are you and I not doing, what are you and I ‘throwing back in’ and what great ideas are you and I discarding because they won’t fit into our ‘frying pan’?
But what if, what if you and I ignored the ‘frying pan’ and didn’t believe it was impossible – or even difficult?
What would we do if we knew we couldn’t ‘fail’?
Nike, the company named after the Greek goddess of victory, famously have the slogan ‘Just do it’.
That’s all very well but there’s a ‘gap’ between where you and I are now and where we want to be, or what we want to do and have.
I’ve managed a few projects in my time and the secret to completing on time and on target is to have a clear vision of the outcome of the project.
When building a bridge for example, visualise the opening ceremony by a VIP who has already been booked for a certain time on a certain day. Visualise the arrangements that have been made and the speeches that are being given.
Work back from the future.
Work back from that day and put in place the intermediate milestones that need to be reached. Repeat the process and visualise those targets being achieved.
Do this with your own personal or business vision of the life you would love to live.
Write down or explain to someone in the present tense what you have achieved (not what you will have achieved) on all those dates.
Put on that life – put on that person.
Break down the ‘gap’ between where you want to be and where you are now into smaller and smaller ‘chunks’ – each time imagining yourself ‘being there’, having achieved each of those targets.
Start from where you are with what you have.
Take ‘one small step’ every day towards your vision.
As Mary Morrissey says –
“Do what you can with what you have, knowing that you always have way more than you are aware of.”
Go ahead, bridge the gap.
Take the next step.
Just do it – do it now.
