The way life is supposed to work is we stumble upon our passions in our youth, we develop them, and deploy them into our vocation, and spend our adult lives living out our calling. Sounds great, huh? All we need to do is look around and see that is not the story most of us are living. Instead, many of us spend our youth in the institutional educational system, pursuing degrees that we deploy into careers that we never took the time to examine if they were right for us, or if we could love them. We choose practical, viable careers that we could ultimately care less about. And about the time we reach thirty-five years old, we find ourselves at a dead end. Sometimes it is a well-paid, prestigious dead-end, but a dead-end nonetheless.
The Chasm is that great divide between where we are and where we want to be in life. How do we get where we want to go? How do we keep one foot in the life we live, while at the same time build a bridge across to the life we want?
Our life is all of our moments in a row. Simple, but true. We make decisions, go in a certain direction, and cut a groove in reality called that is our life path. It’s tough to get out of that groove once we have been there for so long. And because we have significant others, kids, house payments, car payments, we hesitate to make a revolutionary life change. Or because we don’t have the guts. Or we won’t make the time to start forging a new groove in reality. Or because we don’t want to let people down.
I have stared out into that Chasm countless times. I have hung my toes over the edge, and thought about making a heroic attempt at jumping across. No parachute. The truth is, that usually results in a hard and fast fall into the abyss. We have to be strategic. We have to make a plan. And though patience will be rewarded, procrastination kills. And perfectionism is the enemy of everything anyone ever did that was worthwhile.
Thus the dilemma: we have to cross the chasm, but we have to do everything we can to stack the deck in our favor. If we wait for a guarantee to take the leap, we will never do it. We won’t have a big enough “emergency fund.” Or we have to wait for that last bonus check to come in. Or we have to get the car paid off. Whatever. Death can come in two forms: we can jump now and fall to our (almost certain) doom, or we can stand at the edge and never, ever jump at all. Life is found in that happy place in the middle. That’s where we are heading.
This next part of the 100 Day Challenge is about crafting a strategy to Cross the Chasm. Making an honest assessment of what resources we have on hand, what assets we can utilize, what relationships we can leverage, what networks we can expand, and how those things fit together with our Core Identity, our talents and abilities, our gifts and passions.
We also have to make an honest assessment about the obstacles that stand in our way. Whether we have to downsize from house to an apartment. From two cars to one car. Netflix, or rabbit ears. Starbucks or Folgers (seriously, don’t go there…there are plenty of quality coffee brews somewhere in between!) Eliminate debt while we still have a steady paycheck coming from “The Man” and scale our lifestyle down to something our Dreamlife can sustain.
We have to deal with the internal obstacles as well. The self-doubt and fear has to be addressed and overcome. What we are talking about is attainable. It can be done. The list of our Core Characteristics, along with our “Groundhog Day” is our new manifesto. Before this 100 days is up, we are going to produce something that is bold, audacious, and all our own. It won’t be prefect, and it probably won’t be our Magnum Opus, but it will be entirely authentic, and unapologetically passionate.
The truth is, we may do an elegant Triple-Lindy off of the edge, but land in a battered and broken heap at the bottom, no matter how great the plan is. But I would rather be that guy any day, than the guy who is too scared to be anything other than a spectator and a critic.
This is Day 20 of the 100 Day Challenge.
