As a child I attended some gymnastics classes, honestly I was uncomfortable with most of the activities. I was not an athletic or confident kid and there were a lot of unfamiliar physical activities. One of them was walking on a balance beam. As I walked along the beam’s path I wobbled and often fell off. I determined I was not very good at it since I felt so unstable. When in reality, what would have helped me the most was to realize that getting comfortable with the unsteadiness was actually the first step.
As an adult a dear friend used ‘walking on a balance beam’ as a metaphor for moving through life. This idea that as we take steps forward, there is supposed to be some wobbling and falling. As opposed to an unrealistic expectation that when we take actions on a goal or task that it’ll feel easy and turn out perfectly. We’ve got it wrong if we expect life to feel easy going. Life is an ever changing balance beam, we are meant to continue to be challenged as we navigate through life. You may build some confidence and ease with one part of life, and that’s when the beam gets skinnier and more complex.
This concept is very similar to the quote by Vivian Greene, “life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning how to dance in the rain.” We can’t put our lives on hold to wait out a storm and we can’t expect our path forward in life to be easy, comfortable, and perfect. So identify what matters to you in your life, how you want to show up for others, and what you want to experience. Move forward, one wobbly step at a time!
