Step 20: Roll With the Punches
“The measure of a person’s strength is not in their muscular power or strength but it is his flexibility and adaptability.”
At this point you've been thrown into a circumstance, well, not of your liking. Someone has pulled you onstage, asked you to present first even though you're sorely unprepared or even included you in a lie to a family member. Sometimes your aunt doesn't need to know how much your cousin drank from her liquor cabinet. So what do you do?
There are two choices. Either you pull something out of your ass or you run away from said circumstance. As someone who's done both, I can say I wished I would have just gone with it. Thinking on your feet is a skill that's hard to forget.
Source: www.slothilda.com
I know what you're thinking. You wouldn't be running from the situation if it weren't scary. You have a point. But everything looks scary before you try it. Think about when you first learned how to swim. Or the first time you learned how to fry chicken. Or the first time you kissed someone other than the back of your hand. You were nervous, trying to get your body to stop sweating or just trying to not get popped by grease. And you had no idea what you were doing! But guess what? You did it.
Here's what happens when you punk out (because really that's what you're doing.)
- You're looked at as the uptight one.
- Any spontaneous ideas have been shot down.
- You lose out on a new story to tell.
The lesson for today is to be a bit more flexible and jump. Yeah you may fall and hit the ground but you may also fly. OK so maybe not fly. You never know what's going to happen, especially in those moments. And no one has ever said they wish they took less risks and said "pass me" more.
