I like metaphors.
I use them all the time to make sense of things in my own life.
One of my favourites that I’ve come up with was to deal with that feeling of dread and pessimism when starting anything new and seemingly insurmountable.
It’s served me very well over the years. I return to it constantly when I start to doubt how realistic my goals are.
It came to me when I was on a plane. I had just boarded a big plane full of passengers, luggage, crew and gear. As I sat there I started to think about just how heavy the airplane is. It probably weighs a lot.
So, as I’m a dab hand at the Googles, I looked it up.
It turns out the maximum weight of a 737 plane at take-off is 175,000 lbs (80,000kg). That’s not a typo. One Hundred and Seventy-Five THOUSAND pounds.
That’s heavy.
All of the people on board the plane couldn’t step outside the plane and work together to successfully lift that kind of weight. It’d be too heavy.
Yet, in a relatively short period of time that same plane can be tens of thousands of feet in the air. You can even get up and walk around and it feels completely solid, like you’ve never left the ground… but you have.
Thanks to, in no particular order, preparation, learning, science, teamwork, hard work, etc… This incredibly heavy thing is now in the sky.
Whenever I feel the task in front of me is too big… too insurmountable… unrealistically lofty, I remind myself I’m an airplane.
With enough push and support, I can achieve what before seemed almost impossible.
It doesn’t always work, but it does get me past my initial self-doubt.
Maybe it’ll work for you too.
Wheels up!
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