Beautiful Lesson

I have spoken of a business event I recently attended. One of the speakers read a story from a book. The book is Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah by Richard Bach. I am going to pass along the lesson I took from the story and the speaker. Enjoy.

"Once there lived a village of creatures along the bottom of a great crystal river.The current of the river swept silently over them all-young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing only its own crystal self. Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth." How many of us are clinging to our current way of life? Resisting things that we have been taught from birth to resist?

"But one creature said at last 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.'  The other creatures laughed and said 'Fool, let go and that current you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks and you will die quicker than boredom.'" Isn't that just like friends and family? Whenever you decide to take a risk and step away from the norm to do something different, they berate you.  They laugh and mock you because they don't share your dream. They don't have your vision. They cannot imagine living a life outside the comfort of what they have always known.

"But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks. Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more." You see, when you release the burdens, when you release the baggage that you are clinging to, when you stop resisting new ways of living your life, you feel as though a load has been taken from your shoulders. A weight has been removed and you feel lighter. You have been lifted up and you are bruised and hurt no more.

The Great Momentum

The definition of momentum is the impetus of a moving object. Momentum remains constant unless it is acted upon by an outside force. In classical mechanics, it is defined as mass times velocity. Or the size of the object multiplied by the speed it is moving. Business leaders, sports coaches and motivational experts are always speaking about taking "massive action". Massive is the size and action is the velocity. The bigger and faster you can move yourself, your idea, your goals, the football or whatever, then the more momentum you will have generated.

Momentum is your best friend. I don't care who you are or what you do, momentum is a necessity. Sometimes, momentum is the only difference between winning and losing...achieving and failing. It is extremely difficult to get momentum and even more difficult to keep it. But keep it you must. If you have ever watched the 100 Meter dash in the Olympics you will see that the start, the time when the runners leave the blocks, is actually timed. The announcers make a big deal out of who got the fastest start. Why? Because the   faster the start, the more momentum throughout the race. And how much difference is there between one runner to the next? Only a few thousandths of a second!! That's it. The small difference in momentum at the start ends up being a larger difference at the finish. The difference between winning and losing. Whatever your goals are, you must get a fast start to create this winning momentum.