On the brink

There comes a point when we don't need another book, another workshop, another living soul to tell us what we need to do. We already know. We're just busting through the last layer of fear and resistance.

I can tell I am there. I know what I have to do. One foot in front of the other. Baby steps, just like I teach my clients. Just like Gina, my 15-month-old niece. She stands and feels brave and accomplished. But then what? She looks at the floor. She's learned how to safely land on her butt. Now it's just a matter of looking straight ahead and moving one foot out in front. Then the next. It's that basic. That's why the baby steps metaphor is so good.

My nephew, Stephen, is almost three. When he started talking it was like the language had just been sitting there waiting to burst through the surface. Now he's not only speaking, but shouting with glee. He can't express enough. He's exuberant in his speech. It's a beautiful thing to watch.

That's how our breakthroughs happen. At some point we have to be on the brink. And let's just say it, sometimes the brink is a hard place to be. It's that last, point-of-no-return, I'm-about-to-leap place. From there, it's jump or turn back. Is that really a choice?

Not when your destiny is waiting.