Last week in Croatia, I attended a powerful session led by my friend Kute Blackson. Kute is an amazing speaker and life coach with a unique perspective on how to live a truly inspired life.
Kute lives exuberantly and, boy, did he get my attention with the title of his talk: “Go Where It’s Scary”. Yikes!
We so often opt for the seduction of comfort and staying within the lines of our neatly packaged “personal brands”. What is scary for you? Are you willing to go there and start from scratch? Are you willing to forego what you are told is marketable and go for what gives you the most juice?
Success can become its own trap. Take a look. How is doing more of what you have already mastered blocking your next expression of yourself? Your next evolution. Your next level of leadership and performance. Do you find yourself playing your “greatest hits” rather than going to your next edge and pushing beyond your zone of competence? Are you still discovering your true genius?
When I ask people to describe their most exuberant experiences, they often describe things they did for the first time. Like falling in love. Starting a new job. Launching a new project. Becoming a parent. Taking a big chance on something they believed in while others stood back and criticized. Leading a team to victory against all the odds. Rallying people in a crisis and saving the day.
“To be alive is to create a future,” says Bob Dunham of the Generative Leadership Institute. What future are you creating?
Stay on the safe path and a part of your soul begins to die. Go where it is scary and you will find courage. Blaze a new path and stay fully awake and alive. Fully exuberant!
I’m taking Kute’s advice. In three days, I leave for a ten-day Wilderness Adventure in Idaho that includes climbing in the Sawtooth Mountain Range and whitewater rafting on the Salmon River. Is that scary for me? You bet. Am I going there? Without a doubt.
Where is scary for you? Go there now.
Exuberance awaits.