One day, I was travelling to another state and I was stuck in an airplane on the tarmac waiting for a storm to leave our destination. I couldn’t help but think about the risk involved in flying. Microbursts, bird strikes, lightning, engine failure etc etc. Holy cow, I was having SERIOUS second thoughts of my trip, all of a sudden. The only good news was; I happened to get upgraded to First Class because of an over-booking issue. So if indeed I was going to go down in flames, at least I was going to do it in STYLE, baby!
Talk about a false sense of danger. I had worked my self in to a heap of fear and my imagination was going nuts convincing me there was a huge risk of great peril. Why does our imagination do that to us?
I remember one night taking my dog Woody to the back yard before we went to bed and once outside, he started barking like someone or some-thing was in the back in the shadows. The difference between Woody and myself? I was watching the corner carefully as I inched back towards the door, in case I needed to make a quick retreat. But not Woody. No…he took off running full speed to the shadows to confront whatever creature or monster lay in wait.
I thought about this for along time. Was he being incredibly brave? Was he being incredibly naive? Was he just reacting or was he the toughest thirteen-pound dog I have ever known? Well, I decided it was the difference between us humans having our imagination. Please don’t be offended if I have insinuated that dogs do not have imagination, but yeah…I kinda don’t think they do. Regardless, I could dream up all sorts of dangers that MIGHT be out there. A mugger? A coyote? Jason? A 20 foot anaconda? A yeti?…There seemed to be no limits to what I could imagine was out there.
So here I am sitting on a plane dreaming up Yetis and anacondas all over again.
The reality is: I had already driven to the airport already and boarded my plane, which by itself was FAR more dangerous than any Yeti. We’ve heard the comparisons before, but allow me to spell it out: In absolute numbers, driving is more dangerous, with more than 5 million accidents compared to 20 accidents in flying. Per mile…driving is WAY more likely to yield an accident. Yet my blood pressure and the knot in my stomach were having none of it.
How many dangers do we encounter every day to which we’ve become complacent? Sure, we do things day after day, time after time, with no incident, so we begin to feel “safe” in our repetitiveness without a thought of the dangers. In reality, it doesn’t matter a whole lot how good of a driver we are; all it takes is a texting or distracted driver to t-bone us at the intersection. (Of course, everybody always thinks THEY are good drivers and everyone else is clueless. But I digress…)
Creativity and imagination are wonderful things God has given us to “think outside of the box” and develop plans to try new things and consider new options. But those same blessings can present obstacles if we let them get the better of us at the wrong time. Reality-versus-perception is a tricky thing. When we give too much power to perception, it can begin to seem as real as reality even though it is not. My body was reacting to fear, despite the fact it only existed in my mind.
Be careful to not allow your plans or your day or your life to be affected by the imagination of anacondas that simply do not exist. Some concerns can be motivators for us to stay on top of our game, but we can also let them go nuts and start to affect us negatively. Worst of all, we lose hope and bail on something because we convince ourselves it was a bad idea, and that the road to success is paved with failure. Actually, the road to success IS paved with failure, but what we do with that failure determines our end game. If you see the motivational side of failure as a good thing, then you are on the right path.
I had an inventor friend of mine tell me one day, “I love making mistakes; they mean I’m one step closer to getting it right.” All it takes, is ONE YES. We have heard all the stories of people who were met with NO NO NO and then got their “yes” and became successful. Whether you’re a song writer, author, inventor, movie maker or just a dreamer – you are selling something and you just need ONE YES. Remember there are other people who want what you want and the only differentiation between you two is who wants it more? Don’t let your fabricated, dreamed up, imagined fears keep you from moving forward. Act on what you KNOW to be true and keep your eyes on the prize.