A $20 Bill

Imagine I place a board on the ground. It’s about 2 feet wide and 20 feet long. I place a $20 bill on the opposite end as a reward if you can put one foot in front of the other, walk along the length of the board, bend down, and pick up the 20 bucks. No sweat, right? It’s simple to walk one foot in front of the other for 20 feet.

But then I place one end of the plank on the top of a 20-story building, and the other end on the top of an adjacent 20-story building – I place a small rock on the $20 bill in case there is a slight breeze. Now I ask you to walk the plank just as before. Would you do it? Not on your life! But what has changed? The task is exactly the same. Fear takes over and makes something that used to be easy nearly impossible to achieve.

So it is with the things and situations that we want in our lives. If we are honest with ourselves, we know we can do it. However, when it comes to achieving a goal, we often focus more on the possibility of failure than the actual goal, making it almost impossible to achieve. We must train ourselves to focus exclusively on what we want – not on what we don’t want. “I want to speak up at work” vs.” I don’t want to look silly for saying what I feel.” “I want a trusting relationship” vs. “I don’t want my partner to cheat.” In the beginning this takes a lot of practice and support, but you can do it. I believe that you can have anything that you can imagine.