I’ve been thinking about blocks. What are blocks? Blocks are used to build things. Blocks are for walking your dog around. And blocks are what we call thought patterns that get in your way. There are outer blocks and inner blocks. The blocks I’m referring to are the kinds of blocks we unknowingly build inside ourselves over a lifetime or two, or three. And they come back to bite us at the most inopportune times.
We spend our lives doing things, wanting to do things, and not doing things. Why do we sometimes not do things we want to do? Well isn’t there a question.
I’ll share a story. This one’s for you, Diane. Many years ago, my buddy Steve and I, hey Steve, wrote a song about Martin Luther King. It’s a nice little tune if I do say so myself. The company I was working for at the time was really big into diversity, and I don’t even remember how it happened, but one thing led to another and they paid for me to record it. We went in the studio, bolstered by an inner-city middle school choir we found to sing on it. The energy in the room with these kids was electric. It was truly an amazing experience for all involved. The recording came out great and all of a sudden these big ideas started flowing. My sister -the marketing master- got involved, shout out to Jerri. We were talking about creating videos, writing curriculum, and sending these VHS tapes out to all the schools in the country. Somebody knew someone who might be able to get the kids from the Cosby show involved to promote it, it was exciting, it was crazy. We looked at this and played with that, talked about the other thing, and when we added it all up, it was going to cost about $750,000. Bam! You can just imagine what kind of wall that was! I did note that we were about $750,000 short of that number, and being kind of young, truly inexperienced and fairly clueless, the project just kind of rolled off the desk and under the bed. And that was that. What happened? Why didn’t we do it? I don’t know. We just didn’t.
I’m sure at the time I had all the excuses, or rather the reasons, but the answer is, I just didn’t. I probably felt overwhelmed. Who wouldn’t? Also, I really didn’t know how to do something like that. Why didn’t I ask someone? Dunno. What was in the way?
Knowing what I know now, I would call it a block. Something unknown to me at the time was blocking me from moving forward. Generally it’s a fear of something, and more often than not, fear of failure is the big one that keeps most projects from even getting started. Some experience fear of the unknown. And some, believe it or not, are afraid -nervous, reluctant- of success! They think, quietly to themselves, “What would life be like if I actually did get -or do- what I want? Then what”?
We are just more comfortable being where we are, -the devil we know- which, as I’ve said before, isn’t necessarily bad. And it’s easy, cuz we’re already here. But, We’re just not letting our light shine. We’re not being the best version of us we can be.
Can you think of a time when perhaps you shrunk a bit, for whatever unknown unnamed reasons? How did you feel about it? How do you feel about it now? Are there things still blocking you from your visions?
We’re going to talk a little more about this in the next few weeks. I’m hosting a webinar next month to address some of these and I’m curious about your thoughts and what you feel might want to be addressed. For now, just notice where you stop yourselves. No need to do anything more than that, just notice and write it down. I’m truly interested in what you’re experiencing, so please reach out. It could be an interesting, mildly disturbing and enlightening week. But, you know what? You Got This!
Just sayin’