A few miles into a guided run on my Nike Run Club app the coach, along with the co-founder of Headspace, started talking about motivation and being enough.
They described us as having enough (motivation, inspiration, or whatever we needed to keep doing this hard thing) but also as being enough. They wanted us to picture that place when we feel motivated, inspired and enough as a blue sky.
That blue sky is always there and beautiful.
But clouds make their way in and cover that sky. Those clouds represent our doubts, fears, feelings of not being enough.
When those feelings come in, they cover the blue sky and become what we focus on.
Those clouds are what stop us from finding the motivation, inspiration, and feeling like we are enough.
But they reminded us that despite the clouds, that blue sky is still there. Sometimes we cannot see it through the clouds, but it still exists.
Even when the clouds break, sometimes we are still so focused on the clouds, we miss the blue sky coming through.
This guided run and approach reminded me of my wife’s grandfather. A grizzly and tough man who flew planes in WWII and went by Gramps but made me call him “Commander.”
I once asked him what he liked the most about flying.
“Every single day is a sunny day with a blue sky if you just fly high enough.”
Gramps (aka Commander)
Will clouds come into our lives?
Yes.
Will those clouds of doubt and fear, and not being enough be our focus?
Maybe we just need to remember to fly high enough to find that blue sky.
P.S. Thanks Commander for the laughs and conversations and for the inspiration to be Captain.
Carl Weber Consulting 