Recently I began to ask audiences, “When does a fireman decide to run into a burning building?”
The variety of answers is surprising:
- When the alarm goes off.
- When he sees it burning.
- When someone inside calls for help.
Good answers…yet not quite accurate.
Firemen decide to run into burning buildings when they decide to become firemen. In the middle of the night when the alarm goes off, they don’t consider whether they feel like running into a building. When they see a building burning or when someone calls for help, thoughts of “Do I feel like doing this?” aren’t even a consideration. They simply get up and do what they have been trained to do.
In today’s economic climate, many times you may not feel like doing “it”. You may be teetering. But, is failure really an option? Although uncertainty pervades our culture, is “not” performing really a consideration? Or like the fireman, have you made a decision to face fear, to face uncertainty and to do what you have been trained to do regardless of your feelings at any given moment?