Build Your Wings on the Way Down

“No one will believe in you unless you do.” Dr. Ivan Joseph

Most of us are attracted to adventure. We explore new places near our own towns and cities, travel and visit new countries, try new restaurants, read a book we normally wouldn’t glance at or enter a triathlon for the first time.

As a leader your adventures might include a new initiative, a new position, a new program, or maybe, it might involve talking with someone you work with about how inadequate you feel or how you want to change things but don’t know how to start. Failure or the fear of failure or the fear of the unknown stops many of us from starting new adventures.

The by-line to this eblast is attributed to the late science fiction writer, Ray Bradbury. In a keynote address, Bradbury declared that, if enough people followed their hearts, they could realize their optimistic vision of humanity’s future. He exhorted his enthusiastic listeners to “jump off the cliff and learn how to make wings on the way down.” Source: http://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/06/17/cliff-wings/

Sounds good but how do you do that without the safety of a parachute? How will you know what to do without a road map? Well, there are those who have gone before us and who left us with some things to think about based on their jumps off of cliffs.

Dag Hammarskjöld, the late Secretary General of the UN wrote “For all that has been, Thank you. For all that is to come, Yes!”

Brene Brown has said, “The world keeps going whether you know it or not. The critics are in the arena whether you identify them and think about the messages that keep us small...they’re there whether you do that or not…the people who have the most courage…who are willing to show to be the most vulnerable are the ones who are very clear about who the critics are. When we look up and we’re putting an idea…our piece of art…our design forward…who do you think the biggest critic in the arena really is… yourself”

In this funny 13 minute talk Dr. Ivan Joseph, from Ryerson University, offers another perspective about what it takes to turn the handle on the door in front of you that opens to what you don’t know anything about. It’s about believing in yourself…enough…to jump off a cliff. “It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity” Dag Hammarskjöld

From the practice fields…

Joe Putos, PT Chair, Leadership Division Canadian Physiotherapy Association

If you are going to Halifax we would love to meet and hear from you. Join us at Congress for our workshop on Narrative Medicine. Or drop in Saturday to our Leadership Lounge (suite 304) and find out what Leadership is all about. Join us on Saturday June 20 for our Eyeopener Breakfast 7:15 am or our AGM at 4:30 pm.

Looking for Professional Development opportunities about Leadership for your staff or colleagues? We have an innovative three part leadership development series that we can bring to your site.

For more information send us a message at [email protected] or visit our website where you will find more resources on leadership.

http://www.physiotherapy.ca/Divisions/Leadership

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