Don't Blink

Challenging the status quo is ridiculously hard work.  There is a tremendous amount of inertia in a culture, holding all who operate in it within it's orbit.  The resistance comes in many forms - passive resistance, mockery, isolation and, ultimately, simple refusal to change.

As the challenger to the status quo, it's easy to eventually give into this. Who wants to keep dragging people, kicking and screaming towards a new outcome?  The effort involved is exhausting, especially if there are one or two saboteurs simply torpedoing every move you make.

That thought process, however, has no agency.  It's simply a fiction I tell myself to hide from my responsibility to be an agent of change.  The powerful story that I need to speak about has a strong element of personal ownership and accountability.  As Peter Block might ask, "To this very thing I am complaining about, what is my contribution?"

Is my story going to be one of giving in to the power of the collective comfort zone?  Or is there simply another path that exists that gives no quarter or concern to the existing culture, and, instead, charts my own path?

This requires continuous leaps of faith from me. Leaping when I'm not sure others are with me or that the circumstances are ready.  No one is really ever ready - you can only be prepared.  To not know whether something will work or not work is exactly the time when you should do it.

When you're at the precipice and are leaping, don't blink.