Thought for the Day - The Last Three Steps

There is a famous quote that I remember from the movie 'The Walk' in which high wire walker Phillippe Petit (it's his story) says something like - 'most wire walkers die in the final three steps. They think they have arrived but they have not.'

It is true for most things. 

You reach the final, almost reach the end, and take your eyes off the last three steps - with disastrous results. You fall, you lose, you fail. 

The question then is this - why do we take our eyes off the last three steps? 

Most  times it's because we move from process to 'hope'. We 'hope' we will get there without our effort. Instead of keeping our eyes open, being aware and following process we close our eyes and hope. 

Why do we 'hope' in the big moments? The final, the last three steps, the last over.

We hope when we fear looking at reality - at the target, our goal, our desired outcome. The fear of the possibility of losing makes us take our eyes off the target and rely on hope. And when we take our eyes off our target, we miss seeing areas where we can slip up. And that's exactly where we slip up.

A match. A high wire walk. A project. Anything. If we take our eyes off, if we cannot address the grey areas and hope, if we fear losing more than desire winning, we will fall, we will fail, we will lose. 

Like they say, there's many a slip between the cup and the lip. So do not leave important stuff to hope. Keep your eyes open when you get to the last three steps. Hold your fear, force yourself to look at what you want, and go for it with your eyes open.

You might still lose. But at least you have tried to win - not tried not to lose. You have given yourself a fair chance to win.