I took a walk the other day. I saw two birds sitting on a power line. Resting. Chatting.
After a brief exchange, they hopped further apart on the line. They glanced back at each other a few times. Then, they let themselves fall — and with one powerful, wing-spreading motion, each went their own way.
That’s what birds do. They fly. And even though they can fall from the sky just once, every morning they decide to fly regardless. Because that’s what they are here to do.
Once a bird is in the air, however, it soars. Everything flows. The world passes by. Life is a dream. An adventure. The journey it’s meant to be.
And yet, every single time before it takes off, before it plunges from the power line, there’s the risk that, this time, it might fall.
Tim Ferriss’s trainer Jerzy Gregorek has a saying:
“Hard choices, easy life. Easy choices, hard life.”
Even if you can, even if flying is your whole purpose in life, deciding to fly is a hard choice. It must be made over and over again. But every time you do, life gets a bit easier in the grand scheme of things.
I mean, what’s the alternative, really? Doing nothing?
As humans, we can’t stay in our nest. We must take the leap. Take off. Life looks better from above. Life feels better when we fly.
So whatever you do today, whether it’s resting, chatting, exploring, working, or letting life’s current carry you where it may, remember that, soon, you’ll have to fall again.
When that time comes, don’t fret. Don’t hesitate. Don’t wish it was easier. Just leap. And then spread your wings. You weren’t made to sit on a power line.
You were born to fly.