CRESSWELL WALKER Life is a Daring Adventure ... or nothing
So said Helen Keller and I was about to prove it!
Looking through the spinning propeller, I contemplated the 500 metre runway lined up
ahead. I had built a private airplane, but was I was ready to fly it?
My check lists were complete, the engine was warmed up. After two years of building,
there was nothing to do but push down upon the throttle and fly. I gripped the control
stick in a sweaty right hand and rehearsed the take-off one last time in my head: Stick
back, release brakes, full throttle, stick forward, tail up, steer straight until she lifts off ...
Right?I hope so.....it was time.....here goes!
I put the throttle to the max and barely had time to think “Holy smokes, this thing accelerates” and she took off. I
hadn’t even had time to lift the tail before I lay pitched back in my seat with nothing to see over the nose but clear
blue sky. I had never expected my harmless looking airplane to fly with such enthusiasm! Like an unlikely rider on the
back of a homesick angel that day, I hung on tighter than I had ever hung onto anything before in my life. “This is
fantastic”, I thought, “a little scary, I admit, but I think I am going to like this!”
There are many adventures we can seek out in our lives, but none serve to stretch and grow us like the ones that take
us to our limits of our skill and courage. Building an airplane and flying it one of them. When we fly out to meet great
challenges in our lives we find new courage and confidence. “Now that I have done this, we discover, what else shall I
try that I never before imaged was within my grasp?”
The adventure changes us. We grow toward mastery. We become more of who we are. We find our gifts. One by one,
we bring them into the world. We find fulfilment and happiness. Our quest for mastery never ends, but our gains
along the way buoy us. The world becomes bigger and smaller at the same time. Now all things are possible, limited
only by the time we have to stride alive in the magic kingdom.
But the question is: How do we get started? How do we build the capacity to make the choice to go for it? How do
we make choices that make our lives “a daring adventure”, to take off for the sky with nothing but clear blue sky
ahead?
In what I call the “uncommon sense” ideas of the 7 Cs, we learn to be:
- CAPTAIN of our own lives,
- With the COURAGE to choose
- Our own COURSE,
- And COMPANIONS,
- With the CAPACTIY to thrive,
- In CURIOUSITY
- And COMPASSION for self and others
When we grow to embody these 7Cs, these values then define what we do, what choices we make day to day, what
things we pay attention to, what part of ourselves we intentionally strengthen. We are able, at last, to make the
choice to step into life as a daring adventure, a journey, a flight if it were to success and fulfilment.
Cresswell Walker works as an executive coach and leadership trainer across
SE Asia and the Middle East. An international speaker, author and adventurer
Creswell’s results rest upon an extraordinary educational background and first
career as an award winning Professional Planner
Contact: [email protected] | http://www.cresswellwalker.com