There comes a time when we have raised our standards and self-respect to such an extent that we reach what is called a ‘point of no return’ and we must act.
That is, we’ve outgrown our circumstances. We’ve expanded our identity, character, sense of self, worthiness, desires, values and expectations. We can no longer abide living as we used to in one or more Life Areas.
We feel a compelling pull towards that something new. We’re no longer pushing, applying willpower to get through the marathons and obstacle-courses of our resistance: the momentum we have built through sustained desire and effort have become automatic, and through who we’ve now become.
And yet, we may still hesitate, balk, apply the brakes when we need to act…wildly looking around for a way in which we can keep one foot in the safe-but-stagnant past of who we were, and have the other somehow live in who we have become.
We cannot. The die is cast. It’s become too late to go back.
It is at this point, we take control of the moment and we resolve to shut out the going back. We refuse to return to who we were, how we lived, what we once accepted because all that now looks like ‘settling’ and self-betrayal.
And so we:
- Burn the boats
- Burn the bridges
- Cross the Rubicon
- Sink the ships
- Draw the line in the sand
We leave ourselves no option but to go forward. We must make and find our way in the New.
Burning the boats ensures that we will not be tempted to return to our old ways. That we will not return to what has been outgrown.
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Do you remember when you last did that?
Is it time to do that again?