This article follows “Say yes to life: you never know where it might take you“.
Since my university days, one quote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr. has never really left me: “Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.”
At the time, I probably didn’t appreciate how much those words would shape my choices. Looking back, so many of life’s greatest adventures, opportunities and turning points started without a clear view of what lay ahead.
There was rarely a complete staircase in sight
Moving countries. Meeting new people. Starting Live Learning back in 2005. Stepping outside my comfort zone, and sometimes being pushed out of it.
In each case, there was just a first step. And then another.
The turning point is the learning point
In our storytelling training sessions at Live Learning, we often say: “The turning point is the learning point.”
Every compelling personal story needs adversity, challenge and a moment of uncertainty. Without these, there is little tension, little transformation and often very little learning.
And isn’t life much the same?
Clarity comes from movement
We often wait for certainty before acting. We want guarantees, reassurance and a clear destination. Yet some of our greatest lessons come from unexpected twists, from setbacks and from those moments when things don’t quite go to plan.
Sometimes clarity comes from movement, not from standing still.
Perhaps that’s what saying yes to life is really about. Not blindly accepting every opportunity, but having enough faith in yourself, and in others, to begin before everything is figured out.
More than 20 years after founding Live Learning, I’m still discovering new steps, new challenges and new turning points, and long may that continue!
So, what’s the first step you’ve been putting off because you can’t yet see the whole staircase?
Act boldly. Grow bravely.
Live Learning, rethinking the way we learn!
