What if Tarzan never let go of the vine?
How far would he have gotten if he simply held on tight and never let go at the peak of his swing?
I mean yeah… he would be technically “moving”, but would he really be moving anywhere new if he just swung back and forth?
Not at all!
He would be stuck in one place in the jungle never seeking out adventure.
Yes, he would have the benefit of holding onto what is known and what is comfortable, but that’s not why he’s living in the jungle in the first place.
Thanks to the numerous vines, Tarzan and all the apes of the jungle are free to roam as they please, however, there are two rules they must follow: (1) They must commit and (2) they must let go.
Without these two actions, they will never get anywhere.
And when it comes to us non-jungle dwellers, this is the part we often struggle with most.
We see a world full of opportunity but struggle to commit to any single vine. It’s only once we do commit that we encounter another obstacle that we didn’t expect.
We have to let go and grab onto a new vine.
But that’s a lot easier said than done. This vine we’ve found is comfortable. We know it can support us. We know what’s surrounding it. We can trust it.
It’s so incredibly tempting to stick within what’s comfortable and never reach out to the next vine.
And who can blame you? What if that next vine swings you towards a giant leopard? What if it’s actually a snake? What if the next vine isn’t as strong and you fall to the jungle floor?
All of these thoughts can race through your mind and paralyze you in that moment. They can cause you to stick with your one little vine.
But guess what? There is a worse fate if you never let go.
If you continue to hold onto your comfortable vine, eventually you will run out of momentum. After a few swings, you won’t have the same speed you once had early on. And eventually, you will find yourself stuck hanging onto a vine that isn’t moving you anywhere. Thus, forcing you to drop to the jungle floor and start from scratch (exactly where you’d be if you reached out and grabbed onto a false vine).
At the end of every swing, lies risk and uncertainty.
When you let go of what’s comfortable you risk failure and you put yourself face-to-face with one of the scariest beasts in the world: Vulnerability
Yet, as the vulnerability expert Brené Brown explains, “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness.”
Being vulnerable is risky. And it can feel like we are putting ourselves in a position of weakness. But when we make these leaps, we are doing just the opposite. We are being courageous.
And despite what some people might think, the fear never goes away. You simply get braver.
So, if you’ve been holding onto a vine for just a little too long, perhaps it’s time to let go.
Change and growth are never easy, but the risk of staying within what’s comfortable can have far worse unintended consequences as well.
We can either hold onto what’s familiar and face the likelihood of regret and pain over inaction.
Or we can embrace the unknown, let go, and challenge ourselves along the way as a means of growing towards the greatest version of ourselves.
-derek
