On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Here’s a jolt of inspiration from bestselling author Bob Goff:

Next time you’re in an airplane, take notice of what happens right before you touch down. The pilot decelerates the plane—sometimes they even cut the engines after they get over the numbers at the end of the runway. When they do this, the plane is still hovering around ten or fifteen feet above the ground.

Have you ever wondered why the plane seems to float there over the runway for a while before touching down? It’s a phenomenon called “ground effect.” The wind traveling past the underside of the wing pushes against the ground and then pushes up against the wing from below. When you’re pursuing your ambitions, you can experience some ground effect too. It can keep you ten feet over your ambitions.

There’s something safe and comforting about the planning process, isn’t there? This happens to our ambitions all the time. The last step in this process is to stop all the planning already. Book the flight. Buy the ring. Host the first meeting in your living room. Whatever it is, stop hovering ten feet above your dream. You’re going to need to pitch forward a little more and get your wheels on the ground.

As you do this, don’t aim for perfection; look for proof that your ambition is taking shape in the world. Don’t think it will all go smoothly. Be ready for the jolt when you touch down. Block out all the reasons this could go wrong or why you shouldn’t try. Your ambition is worth it. All of it. It’s worth every sacrifice you’ll make to turn your idea to reality.

Source: Dream Big, pp. 200-201

On Wednesdays, I share posts, fables, songs, poems, quotations, TEDx Talks, cartoons, and books that have inspired and motivated me on my writing journey. I hope these posts will give writers, artists, and other creatives a mid-week boost.

Bestselling author Bob Goff shares a unique perspective on a historical event in his recent release, Dream Big:

On December 17, 1903, after years of tinkering and experimenting, two brothers named Wilbur and Orville Wright changed history by making a successful powered flight over the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

The precise moment in time when Orville and Wilbur pulled away from the earth was 10:35 in the morning. It was the moment we knew sustained flight was possible. Before that minute, no one knew what would happen. Nearly everyone doubted that it could be done. I’ve always wondered to myself what Orville and Wilbur were thinking a minute before they launched at 10:34. We all wonder the same thing about our ambitions at some point. Will our ambitions fly, or will they crash and burn?

Nobody lives at 10:35. You don’t, and I don’t. We all live our lives and execute our ambitions at 10:34. We don’t know how our lives will turn out, much less whether our ideas are going to work out or not. I meet so many people in my travels, good people with great ideas, but many of them never take their ideas out of the hangar. The reason is simple. They’re afraid of what they’ll do if it works or afraid they’ll look bad if it doesn’t.

Perhaps it’s validation that has you stopped a minute early. Maybe you’re concerned about a big public failure, or maybe the thought of an even bigger private failure is keeping you from trying. Somehow the clock became frozen at 10:34 in your life. The good news is this; 10:35 is only a minute away from happening for each of us. That one minute is a small amount of time, but it can represent a huge shift in your life. It just requires a willingness to fail.

Source: Dream Big, pp. 162-163