What You Really Really Want

Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann is a National Book Award Winner that I highly recommend. The novel is set in New York and built around events occurring on the day that Phillipe Petit and his team strung a cable between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. He then danced across 8 times, and even laid down on the wire at one point, to the awe and delight of 10,000 onlookers.

The author chose to weave his tale of redemption around the 1974 tightrope walk because it was an act of creation, in direct opposition to the act of destruction that occurred at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The story is a testament to the power of hope and of being true to your self.

In Let The Great World Spin, McCann described Phillipe Petit in a meadow, training for his famed tightrope walk across the twin towers of the World Trade Center. "What he had to do was reimagine things, make an impression in his head, a tower at the far end of his vision, a cityline, below him. He sometimes resented it, bringing the city to the meadow, but he had to meld the landscapes together in his imagination, the grass, the city, the sky."


Petit had a dream, to which he was totally committed and on which he placed intense focus. McCann states that Petit had a sign tacked to the cabin door, his personal version of eliminating failure as an option: NOBODY FALLS HALFWAY. Petit has written his own book about his feat, and there is an Academy Award winning documentary on the subject as well. It stands out as an incredible act of daring, and a vivid illustration of an essential element of how you can set and achieve your goals.


Have you taken the time to figure out what you really want to do? How about what you really, really, really want to do? What's stopping you? I had a teacher who said: Life is too short to do what I have to do. It is barely long enough to do what I want to do.


Goals that are aligned with your personal interest and values contribute more to your success and happiness than those that you believe you should have or that are dictated by others. They free you to enjoy the journey of your life, provide you with a motivational pull and they have a trickle down effect as well. They help to make everything you do more enjoyable. Sometimes it takes some work to figure out what those goals are, as you learn about what is really inside of you and struggle against societal pressures that may push you in different directions. Can you imagine telling your family that you planned to devote yourself to walking a tightrope across two gigantic office towers?


The reality is that there are other factors that we consider when choosing our goals. It would be irresponsible for the sole breadwinner of a family to quit earning money to paint watercolors in the attic all day.

Yet, there is a way to create a more fulfilling life regardless of your responsibilities. The goal of providing for one's family could be a goal that is aligned with your values, and it increases your self-esteem to acknowledge and nurture that goal. If it is also your goal to become a renowned painter of watercolors, then devoting even an hour a week to that pursuit will increase your sense of well being and happiness. And it will make the day job more fulfilling too.

So I encourage you to spend some time thinking about what it is you love to do. When was the last time you enjoyed doing something that you thought was valuable? Formulate a goal around this and commit to spend some time working towards it on a regular basis.

Life really is too short.