The Wisdom of Burning the Boats

There comes a time when evolutionary forces have gained such unmistakable momentum and/or we have raised our standards, self-worth and self-respect to such an extent that we reach what is called a ‘point of no return’… and we land in (or are thrown into) new circumstances entirely. .

Ultimately, the message is that we’ve outgrown our circumstances and our previous modus operandi..

Personally, we will have 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, whether personally or collectively, carries us forward.

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. (And especially now.)

It is at this point, we take control of the moment (as best we can, even if we are quaking in our boots) 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.

Because the path or life that ‘once was’…. is no more.

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 find and make our way in the New.

Burning the boats ensures that we will not be tempted to return to our old ways, to retreat from the Future. In so doing, we will not return to what has been outgrown and give the path ahead you all we’ve got so that we may more fully and authentically LIVE.

(c) Fatima Bacot All rights reserved.