Anchor or Sail?
When you step back and evaluate, which are you? We are one or the other, or both. Sometimes we are an anchor for ourselves but a sail for others. I have been there before. I have also been the sail for myself but an anchor for others.
So what does it mean to be a sail, not an anchor? Anchors keep us in place, in one place. Sails help us move from one place to another. Sails respond to the wind. Sails are an image of freedom, of adventure, not standing still, going over the horizon into the unknown.
Sails are powered by the wind, which we have no control over. They carry us to places we may never have visited or stopped without the wind. The wind, in this situation, is others. We have many opportunities to do many things in life but if we don’t have a little “wind power”, we often can’t make it there on our own. Sails carry us into the vast expanse of the seas, where the storms rage and the waves are big. That is where we earn our sea legs.
Just like anchors, there is another side to sails as well. Some “winds” can move your sails without knowing or caring if you are ready. They don’t take the time to understand if you are ready for that push and are only seeing the pushing off the boat, not the personal growth.
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
Anchors are great for keeping boats and ships safe. In a protected harbor, out of the elements. Safe. Anchors are not necessarily negative or bad people. They are just complacent and hold you back from your potential. They prevent you from making change and feel finding potential growth that is deep inside you. They view mistakes as fatal flaws and thus make you afraid of what you might become if you did something different.
Conversely, anchors can be good things in your life. They can ground you because you aren’t ready to be pushed forward. They care about you enough to hold you in place so you can prepare yourself to be pushed forward.
So, how do you know which you are at this moment?
- Do you hold others down or do you push them to reach their potential?
- Do you take time to whether the person you’re helping needs to be pushed or grounded?
If you're the wrong kind of anchor or sail, it's really easy to change. All you have to do is realize that every person wants to improve, and if you will embrace that fact, you'll instantly figure how you can be the right kind of anchor or sail that will help them harness their winds of change to move them to the place that they want to be in the manner that they need to get there.
You are the captain of your own ship.