Removing the Ceiling
I walked into the front door last night to the sight of an angry 7-year-old. He was huffing and puffing, seemingly threatening to blow the house down. When I asked him what was wrong, he said he wanted a cell phone or a pocket knife. Confused, I asked Sarah to clarify why he was so upset. "Because I told him he can't have either."
Astonished, I asked him what makes him think I would give a pocket knife to a 7-year-old. He said it could just be a small pocket knife, then held up his hands to visually motion the size of the blade of this suggested pocket knife.
This is one of the greatest things about little kids. There is no ceiling. Even the mere idea of a ceiling infuriates and confuses them. "What do you mean I can't have a pocket knife as a first grader!?!?!" Despite some of their ideas sounding absolutely nuts, I think we need to be more like little kids. They are naive enough to believe there is no ceiling. Everything is possible. Everything is on the table.
This is one of the reasons why working with young adults is so much fun. While they aren't like my 7-year-old, there's still an innocence and the belief there is no ceiling. There's something exciting and terrifying about this. Do you know how far someone can go who believes there is a ceiling? The height of the ceiling. Do you know how far someone who doesn't believe in ceilings can go? TBD....let's find out. It reminds me of the famous Henry Ford quote, "Whether you think you can, or you think you can't – you're right."
I used to believe in ceilings. That is until I started looking around and seeing all the ridiculously awesome things people were doing. People who didn't believe in ceilings. People all around me. I often think back to a conversation I was having with a bunch of my high school youth group kids. I asked them if they knew what they wanted to do when they grow up. One by one, they shared their thoughts. Perfectly reasonable and normal ideas were brought to the table. Then the second-to-last guy piped up. "I'd like to play football." Even though he was probably the most popular guy in the circle, his buddies chuckled at his answer. Fast forward many years, and he's on an NFL roster. Whether it was merited or not, he didn't have a ceiling.
While we won't all be professional athletes (my dream of playing alongside Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen died years ago), it speaks to the power of removing the ceiling. Yes, there's a chance we'll fail along the journey. Many times, most likely. But that's what makes the journey worth it. There's never been a satisfying movie where the hero doesn't get challenged or go through struggle. Our journeys are the same.
The first step, though, is removing the ceiling. Then, anything is possible.