When I was around seven years old I ran over a rattle snake with my bicycle. What makes the event slightly more unique is that I was riding my green metal-flake schwinn stingray in our suburban garage. It was raining brutally outside, but the babysitter didn't want my sister or me in the house. So to the garage we went, where in a short time schwinn met rattlesnake. I should mention that this story has been independently verified and is not the product of a shaky memory reminiscing across several decades. Also, the snake's head, having been made independent of it's body - the baby sitter's doing - provided all the necessary evidence to our parents later on.
We speculated that the rattlesnake came from Onion dip. Onion Dip was the unofficial name of a huge field south of our subdivision where cyclists - of the motor and bi varieties - would ride the trails. It has long since become a mall, then an outlet mall, and finally morphed into something else, probably a flea market. In the center of Onion Dip was the fabled Devil's Dip. In my recollection Devil's Dip was a chasm the size of the Snake River Canyon. In reality it was probably a fairly large... well... um... dip. Devil's Dip was mythical to the seven year old crowd. It was where legends were forged and dreams were shattered. As in, "Did you hear that Stevie's older brother made it through Devil's Dip on his bike? And lived!" Or, "You know how Mikey broke his leg don't you? Devil's Dip." (Followed by down-cast eyes and hushed silence with knowing nods).
The point is I grew up with a healthy fear of and respect for dips. To this day, when I see a road sign warning of a dip ahead I shudder just a little. To my mind dips are bad things. (Though a nice lump crab dip will momentarily change my perspective every time.) Further changing my thought on dips stands a book written by marketing guru Seth Godin. According to Godin in his coincidentally entitled book, The Dip, the dip (forgive the redundancy) is something to be embraced. The dip is a natural and necessary thing.So what is the dip? The dip is that no-man's land that lies between initial results (or reward) and long-term success. And it is here, in this seeming chasm, that the future is determined. How we act and respond in the dip makes all the difference in the end.
Godin's book carries the subtitle, A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick).
When to quit... and when to stick... That strikes me deeply. The concept creates two questions that are equally disturbing. I both hear and feel them ringing within like a tuning fork that has been struck and continues to resonate. The first, What do I need to quit? And the second, Where do I need to stick it out? At face value, these questions sound simplistic. But let them soak in just a bit. In fact, I'm going to do just that. In the next post I'll jump right back in with these all-important questions that must be addressed in the DIP. But for now I'm going to sign off mid-thought. I am asking myself these revealing questions. And I challenge you do the same.
(In my relationships... in my career... in my fitness/wellness lifestyle...
in my spiritual life... etc.)
- What do I need to quit?
- In What area(s) do I need to stick it out - where I'm about to quit?
For now...
D
