The Moment Before
The statue of David is the statue of you.
And no, Michelangelo didn’t have some magical power to foresee you reading or watching this Tap Back In. Though, that would be pretty amazing. And, somehow we discover this is the case and it turns out to be true, remember—you heard it here first! What I mean is that it’s about that moment; the moment before you take action. The moment before.
The Moment Before
You see, the moment Michelangelo chose to chisel out of a flawed piece of marble was the moment David chose to face Goliath. Not a moment of battle. Not even the moment of victory. No, Michelangelo chose to immortalize for all of eternity the moment before these things: the moment David decided.
Why? Perhaps because this is the moment where our worries, fears, hopes, dreams, and wishes coalesce and crystallize into grit and determination. Deciding to do something is easy—it’s literally a moment. The hard work happens before, when we teeter on the edge of the wishy-washy waterfall, climbing up (and slipping back down) the peak of perseverance.
Sometimes, moments like these result in bad decisions. Choices we make not to pursue a dream, a job, or anything we perceive as too risky. The moments we refuse to chisel into the marble slabs of our story.
The good news is that, unlike Michelangelo, we don’t have just one slab of marble to work with. The slab of the self, is endless. We can stop, take stock, and regroup. We can begin again.
The trick for Michaelanglo was in picking the right slab of marble. And here’s the twist: Michelangelo’s slab of marble wasn’t perfect. You see the marble was riddled with holes and veins which posed strucgural challenges for a large statue. It was also tall and narrow which limited not only the size and shape, but what could be carved out of it. It had been exposed to the weather over decades which lead to it deteriorating. All of this meant it wasn’t a great choice to make a large scupture. In fact, two other artists of the time had rejected the very piece of marble that became the statue of David. They turned their noses up at its imperfections. They couldn’t see anything coming of it. Michelangelo made a different choice. In his moment before he chose to see something different in the imperect piece of marble before him. He found perfection in imperfection and created a masterpiece.
You can too.
Chisel away at your own imperfections.
And reveal your masterpiece to the world.
**Tap Back In.**
