“You are the sum total of all of your highs and each of your lows.“ - Futurist Jim Carroll, via Lauren Daigle
Some songs speak to your soul.
And some lyrics reach out and grab you by the throat.
This one did.
It hits you right in the pre-chorus of Lauren Daigle's "You Say." She asks the question: "Am I more than just the sum of every high and every low?"
The song came on while I was out for one of my first outdoor walks since my November spinal injury, and it hit the moment perfectly.
My answer to her question is: Yes, you are more—but you are also the sum.
You must accept the lows as a critical part of the process rather than pretending they don't exist. Otherwise, you'll never have the opportunity to learn from them.
In my career as a futurist, I tell clients that innovation isn't a straight line "up and to the right." It’s a messy squiggly line of breakthroughs and failures. You cannot have the "High" of a new invention without the "Low" of the failed prototype.
If you delete the failure, you delete the lesson.
My incident has informed me. It has taught me that the "lows"—the pain, the confinement, the loss of the ski season, the frustration,was not lost time. It was valuable insight.
It was the construction site where my resilience was being reinforced.
Rebar for life, if you think about it!
When life throws you a curveball, you have to live through and feel the emotions, rather than trying to hide from them.
Don't edit out the lows. Own them. They are the only reason the highs mean anything at all.
Futurist Jim Carroll is back out for his regular morning sunrise walks, and is back to the gym. It feels great!