This post was originally published at https://theresonantvoice.com/salto-mortale/
Have You Heard The Term ‘Salto Mortale’?
The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
— Lao Tzu
If you are a long time follower of Seth Godin, this would be a very familiar term to you.
So what is Salto Mortale?
“The Italians have a wonderful phrase, ‘Salto Mortale’, the dangerous leap, the leap into the void. The fear we get in the pit of our stomach before we commit, fear that it’s not going to work out. It’s too soon. I am not ready. And so we wait…”
– Seth Godin (Akimbo — Season 1, Episode 1)
It is a really beautiful term, something that all artists should do at some point.
Take that daring leap into the void.
At the beginning of our creative journeys, we all would be surrounded by lots of confusions. We won’t know what might fail and what might succeed.
Even Steve Jobs started without clearly knowing what lies ahead for him.
“Of course it was impossible to connect the dots when I was in college, but it was very very clear looking backwards ten years later. Again you cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards.”
– Steve Jobs
Salto Mortale literally means a scenario very much like jumping off a cliff hoping that you will somehow magically grow wings before you hit the ground. And that is exactly what we need to do. However, what we need to hope for isn’t wings that magically pop out. But instead, we should trust that the small steps we take each day will, by time, built up to make us achieve our ultimate goals.
You would be clueless at first. And that’s perfectly okay.
No one ever achieved any great goal by clearly preplanning every single step he or she is going to take on the journey.
So you have to trust your intuition.
Don’t wait for the plans and strategies to magically unfold. Just take that first step and keep moving forward. You can never create a perfect plan. Your plans must be fluid because you will inevitably have to alter them from time to time as you move on.
Don’t wait until you feel you are ready to do it. The truth is that you will never feel that way.
So stop waiting and start doing, because just taking that first step will put you ahead of most of the people out there.
