What I learned from Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse”
I recently took my son to a birthday party and we watched, “Spider-man: Into the Spider Verse.” My son and I were probably the only two people there who hadn’t seen the film but I had heard how much everyone loved it — I mean it won an Oscar.
If you haven’t seen the movie, if you know the general story of Spider-man, you’re caught up on most of the major themes of the film. There is a moment in the film where Spider-man tells Myles (who became Spider-man in this universe) he has to take a “leap of faith.”
A regular person becoming a superhero and having to take a “leap of faith” is nothing new. We’ve seen this a million times. The hero is told to take a chance and believe in themselves. First they resist but then they go for it anyway. The hero saves the day, the bad guy goes down and everyone is happy.
As we sit and watch the superhero take the “leap of faith” we know everything is going to be OK in the end. We know the outcome. We know everything will work out in the end so taking a leap of faith is a no-brainer!
Not knowing the outcome is what stops most people from taking a leap of faith. And it makes sense! I mean why put yourself out there and interview for that job if there is a chance you won’t get it? Why bother raising your hand in a meeting to share your ideas if everyone is going to shoot them down?
I get it. Rejection…being told “no”…being laughed at and feeling shame…we don’t want that so what do we do…we say to ourselves, “I would like to take a leap of faith but it could be bad so I’m going to sit here and do nothing.”
BUT what if you let go of the outcome? What if you decided you’re going to do what you want to do, what feels right to you in that moment and not worry about the outcome. Not worry if you’ll be rejected, or told “no” or get laughed at by others.
Imagine what life would look like if you let go of worrying about how others will receive you and simply trust that how things work out is supposed to be how things are supposed to work out.
I know. I know. Very “California woo-woo” of me but the moment I stopped worrying so much about the outcome, I was able to relax and trust my own instincts.
I stopped allowing my fear of what others thought of me and in turn that allowed me to focus on being myself. In a nutshell — I trusted I am enough.
I talk a lot about this concept of “enoughness.” What we all have in common is our deepest fear is we are not enough. The person we are right now is enough and worthy of love.
Learning to let go of the outcome is one of the most powerful things you can do for yourself. You’re saying to the world, and more importantly to yourself, I trust I am enough.
So, how do you do this? How do you let go of the outcome?
You trust that if you show up as yourself, be authentic and true to who you are and what you believe, whatever happens, however people react to you, is what needs to happen.
If you raise your hand and share your idea but your boss says, “That’s not going to work” don’t beat yourself up for raising your hand and sharing your idea. There is nothing wrong with your idea, it just isn’t right…right now.
What you’re doing is separating the action from the outcome. We tend to assume that if we get a “no” or we’re rejected that we shouldn’t have taken action in the first place. Suddenly the idea we shared becomes “wrong” or “bad” because your boss didn’t like it or felt like it wouldn’t work.
We’re all the heroes or superheroes of our life, and while it would be great to always know things will work out in the end, that’s really not as important as we think it is. What’s important is simply taking those leaps of faith and trust there is a net below to catch you.
Share with me in the comments below your thoughts! Are you not taking action because you fear the outcome? Are you stopping yourself because you fear the outcome?
