Is this dream worthy of my commitment?

There is a beautiful train ride that runs from Vienna to Venice. You pass through the Alps via the Semmering railway - through 14 tunnels, 16 viaducts, and over more than 100 stone bridges.

The construction began in 1848 before electricity, cars, or any of the sorts of machines we would imagine today.

By Bwag - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=112220918

But here is what blows my mind...the train track was designed AND built before a train had been built that could make the trip.

The grade and turns were so challenging that the existing train engines weren't up to the task.

They built the track any way.

There was a sense that the project was worth the commitment even though all the pieces needed to make it work weren't yet in place.

This is a familiar place for me and my clients.

A sense of possibility. Potential. But, a lack of guarantees.

Often we reach a moment where we are aware of the exquisite risk. The fact that committing to a vision will require us to accept uncertainty.

At this edge I often see people bargain (sometimes scramble) to avoid the uncertainty. We try and de-risk the dream.

I imagine Carl von Ghega - the railway engineer in Austria - meeting with locomotive engineers to gauge the probability that a new engine might be designed to make this pass.

And like Ghega - these investigations into challenges & solutions can help us commit & re-commit to our vision.

But also like Ghega - we don't get a guarantee.

We must commit to try.

To expect the unexpected and commit again.

The huge invitation at that moment is to find the place inside you that is the right amount of possibility, planning, AND uncertainty before you proceed.

Do you know what this place feels like inside you?

An advanced train engine design WAS completed in 1853.

The efforts to discover this design propelled railway travel further in significant ways.

What dream is propelling you forward right now?

Much love,

Marijke Ocean