Sitting in the theater, stories unfold on the screen. One dancer after the next aspires to be in the Youth America Grand Prix. Eleven year-old Isabella went to a screening of the Dallas Film Festival’s award winning documentary, First Position. She was somewhat new to the Dallas Ballet Center, she hadn’t been trained on pointe yet and the YAGP was not remotely on Isabella’s radar. Ten months later, she was selected to compete in the YAGP regionals. The gap between fate and expectations was filled – as it should.
This gap is a potpourri of an emotional imprint, personal connection and instinctive resonance. The gap is that part of your being which hungers for alignment and satisfied curiosity. Everyone has a hungry desire and belonging gap.
When Max was twelve, he too saw a documentary aligned with his passion. Profiled in It Might Get Loud were three generations of rock guitar virtuosos. Older, middle age and young. Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page, U2’s the Edge and Jack White. Jack White, sporting a fedora and a revolutionary's soul became Max’s idol. Three years later, Max was back stage with Jack for a truly memorable conversation. The fate expectations’ gap was satisfied.
Take a moment and think back in your life about the times you found the nexus between your internal expectations and what now seems like fate.
What job are you doing right now which had its origin in curiosity? Where are you living? Who are you with? Who are your friends? What hobbies occupy your passion? Who crossed your path in significant ways? In every case, some form of gap-filling occurred. You found what many call fate, coupled with an embedded expectation.
In your future, you can be the architect of fate expectations. Explore, be curious, and ignore any tendencies to overthink pretty much everything. This is why kids are so good at it and adults likely pushed it aside.
You have a responsibility to facilitate the space between fate and expectations in your life and the lives you influence.
Bridge "fate expectations." Explore, be curious and stop overthinking pretty much everything.
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