Trigger Question #51:
Have you ever tripped up? Of course you have. Only people who can’t admit to ever making mistakes don’t trip up. Except, by denying their mistakes, they trip up. Because we see them. Have you ever tripped down? Probably, if tripping down means physically falling flat on your face.
Here’s the interesting bit. When you trip up, it’s a mistake. When you trip down, it’s an accident. Your fault, not your fault.
Let’s make it more interesting. Have you ever tripped going down a staircase? If so, how far did you go before you came to a stop? Have you ever tripped going up a staircase? If so, how far did you go?
Why did you go further tripping down than tripping up? That’s right, gravity. Gravity can give you a push or hold you back. Sometimes a push is positive, and sometimes being held back can save you. But that does not mean that gravity is your friend. Gravity is neutral. So gravity might push you when you should be held back, and gravity might equally hold you back when a push could help.
The other day my wife fell going up the stairs. Many people, me included, fall going down. We should expect that, gravity doing what gravity does. But some people somehow manage to fall upwards. (You might have seen that video of a very famous VIP falling up the stairs to an aircraft. So my wife is in good company.)
That got me thinking. Falling downwards on a staircase is easy because gravity makes it so. And thanks to gravity, falling going down often means going down all the way. This even applies to the ladder at work. It takes effort to climb up the corporate ladder, but one major slip-up turns the ladder very slippery all the way down.
But falling upwards. Now there’s a thing! You land on a higher level. Or, at a minimum, one step up. Even on corporate ladders. Being bumped up by accident can do wonders for your career. But it can also land you at your level of incompetence. (It’s called The Peter Principle. Look it up.)
Oh, if only our tripping could be ups and not downs. Then, our failures would be successes, reversing the pull of past conditioning.
Be warned, though. Not all staircases and corporate ladders are passive. Some are designed to aid you; others, to thwart you. So, always choose your staircase and ladder with care. Else you might struggle up stairs that are coming down or on ladders that wobble weirdly.
At the mall, it’s called a YouTube moment. At work, it is called a lousy career move.
Welcome to my side of the nonsense divide.
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Quote of the Moment:
“I felt frustrated on the corporate ladder until I remembered I was self-employed.” The Chief Nonsense Officer.
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