Everything You Want is in the Middle of a Frozen Lake.

As illogical as it is, I tend to think of myself as the only one; in a world of billions--the only one. The only one scared of not achieving my goals, of not "making" it in life. The only one dealing with loss and rejection. The only one with a frozen lake.

I often forget that everyone starts somewhere and that everything has a beginning. Even the greats of our generation, your favourite writer or singer or sports player, had start somewhere. They also each had to put in time to "perfect" their craft.

This is a hard to believe with how many online creators seem to go viral with seemingly little to no work. Look at Lil Nas X, in 2019 his song "Old Town Road" was released and became a 19-week Billboard Number 1 hit. However, what most people don't realise is the amount of behind-the-scenes work that Lil Nas X put in.

Colin and Samir, a film-making duo who have been creating videos for over 10 years, explain this in their YouTube video, "The Power of Lil Nas X and Logan Paul."

One of my all-time top 10 favourite TV series is the creatively titled NCIS spin-off, NCIS: LA. Over the many years that the show has been on air, I have felt challenged by the concepts the writers choose to introduce. In particular, the frozen lake analogy discussed in season five of the series. The frozen lake is originally a concept from Sayoc, a Filipino martial art.

There are certain things in life we want so badly that we would do virtually anything for them. They sit in the middle of a frozen lake. Despite the risks, we run to them as fast as possible. Only when it's too late do we realise that the ice is cracking below us, and that we've caused our demise.

Everyone has a frozen lake, whether the lake seems big or small. Some people have multiple. To get to the centre, we need to “walk slowly, stop to look at everything [and] take [our] time” – as is explained later in the episode.

Often times we give ourselves time frames in which we need to cross our frozen lakes. I am constantly doing this, and I think it’s a great way to motivate ourselves to complete our goals. But we also need to accept that we cannot control everything. Sometimes, we need to be willing to slow down.

Even world stars like Taylor Swift have shared needing to take time away to process and move forward.

When we fail, which we will, it's easy to use the experience as proof that we don't deserve or shouldn't want/need what’s in the middle of that frozen lake.

Robert H. Schuller once said that "it’s better to do something imperfectly than to do nothing flawlessly." Schuller is not wrong. As a perfectionist, this is hard for me to accept.

With this in mind, our failures should be viewed as another part of the journey.

As I look ahead I know I am not the only one scared of not achieving my goals, of not making it in life. The only one dealing with loss and rejection. The only one who wants to cross a frozen lake. And I don’t ever want to forget that. I see my peers, people older and younger than me walk across their frozen lakes and each step they take gives me a reason to take one too.

In the same way whether you and I realise it or not, there is somebody looking to us to see how to take that first step. Somebody looking to for insight on how to best cross their lake.

With these thoughts in mind and the backing of people around us, maybe one day we’ll cross our frozen lakes, desire in hand. And if not, maybe it wasn't what we really needed or even truly wanted.

To see the full original blog post, visit the Red Ink Blog.