A young traveler approached a river while on her journey. From all appearances, it was too deep to ford and too long to get around. After doing a bit of scouting around, she discovered a canoe that was left by another traveler. In haste, she grabbed the canoe and paddled to the other side.
As soon as she landed, she thought: “I’m lucky that I found that canoe! I couldn’t have crossed the river without it. I better take it with me just in case there’s another river along the way.” So she picked up the canoe and carried it with her.
After three days of travel while carrying the canoe, she was exhausted. She happened upon an old traveler who was bewildered by the young woman carrying the canoe.
“Why are you carrying a canoe?” the old traveler asked.
“A few days ago, I came across a river that I would have been unable to cross without this canoe. I didn’t know whether I would come to another crossing, so I carried it with me.”
“Ah. The next river like that in the direction you’re going is fifteen days away. It would take you less time to build a canoe when you get there than to carry this one with you — it’s time to leave the canoe behind.”
With that, the young traveler dropped the canoe. She immediately saw that what got her here wasn’t needed to get her there.
*****
It’s not uncommon for us to carry the canoes of our past with us along our daily journeys. We pick up a belief at one point that served us well, and we continue to believe it even when it doesn’t match reality anymore. Or perhaps we continue to react and behave as we did when we were younger, even though those behaviors are keeping us from connecting with the people we’re connecting with today. Or maybe it’s the habits and skills that applied in one domain or time in our life but don’t fit us now.
All of these things are canoes that can weigh us down. It’s completely natural for us to want to carry them — after all, they were components of good or successful experiences at one time, and we don’t want to recreate the solution all over again.
What we often don’t realize, though, is that it’s not the manifestation of the solution that’s important — it’s the recognition that a given solution is what we need. Knowing that you need a canoe, whether that canoe is a certain belief, habit, system, or skill, is the key thing to remember. When you get to that next river, build your canoe.
Until then, leave the canoe behind. What got you here won’t (necessarily) get you there. (Tweet this.)
one of my favorites Charlie 🙂 Still practicing leaving behind what has already served me well.
Great post, Charlie. Powerful reminder! Thanks for sharing 🙂
@jovanevery how is it that the lesson there is not “leave the canoe for the next person who needs it”?
@pronetolaughter funnily enough, that’s what I thought the lesson should have been too. Maybe @CharlieGilkey needs to hear that 🙂
@jovanevery total waste of a good canoe.
I love this story. It’s so true that we often carry a lot of weight and unnecessary stuff with us and we often don’t even realize that what we’re doing works against us. It takes a lot of effort to let go and start doing something a different way or completely transforming the way you think and act by leaving stuff behind. But once you do it, you’ll notice the rewards and you’ll be able to live better, smarter and more successful. You just have to be open.
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This is so amazingly powerful. We might be carrying hundreds of kilos of weight on our heads by keeping the pull. We need to put this thing off and start being awesome!
@UnLieuSurTerre @charliegilkey I love that one. 🙂 Glad you enjoyed it!
I had a very vivid & powerful dream a few nights ago about carrying a canoe, enough that I came to the Internet searching out what it might mean. I can’t believe that I found this, it makes so much sense with my life today. Thank you! I needed to hear this.
[…] some great advice from Charlie Gilkey’s post called Leave the Canoe Behind. What got you here won’t (necessarily) get you […]