SINKHOLES - CHALLENGE, CHOICE & CHANGE

One Monday, a man was walking down a path. All of a sudden, and completely out of nowhere, he found himself at the bottom of a big, dark place. He was terrified! After a while, he figured out that he had fallen into a very large, deep sinkhole. He wasn’t able to get out on his own – but eventually he did get out with a lot of help from passers-by. It was awful.

The very next day, Tuesday, the man was walking down the same path and fell into the sinkhole again. This time he immediately recognised where he was, but he still couldn’t get out. He needed help again.

Wednesday, when the man fell in the sinkhole for the 3rd time, he remembered how to get out and, with much hard work, was finally able to get out on his own. Phew!

On Thursday, the man was walking down the street again. As he approached the sinkhole, he remembered his previous falls. He even saw the sinkhole when he got close... but somehow he managed to fall in anyway. This time, however, he knew the way out well and got out quickly.

On Friday, the man saw the sinkhole from a good distance away. He felt so proud of himself for spotting it and, whilst it took extra effort, he managed to walk around it safely and not fall in. Hurrah!

On Saturday, the man took a different road.

I have used this story many times to generate discussion on challenge and change. Think about your own life - by creating AWARENESS of the 'sinkholes' you repeatedly fall into, you start to enable CHOICE (i.e. what other options you have available to you) and CHANGE (i.e. what you can do to take a different road and avoid the sinkholes in the future).

Sinkholes can be anything - bad habits or behaviour, arguments or drama that we get drawn into, things that impact our interactions with others. We can choose to keep falling into these 'sinkholes' or we can put some effort in to find another way and change the outcome for a more positive one.