The long valley of hard work and despair
“The Dip” is what Seth Godin calls that long valley of hard work and despair that you have to get through before being able to achieve anything of significance and remark-ability.
When faced with the dip, Godin says that
“The most common response to the Dip is to play it safe. To do ordinary work, blameless work, work that’s beyond reproach. When faced with the Dip, most people suck it up and try to average their way to success.”
When was the last time you aimed high with your speech? When was the last time that you tried to come up with something that’s actually amazing? And with amazing I don’t mean “looks good” but to take your audience to places they haven’t been before.
It requires us to do work that feels scary. To say words that people might not like. To step up even when we feel like others might repel us. To be vulnerable to speak about the things we truly care about. To be courageous to come up with new ways of looking at things.
It might feel scary. It might be hard work. But it’s also worth it.