I’ll give you a perfect example. I joined a gym once. I had the membership card. I had the fancy water bottle. But I was terrified of the weight room.
I felt like the Lion in the forest. Everyone else looked like they knew what they were doing. I was just a guy in a t-shirt blinking at the dumbbells.
What did I want? Did I want muscles? No. I wanted the courage to look stupid. I wanted someone to hand me a medal that said, “You picked up the 10-pound weight without crying.” And I never got that medal. So I stopped going.
See? The Lion’s desire is universal. It’s not about being fearless. It’s about being fear-initiated and then doing it anyway.
The “I’ll Do It Tomorrow” Trap
The Lion waited. He waited for the Wizard. He waited for a magic potion or a spell. He wanted a quick fix.
We do the same thing. We wait for the “right time” to start a business, ask someone out, or finally clean out the garage. We wait for a magical boss to tap us on the shoulder and say, “You are brave.”
What Does The Lion Symbolize In Wizard Of Oz at Linda Redmon blog
But the Wizard was a fraud. The magic was inside the Lion all along. The medal just made him realize it.
I once procrastinated for three years before writing a short story. Three years! I was scared it would be bad. I was scared it would be boring. I was the Lion hiding behind a tree, humming “If I Only Had a Brain.”
