If you’ve been perusing my blog and Twitter (@Chadnick) of late you’ll know that I was at the TEDx Toronto conference last month. What a fabulous day! Chock full of ideas, inspiration, terrific people and amazing stories. The theme of this year’s event was “Thresholds.”

I confess, leading up to the event I hadn’t had a chance to pay much attention to the agenda as it got ‘dripped’ out in teasers. But within a nano-second of arriving, I knew I was in the right place. Just by virtue of the description of the day’s theme I was hooked:

A threshold is a doorway. Whether physical or figurative, crossing or not crossing a threshold often results in profound change. Sometimes a threshold is a boundary and sometimes a breaking point. It can be a beginning – a starting point for an experience, an event, or a new age. Or, a threshold can be an ending, a point of no return, a rubicon across which one cannot look back. Thresholds can be the point where personal decisions are confronted and public movements are launched. Each day, humanity crosses technological, political, scientific and environmental thresholds with far-reaching consequences we may not yet understand.

Wowsie! If you are in midst of change or can sniff it coming soon – then this might speak to you. And while we know that change can be good and exciting it’s also at times pretty darn daunting and @#@#! scary too.

So in gratitude I give a shout-out to the magnificent TEDx Toronto MC and Host, Drew Dudley, who introduced the day and the notion of Thresholds with a profound idea: 5 Seconds of Courage.

Am I Capable of 5 Seconds of Courage Right Now?

Drew, a TEDX veteran himself,  shared a bit from his life experience (some tough stuff and some brilliant wonderful stuff too) — and how embracing change does indeed take courage to get ‘through it’. Courage can often be elusive so he invited the audience to get in the habit of asking each and every day the powerful question: Am I capable of 5 seconds of courage right now?

I thought it was brilliant and a lovely gift (thank you Drew!).

So over to you…..what thresholds are you stepping into? What is your boundary or limit that you want to respect and/or break through? Where in your life are you settling? What courage do you need not to settle?

And are you capable of 5 seconds of courage right now? Rinse and repeat daily and as often as  you need.

Courageously yours (for the nano-5 seconds to start:)….standing with you in this invitation,

Eileen

UPDATE: TEDx has released videos of the speakers. Here are a few below. I’ll post more soon.

Andrew Peek — on “Why our stories are killing us” (and a summary in my blog post here)

Jordan Axani — on “The Problem with Purpose” (and a few more thoughts on purpose in my blog post here)

Talli Osborne — on “Differences are beautiful” (and more on this in one of my blog posts here)