A sharply dressed businessman strides into an atrium of glistening glass, metal and marble. He confidently walks past the large potted fichus plants and steps onto the up escalator. As he begins his ride up, a well-dressed woman also enters the lobby, confidently walks to the escalator and steps onto the escalator behind him.
As the moving stairs carries them up to the next floor, the escalator suddenly comes to a stop. Both the man and the woman, standing on their respective stairs, wait patiently. After a while, they become visibly annoyed, looking at their watches, scanning the area, letting out sighs.
After a minute or two, the man remarks “It just figures!” In desperation, the woman says, “I’m going to be late for my meeting.” They continue looking flustered and their exasperated sighs get louder.
Finally the woman exclaims, “Isn’t anyone coming to help us? Where is everyone? Don’t they know we’re here?” The man starts yelling, “Help! Somebody! Somebody, please help us! We’re stuck on the escalator!” The woman joins in with cries for help “Does anyone hear us?” As the video fades out, the two voices continue their desperate screams for help.
This sene was in a video sent to by email, intended to bring humor to my day. After the intended chuckle was elicited, the metaphor began to sink in. Here were two people who perfectly capable of helping themselves. It was simply a matter of walking up the remaining stairs — nothing prevented them from doing so. Yet, something in their indoctrination caused them to feel helpless and dependent upon someone else to rescue them.
There they were, standing on the stopped escalator, desperately screaming for help. What prevented them from helping themselves? Was the solution so evident that they didn’t see it? Did they not realize that they have it within their own “power” to move onward to their destination, albeit in a different way? Or perhaps they felt someone else was responsible for rescuing them?
As absurd as this example is, how many people do you know who are perfectly capable of taking “steps” to help themselves yet, instead, wait expectantly for someone to “rescue” them? Are you one of those people stuck on a stopped escalator “waiting” to be “rescued”?
Is your stopped “escalator”:
· An unfulfilling relationship where you feel trapped and you don’t know what “steps” to take to get out?
· Your career track which is at a standstill and you don’t know what actions to take to regain upward movement?
· Lack of financial security preventing you from doing the things you want to do?
Are you blaming the stopped escalator because your life is not what you want it to be?
Is the solution simple, yet you are waiting for someone else to act?
Because your “escalator” has stopped, do you feel you are “stuck” and are in need of being “rescued”?
Perhaps if you were stuck in an elevator, you might need to be rescued. But even then, wouldn’t you at least try to find some way out? Try pushing open the doors, checking whether the ceiling tiles open into the shaft, push the emergency button?
The escalator is a great invention! It has brought tremendous convenience to our daily lives and our physical exertion is significantly less than when we have to take the stairs. When there is no escalator, though, we know what we need to do — we take the stairs.
We don’t think about it — we just do it automatically. We put one foot on the stair, then put the other foot on the next stair, then go up the next stair …. and we keep doing that until we get to the floor we want. (Some people will take 2 or 3 stairs at a time. Great if you can do it, but not necessary — you still get where you’re going, just a little faster!)
Do you exert more energy walking up the stairs? You betcha! If that’s where you want to go and there is no escalator, how else will you get there? Have someone hoist you up on a rope?
The next time you find yourself on a stopped escalator, what will you do? Will the stopped escalator prevent you from achieving your heart’s desire? Will you cry for help and wait to be rescued? Will you not go to your desired destination because you do not wish to exert the energy?
Or will you take personal responsibility to lift your foot and take the next step? And if you do, who will follow?
