Kudos to Marit Bjørgen for winning an Olympic Gold medal yesterday. The thing is she has gone through a huge transition. She was the top performer in women’s cross country skiing, but feel down from the throne and been “one of the also ran” for a few years. But she has fought her way back to the top.
The funny thing is to do so she had to start a new life. She literally redid herself. Removed her piercing she was so famous for, got herself a psychologist. Had to start from scratch again. So the removal of the eyebrow piercing had a great symbolic value. She did let go, but not without a fight, according to the Norwegian daily Aftenposten. Non the less important. if you want to start something new, something has to end. To start a new life she had to let go of the strongest symbol in her life, the piercing.
For most of us this is a huge challenge. To let go of something. We’re so afraid of symbolic deaths. Any process starts with an ending and ends with a beginning. It has to be that way. Let’s say you want to cross the street. You’re on the sidewalk and want to cross to the sidewalk on the other side. Not possible to do unless you leave the sidewalk where you currently are. That’s the ending. You cross the street with all the dangers implied. That’s the limbo zone. And finally you are (hopefully) well over and reaches the sidewalk on the other side of the street; the new start.
This is how life is as well. If we want to move forward, if we want to grow we have to leave some of the life or lifestyle that represents the present behind.
