Going to EOL: Burning the Boats

// Retroactive EOLcommunity post written on JUNE 17th, 2018.
// Picture is looking out before my first flight out of town, coincidentally wearing GaryVee’s 1 Life shirt.

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A couple days ago I did the ‘get to the island and burn the boats’ as some have called it … And booked my flight to LA for EOL at the Dolby next week.

I had already planned on going, since I’d gotten so much help and support in getting to experience it from EOL’ers. But until I had officially committed myself to going (e.g., investing in it myself), it felt like a partial commitment – and most importantly, easily back-out-able.

And now I can’t. (Yay!)

I’ve never been to LA and I’ve never done any “solo” travel before, let alone in a massive city like that. I still have immense fears and uncertainties about things that I don’t know (which I need to figure out in less than 2 days) and some that I can only know by being in the moments I am actually there.

Once I thought about it more – going to EOL was easy. I’d go in a heartbeat if it was in a local, familiar place. But now having to do a bunch of things I not only don’t know how to do, but also require me to navigate in a place I’m not used to (and is intimidating) and be required to be responsible for myself … adds so many more new factors that didn’t make it easy to simply say “sure, let’s go.”

And just before buying the plane ticket (“burning the boats”), I realized … the whole process of getting TO the event would be a whole grand, likely-transformative and evolving experience in itself. Take out the EOL event and I would still have an experience of growth. — And it was around that time that I started realizing: I need to go, no matter what happens.

EOL is about evolution, and if I wanted to go and didn’t go simply because I was afraid: then I was essentially letting fear win over evolution.

It’s just as much getting to go to EOL and see Kyle live, get to meet some of the amazing EOL’ers, meet new ‘butterflies,’ and personally growing through the event …

as much as it is going through the experience of, as I’m now realizing: learning to use my own wings. Which is terrifying and exciting at the same time.

And it also perfectly encapsulates what others like Kyle have said before: who we want to be, what we want to do… should be “normal” to us. And I looked at some of the people I admire and some of the people who are “doing what I want to do”, and for them:

Flights are a normal thing.
Traveling to unfamiliar cities is a normal thing.
Navigating said cities is a normal thing.
Not knowing what all is going to happen is a normal thing.
Figuring out lodging in those cities (whether with others or solo) is a normal thing.
Utilizing their network for advice or connections is a normal thing.
Planning, knowing that not everything will go according to plan, is a normal thing.
Trusting that everything will be okay, regardless of what happens, is a normal thing.

And if I want to be ‘on that level,’ then I have to learn to make those things my normal too — even if it’s terrifying in the moment.

I’ve gotten a lot of help regarding EOL, travel, and finding places to stay through members here — and it made a huge difference in my choice to go — but there are still a lot of unknowns and fears that only I can face by being immersed in the experience.

… And I love that.