I’ve been thinking lately about our stakes in the ground, about those things that we say yes to, claim, risk ourselves for.

About how some of those stakes are placed through our consistent action and attention, until one day we realize where we’ve arrived; how some are hammered in through careful thought and deliberation and our decisions to embark; and how some aren’t a choice, their pull so strong and undeniable, a force within says, “Yes.  This.  This.”

And how, if we drew a map of those places in our lives, it would define us in some ways.

Not just to the external world, but to ourselves.

The places where we went in.

Risked.

And that it is in the going in that we are changed.

Expanded.

No matter the outcome.

Last week, the 2021 season of The Making Magnificence Project® was released, and there are two conversations that come to mind on this, one from the arts, the other from business.

If you haven’t already, go here or here to listen to interviews with writer Ben Fountain and CEO Doug Satzman talk about putting their own stakes in the ground.