Walking the I Beam

Today in my Fitness Motivation/Behavior Response class we talked a bit about what we value most in life. To help us visualize the concept our instructor gave us the example of having an I beam brought to the school. These beams are shaped in such a way that they look like an "I" at the end. Like this:

She started by asking if she put it on the ground between two buildings if we would walk the I beam together as a class; we, of course, all would. She continued the example by asking if we would walk the I beam if she put it 5 feet off the ground; we still all agreed that we would. 10 feet? That was a little iffy but okay. What about 50 feet? Most were still okay with that but some started dropping out. What if we were given $100 to walk the I beam at 50 feet? $200? Okay... we'll walk the I beam.

Okay, what about if the I beam were suspended between the highest part of the Empire State building that connected with another building? No way! Not a chance. Not a single person said they would go. 

For $1000? No. $2500? No. $100,000? No! A million? You couldn't pay me enough to walk that I beam.

Then my instructor looked directly at me and asked me what my youngest child's name was. I told her. She then said, "What if I had Nathan on the other side of the I beam and the only way you could save him was to cross that I beam suspended between the Empire State building?" Without hesitation I said, "Of course I would go."

She told the class that she wished they could see my face when I responded (I was sitting on the front row). There was no hesitation.

She then asked the class, "What would you walk the I beam for?"

Love, Shayla