As I run through life pretty fast, sometimes I have to remind myself that guardrails need to be applied. Guardrails are not the two metal rails on the side of a road that keep you from going off a cliff. The guardrails I’m talking about are the mental and physiological boundaries one needs to put on themselves to keep their life in check.
Sometimes you run a little too fast and might run into a guardrail, but the great thing about having a guardrail is it brings you back to the center of the road. It brings you back to a place where you can thrive and go very fast for a very long time.
I’ve lived my life and career a lot of times without guardrails, and usually, like any good road without a guardrail, sometimes your car goes over a cliff. But you can always bring it back and find a way to drive with guardrails. The figurative meaning of this is to put boundaries in your life. Know when it’s going too far. Know when you’re going too fast. Know when you’re going out of control. But also know and respect the proper speed, the right energy at the right time.
To me, that is what putting guardrails on the road in front of me is all about. You have to respect the guardrails. You have to know that when you’re getting too close, or things are getting too unsteady, you’re going to have to brake. You’re going to have to slow down and refocus. But know that the guardrails you put around yourself are only going to help you in the long run. They have for me, and I think about guardrails constantly and how I need to apply them in my daily life.