Life is like a hot air balloon

Teaching our children to move on from failure is one thing, but what about moving on from success? We often talk about how success breeds success. If you taste it you can build on it. However, if we get stuck in our success or overvalue it, it can also hold us back from moving on. The most important thing about the past, both positive and negative, is that it has brought us to this moment in time, to a new beginning, and now you have to pick up your new ‘marching orders’ and move on.

When explaining this concept to our children, we can liken life to a hot air balloon. We want our balloon to go up. Yes, there will be times when our hot air balloon might hit some turbulence and drop a bit, or hover or drift for a while with no upward movement. These are the times when we need to drop some ballast (those sand bags that weigh the hot air balloon down), and take action to produce a blast of hot air to give us some lift.If we hold on to the ballast (negative thoughts, feelings or experiences, or attachment to our past successes), we may find ourselves going nowhere very fast.

As we let go of the ballast in our lives, we gain momentum, improved vision, greater desire and perspective allowing us to adventure upward into the unknown future.Growing up is about learning how to work with whatever life brings – it is all a lesson – and knowing when to let go of the ballast in order to move onwards and upwards, like a graceful hot air balloon.