... ... the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely ... world as stage is a useful metaphor because the world offers many stages, just as actors can perform in a loca
Shakespeare wrote,
“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players…”
The world as stage is a useful metaphor because the world offers many stages, just as actors can perform in a local amateur production or on Broadway or in a blockbuster movie.
We perform on a stage of the appropriate size and character.
The stage upon which we feel at home represents a kind of uppermost limit to our achievements.
Call this one’s comfort zone or level of incompetence, the stage sets our scope and boundaries.
If you aspire to do bigger and better things, you have to get used to bigger and better stages.
If you want to surpass yourself, regardless of the issue, you have to get accustomed to a new and more expansive stage.
This may take some mental adjusting.
If you have lived in a relatively modest-sized home all your life, as I have, you know what I mean.
Say you take a tour of luxury homes or a grand estate that is now a museum.
You look around and realize you have spent most of your life living in an oversized walk-in closet without knowing it.
Maybe you imagine actually living in such a place.
You imagine reading a book in a room big enough for 30 people and you are the only one in it. And the other rooms, let’s say 15-20, are empty except for furniture and belongings.
I hasten to add that the headaches of maintaining such a residence is substantial, but so is the mental adjustment to the bigger stage.
Whatever your current stage, mentally visit a bigger and more challenging one.
Do that often enough and one day, your visit will be in real time.
