Once upon a time, there was a man who traveled from one small town to another, performing a tightrope act. One day he came to a little farming community.

He stood in the center of the town square and announced that he was going to go to the outskirts of town, stretch a rope across the wide river canyon, and walk across the rope while pushing a wheelbarrow.

Naturally, the farmers were skeptical. They didn’t think he could do it. So, the man went out to the edge of town, put his rope between two trees about five feet off the ground and began to practice. He got up on that rope with his wheelbarrow and walked back and forth, back and forth.

One farmer came out and began to watch. And the longer the farmer watched, the more he became convinced that the man could do what he said he was going to do. So the farmer went back to the town square, where the skeptics were and said “Do y’all remember that man who said he was going to walk a tightrope across the wide canyon?” “Well, I believe he can do it,” said the farmer.

The skeptics laughed uncontrollably. “No, he can’t.”

The believing farmer said, “Well, come out to the edge of town. I want y’all to watch him.”

And they all went out to where the man was practicing on the rope. The one farmer said, “See, he’s doing it. I told you he could do it.” The disbelievers laughed again and said, ‘yeah, but that rope is only five feet off the ground. It ain’t hundreds of feet in the air across the big canyon.”

And the believer said, ‘well, I’ll tell you how much I believe. I’ll betcha $10 he can do it.” And when he said that, the man on the rope stopped, turned in his direction and said, “Do you believe I can walk across that wide open canyon on this rope while pushing a wheelbarrow?”

The farmer replied, “I sure do. I bet $10 on you, didn’t I?” And the man on the rope said, “Well then, hop in. Get in the wheelbarrow!”

You see, it’s quite one thing to stand on the sideline and say “I believe”—It’s quite another to get in the wheelbarrow.

Now I have never walked a tightrope, although I have used a wheelbarrow.

I've never been a farmer, but I have bet on the outcome of a contest.

But in real life, I think I've also played both the role of the tightrope walker and the farmer in this story. You probably have as well.

As a tightrope walker, (or half-marathon runner, take your pick), I've walked the thin line between, wait for it, bravery and stupidity.

As the farmer, I've expressed enough confidence in someone to bet on them, but I haven't hopped in the wheelbarrow every time.

Without maybe realizing it, we sometimes are in a gray area between believing and acting on our beliefs. I call it being 'half-in.'

When these statements, and others like them, describe us, they remind us that we are actually in a 'half-in' level of passion, bravado, courage, support or enthusiasm. Half-in. We are just on the edge of the wheelbarrow, but never inside. I wonder why?

For years I used a metaphor that parents absolutely understand, and most others do as well:

If you child was sick and you brought them to the hospital and it was closed, what would you do? You'd go to another hospital right? And if that was closed? You'd go to another hospital, right? And if that was closed? You get the point, you would keep going until you found a hospital. That's being all in.

There are times and situations where you just won't stop. Where your passion or dedication or purpose or motivation or self-interest are just so strong, that you will not stop. You are in the wheelbarrow, maybe with a parachute, but you are in the wheelbarrow. You WILL find an open hospital.

The next time success eludes you, consider the fact that you likely did not have the passion, or dedication or purpose or motivation or self-interest to succeed. Not always, but likely.

If you still believe the goal you haven't reached yet was worth achieving, well then, hop in!