Les Brown “You’ve Got to Be Willing to Die to Who You Are Now to Give Birth to Who You Can Become.”

We see it in movies all the time.

You know, when the main character goes through some kind of metaphorical death and subsequent rebirth.

One particular scene that comes to my mind is in the movie Gravity, when a terrified Dr. Ryan Stone (portrayed by Sandra Bullock), running gravely low on oxygen, struggles and tumbles through the void of outer space before ultimately returning to the safety of the shuttle.

After sealing the airlock, she removes her spacesuit, catches her breath, and slowly leans backward. Then she curls into a fetal position, suspended in air, with a bungee cord floating just to her right of her navel. All alone in space.

It is in this moment that Dr. Stone was reborn. She made a choice to live. And with that choice she was transformed into a stronger, braver version of herself.

Watch the scene here.

These “rebirth” scenes are ubiquitous throughout film, mythology, and scripture. They are a metaphor for life, representing the “ego death” that must take place in order to expand into a new concept of ourselves. Into a new Being.

Be. Do. Have.

By BEcoming someone new, we may DO what we must in order to HAVE what we desire. Such is the creative process.

However, there can be no creation without the assumption of a new Being. No new Being without rebirth. No rebirth without dying to who we’ve been.

Or as Les Brown says on today’s Motivation Monday episode of The Quote of The Day Show, “you’ve got to be willing to die to who you are now to give birth to who you can become.”

You can’t go wrong with a Les Brown clip. Tap the PLAY button above to listen in.

Happy Monday!