I love metaphors. I’ve learned I use them more than the average person. I did it so often and so easily most of my life I didn’t even realize it. Now I see it, and lean into it. I use metaphors to describe abstract or complicated ideas or even feelings and turn them into something easily relatable.
One of my favorite metaphors is thinking of myself as a gunslinger. I think of watching cowboy movies on TV as a kid, specifically The Magnificent Seven with Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen.
These handsome movie cowboys. With their swagger and for the ones in that movie, a code. They fought the good fight for those that needed their protection.
The more I can feel like a gunslinger, the more I am tapped into my power. That is how I know I’m doing it.
Feeling like a gunslinger encompasses the following for me:
The feeling of power. I imagine what it’s like to put on that gun belt. Getting ready for a fight.
The knowledge, or a belief, that you are the best at what you do. A gunslinger when they leave the house has to believe that they are the best, because what happens to a gunslinger when they aren’t? They’re dead. For me, it’s a belief that I’m the best at being me. If I play to be the best, strongest version of me, we all win. There are no losers.
Terror. Fear is tied into this. When I’m the gunslinger I’ve engaged in something that I find terrifying. If I feel this terror, then I know I’m challenging myself in the ways I need to be challenged. I feel this fear but I press ahead anyway.
Sometimes the fight comes to me. The gunslinger doesn’t always pick their fight. When it comes to me, I have to be ready and respond boldly. I can be terrified, but I never back down.
Sometimes I seek the fight. I find and create situations that encompass feeling powerful, a belief that I’m the best at doing it, and terror – and I do it.
When I do all of the above, incredible things happen. I do things that leave everyone watching in awe. This is a fight I literally can not lose – I just have to show up.
I vividly recall feeling like a gunslinger for the first time in years last year. I made a bold proposal and created shock and awe in the room. I realized I hadn’t felt like that in a long time. The gunslinger had gone away for a while, but then the gun belt got laced up. The power, the belief in myself, the terror. I knew this was the direction I needed to follow.
I’ve felt it a handful of times since, more and more often. I seek and create these moments.
Being a gunslinger isn’t for everyone, so I’m not here to teach you to be one. All I can do is explain my process and you can pull what you want from that and apply it to yourself in your own way.
If you’re not the gunslinger, or even “a” gunslinger, what is your metaphor for tapping into your own power and what qualities of it tell you that you’re tapped into it?
