Dump the Bar

In weight lifting, the term “dumping the bar” is a phrase used to explain how to safely escape a scenario when you’ve attempted to lift more than you can handle at a given moment and there is no spotter present. Spotters are there to assist, and hopefully ensure one’s safety. In life, we don’t always have a spotter, and we do tend to occasionally attempt something more than we can currently handle whilst going it alone. This doesn’t have to be a feat of physical strength either; it can be a personal, professional, academic, social, or emotional too.

Dumping the bar means bailing out safely. Although we may have failed at achieving what we wanted in the moment, we are safe, which allows us to try again later. If we risk our safety for a final push towards success, the consequences can be deadly. Although a momentary lapse in judgement doesn’t have to necessarily be deadly, it can do enough damage to put us off our goals. It has the potential to sideline us, when all we really aspire to do, and what life is designed for, is to be in the game. We want to play! Sometimes success is knowing when to dump the bar. There’s great strength in knowing when going it alone isn’t safe.