Monday Security Memo

Intellectual Firepower for Professionals

The Floor is Lava (Or Is It?)

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear."

— George Addair

Dear A,

If you have kids, you’ve probably played The Floor Is Lava. I know my three-year-old son loves it.

The rules are simple. You scatter pillows, paper, clothes - anything you can find - across the floor. Those become your “stones.” The carpet, tile, or rug beneath them? That’s lava. The goal is to hop from stone to stone without touching the floor, eventually making it to safety - usually the couch.

Like most kids’ games, there’s music involved. In our house, we blast the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme while my son pretends he’s Indiana Jones racing toward the treasure. The game has been around for generations, and now there are even plastic lava stones you can buy - different shapes, sizes, and distances apart. Add balance beams. Add rope swings. Increase the difficulty.

It’s fun. But it’s also sneaky. The game builds balance, dexterity, coordination, and confidence. Kids fall, laugh, get up, and try again without thinking twice.

Eventually, though, we grow up and the game fades into something childish.

Or does it?

Because a lot of adults still live as if the floor is lava.

We enter our careers and navigate office politics like a minefield. We contort ourselves, shifting sideways instead of forward, afraid to say or do the wrong thing. One misstep, we think, and a stone gets pulled out from under us.

Falling into the lava might mean losing a job.

Getting passed over for a promotion.

Ending up with the bad assignment because the boss likes someone else more.

The lava game shows up in relationships too. How many times have you pirouetted off one stone or somersaulted onto another just to keep the peace? How often do we convince ourselves that standing still is safer than risking a step forward?

And so the game continues... day after day, year after year.

 Sometimes you have to ask, "how bad could it be?"

But here’s the question we rarely ask:

What actually happens if you fall into the lava? Most of the time… nothing.

In the kids’ version, you miss a stone, land on the rug, laugh, shout “Oh no!” - and hop right back up. No damage. No catastrophe.

In adulthood, though, many people find a stone and never leave it.

They’re comfortable there.

It feels safe.

The couch - the real objective - looks too far away. Too risky.

In relationships, they can’t imagine taking a leap of faith to that next big, beautiful stone just a few feet away.

Kids recover because they know the truth: the floor isn’t really lava. It can’t hurt them.

Too bad adults don’t see as clearly as their younger selves.

The floor is not lava.

It’s just a rug.

And sometimes the fastest, safest, and smartest way to reach the couch - your ultimate goal - is to stop hopping, stop contorting, and simply walk across the floor and take it.

Stay safe and vigilant!

 Luke Bencie