CONTEMPLATE THIS…
Why you might ask?
Because IMPOSSIBLE is frightening!
Let the word tumble around a bit in your head…that’s right…impossible…impossible…impossible…I’m going to attempt to do the impossible.
If you want a little help stirring up feelings for the impossible, this account of Felix Baumgartner’s record breaking highest jump ever should get you tingling. “Trust me, when you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble. It’s not about breaking records any more. It’s not about getting scientific data. It’s all about coming home.”
The average person doesn’t contemplate jumping period! – let alone jumping off cliffs, buildings, aeroplanes…
Seemingly small things terrify us though…
- Like taking the first step to starting a business
- Having a difficult conversation with an employee
- Opposing someone whom we love and respect but simply don’t agree with this time around
- Setting a goal that is terrifying but that we felt was in us from the time we were born.
Teddy Roosevelt said almost a century ago:
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.”
Brene Brown, in her book of the same name, explains “Daring Greatly”
I feel pain when I read “I can honestly say that nothing is as uncomfortable, dangerous, and hurtful, as believing that I’m standing on the outside of my life looking in and wondering what it would be like if I had the courage to show up and let myself be seen.” And I feel the fear of taking the next step. Felix Baumgartner reminds me in his quote “Fear has become a friend of mine” …that I should befriend fear!
And this just occurred to me:
We need to be courageous enough to free fall INTO our own lives.
Look at Felix’s account again and this time think of your own life:
“Trust me, when you stand up there on top of the world, you become so humble. It’s not about breaking records any more. It’s not about getting scientific data. It’s all about coming home.”
We all need to experience what Felix did. What would it feel like coming home to who you are, who you were meant to be and have finally become?
- Befriend fear (you might as well because it’s never going away)
- Accept that it seems impossible now but that’s ok
- Commit to the jump
- Free fall into your life™!
NOW GO DO SOMETHING!
Your expertise is your business! 