The Jump That Changed My Life!

I remember one summer when my younger sister was only around 3 years old and I took her swimming, she’d just jump off the edge into the pool with her arms and legs flapping in the air without a worry in the world. The following summer season, though, she would stand there unable to make that same jump in the very same pool.

Something shifted in that one-year gap. Something made her think that jumping in is not OK like it used to be. What happened? As we grow, the concept of fear grows with us. Mostly triggered by innocent comments from adults like ‘Watch out or ‘Be careful. Kids don’t know how to filter this to specific situations and rather generalize it for everything.

This is where I would give her encouragement or hold her hand or jump with her. Within minutes she’s OK again. Sometimes, we’d have to go through the same thing again the following day to get her to jump in.

This happens to us at any age. If you dig deep enough, you’ll realize that fear stops you from doing a whole bunch of things. We don’t want to call it ‘fear’ so we mask it with all sorts of other things. We come up with all sorts of stories to hide it.

I had fear stop me from doing a lot of things and the mask I hid behind was that I was a shy person. A friend once told me that was the biggest lie I tell myself!

I didn’t understand her then. I didn’t even know what she was talking about. Now, the more I think about it and how that one belief really did stop me from doing so many fun things, I realize how true it is.

Fear is probably the number one hurdle stopping people from living their true passions. Fear stops us from dreaming big and from tapping into our unlimited potential. Fear makes us live small.

We’ve become experts at masking it too. So instead of saying that it is fear that stops me from doing this or that, I say that I can’t leave my job because I need a secure income. You say you can’t pursue a dream because you don’t have the money. She says she can’t start that business she’s so passionate about because she has three kids at home.

The real reason is fear. We cover it and we mask it. But when the onion is peeled one layer at a time, you find that it is fear-looking you straight in the eye and is what’s really holding you back!

What would you do if you had no fear? If you were to be whatever you want in spite of having fear, what would that feel like?

here’s such a high price we pay when we don’t conquer our fear. There’s much that we miss out on when we let fear run our lives. Life’s no fun when we can’t jump into pools and create big splashes!

They say, your negative attitude about life is like a flat tire. If you don’t change it, you won’t get anywhere!

Throwback to the jump from a plane that I did in Dubai (& Fiji before that) and the jump off a 60 feet high pole (that’s around 20 meters) that I did in Fiji a few years ago. I could feel the butterflies in my stomach again as I remember those amazing experiences now. My life since has been one huge jump after another! I defeated fear and since then, it made me feel that there’s nothing I can’t do. NOTHING.

I met the best people during that time and I fondly call them my Fiji Family now. They are the folks cheering ‘powered by passion’ in the video below. We were to ask our team for support in whatever way we wanted.

So that was what I asked for, that they cheer my slogan if they saw me hesitating or shivering in my pants. Let me tell you it was awesome to hear them as they cheered and it sure got me motivated to take the next step and the next.

I’m basically camping it out ‘outside my comfort zone for such a long time. Everything that is exciting and wonderful and scary and sexy… happens outside your comfort zone. Trust me on this one! On the day I was flying back home, there was a 10-hour wait at Fiji’s main airport before I was to take my next flight.

So I decided to skydive! It was a premeditated decision and I booked it a couple of days earlier. I figured if I can jump off a pole, the next logical thing is to jump off a plane. And so I did. This jump, the skydive (that I did again in Dubai), or the fire walk (that I did in 2012 and again in 2014) is but a symbolic representation of me conquering my fears. It dwarfs smaller things I want to do that I’m afraid to face, do or have to deal with like confrontations, fear of failure, or of being rejected.

So now I hear a little voice in my head saying, if I can do any of the above-mentioned craziness, how come I’m worried about doing blank… or if I can do that, what else can I do?!

My life has changed and I’m a different person with every challenge I take.

I look stupidly silly in this video, and you can’t see it but I was shivering in my pants and sweating my ass off but I hope it inspires you to take your own ‘jump’…and see what happens!

What is your challenge? What hurdle do you need to jump over and leave behind forever? Be the first to leave your comment below and inspire others with what you’d challenge yourself to do publicly!