NO – I’m not telling you to go jump off a building, or anything else for that matter. I’m using this as a metaphor for “Taking the first step” which might seem risky – as it might be jumping off an actual building.
In life, we all come to a place where we become uncomfortable with where we are. It might be because we do not feel we’ve accomplished anything meaningful, we may feel that we should have been so much farther ahead than we are now, it could be any number of reasons. Yet, as we wallow in this discomfort, we may have an idea of what we need to do. However, just as soon as the idea comes, this thing called FEAR follows shortly after.
We question ourselves: “What if I fail?, What if I don’t KNOW enough?, What if I’m NOT smart enough?, What is EVERYONE going to think?
We allow these types of questions to limit our belief in ourselves, and we get mired in a cyclical thought process that BUILD that fear that we’ve embraced.
Now in order to make ourselves FEEL better, we create a myriad of excuses as to why we stopped trying, we stopped believing, we simply stopped!
So today I want you to try something new.
What if you simply decided to change your MINDSET around all these excuses you’ve embraced and hold dear to your heart? Ask yourself:
So – what if I fail? Well, the simple truth is that everyone who’s ever tried anything NEW has failed?
Can you imagine if when you were a baby you decided that this “walking thing” is just too difficult and you’ll just crawl everywhere you need to go. Would that make sense? Every single person you see walking around has fallen multiple times while learning to walk. So if you think of it, the ONLY person who’s never failed is a person who has never tried anything new.
So now we grow up and we walk, talk, use the potty, bathe ourselves and learn to read and write – at least I hope so. And now we decide that learning something new is just too difficult to do – so we just give up and settle into our misery. Because you know – NOTHING is more miserable than living in a place of regret – never knowing what you could accomplish if you only took the first step and stick to the process.
So why did I say JUMP?
Well, most people are waiting for the PERFECT time to do something, when in fact, there is NEVER a perfect time.
So what about this, “Build your wings on the way down” bit?
Well, imagine a baby bird and how the mother bird teaches that baby bird to fly. I believe we all know that little baby bird gets kicked out of the nest, with the expectation that the baby bird will strengthen his little wings while struggling to stay airborne. Otherwise we all know what happens.
So when we JUMP, we are expected to build our mental, physical, and emotional strength as we work to stay in the game. Nobody ever gets a smooth ride when doing something new. It’s a learning process where we build our confidence, our mental fortitude, and our grit so we’re able to withstand the disappointments and still stay in the game.
Let’s put it this way – if we never JUMP – how do we know what obstacles we are able to surmount, what potential we’re able to achieve, what level of personal growth and fortitude we’re able to withstand as we bring forward the gifts we were created to bring to the world?
And, can you imagine what our world would BE like if everyone was afraid to JUMP into the unknown?
We’d still be using horse buggies to travel long distances, no cars, no airplanes, no fuel, no electricity, no refrigerator, no indoor plumbing… and the list goes on.
So what are you waiting on? Don’t you have something to contribute? Then,
JUMP!
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