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The Jump



I remember as a young boy, trembling on the top of the high dive at a local pool, waiting for my nerves and fears to subside before I jumped. Standing about two feet away from the end of the diving board with my heart climbing into my throat, I felt even more fear welling up inside me as I looked down at the water below. The longer I waited, the more anxiety gripped me. When I finally jumped, the fear actually diminished as I fell towards water. Jumping was the worst part. Just a few minutes after the first jump, I was ready to do it again, and with each subsequent jump, the fear seemed to weaken and become quieted within me.

Typically, when faced with an action that causes us anxiety, we tend to want to wait it out until the fear subsides, but rarely does this approach ever work. As we dwell on the task in front of us, our mind continues to feed the feelings of fear and doubt, making them stronger than ever. If we wait for the fear to die down before moving, we will likely never act. Furthermore, we then become prisoner to the anxiety of anticipation whether we act or not.

We have the order of operations backwards. Confidence follows action, it doesn’t precede it. We must act first, and then the fear begins to fade. It doesn’t happen the other way around. Sometimes the best way to deal with fear, often times the only way, is to simply jump.

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