Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Art of Intentionality

  “Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make you.” – Richie Norton   I am not even sure who Richie Norton is, but I love that quote! I imagine a ship drifting out to sea, pushed around by the wind and the waves. No course of direction, yet the captain is frustrated when the ship ends up dashed against the rocks, trapped on a sandbar or marooned on an inhospitable island. It is easy to complain when life takes us where we do not want to go. But who is really to blame if we have never set our sails to align us along an appropriate course? Do we blame the waves, wind and the weather? Or should we blame the captain of the ship? It is our life and our ship. We must set our sails with intentionality and determined choices. Otherwise, we are doomed to aimlessly drift along according to the choices and decisions of others. 
Post a Comment
Read more

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i...
1 comment
Read more