When you go skydiving, they warn you not to grab onto anything inside the plane. Not the metal bars. Not the seats. Nothing that’s firmly attached and therefore not coming with you on the way down.
Because if you grab the plane, you might not let go. (Or, you’ll make the trip down a helluva lot more challenging.)
And staring out into the open sky realizing there’s nothing but a measly parachute to keep you alive apparently makes it harder to loosen your grip and actually jump.
If you have to death-grip anything, make sure it’s the straps to the parachute around your shoulders (or your tandem partner’s hand, if you’re feeling friendly).
But I remember grabbing the metal bar next to the open door.
I remember thinking, “Oh, shit, they told me not to do that.”
And then I remember wondering why they told me it was hard to let go because THIS is what I paid for. THIS was the whole point.
Throwing myself out into the open air as the ground got ever nearer, was what I wanted. Trusting I’d make it through the experience fully intact even though I had NO control, was the adventure.
I easily let go of the bar, grabbed my shoulder straps, nodded at my tandem partner, and jumped out of the airplane (with a giant flip of my stomach, because, hello, I’m not an unfeeling robot).
And, in case it wasn’t obvious, I lived to tell the tale.
Now, every time I’m scared, I can remind myself what it feels like to surrender and trust. Every time I don’t know who I’ll be on the other side of doing my work, I can think of it like an adventure. Every time I find that I’ve “grabbed the inside of the plane,” I can calmly remind myself that it’s within my power to just let go.
Doing your work is a lot like jumping out of an airplane at 10,000 feet over and over again.
As someone who’s done both, I can offer some advice:
- It’s WAY easier with someone who’s “been there before”
- Be willing to surrender everything you thought you knew about yourself and the world and just jump
- Don’t beat yourself up for “grabbing the bar.” Noticing what you’re doing is the first step to making a new choice
- Catch the view on the way down (because life is way more fun when you’re fully present with what’s going on around you
What you do with this life is your choice. Will you have the courage to jump out of the plane?