The leap of faith

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear”

Dear readers,  I am sure many of you have heard this saying before, but let me tell you how I got to experience this first hand and what I got to learn from this experience.

The lead-up

The month of March was special for two reasons – one it’s my birthday month & two I tried something I have never ever done before in life. Let me tell you more.

Last month I had my family visit us from India and Chicago. Given this was their first visit to New Zealand, we decided to shower them with some true Kiwi hospitality. And what better place than Queenstown to do this. What started off as a casual living room conversation over some wine, soon turned into me browsing the NZOne skydive website and within a few clicks I had not 1, not 2, not 3, but 5 skydiving tickets booked. Yes, you are right, my entire family decided to dive. This included me, my husband, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law and wait for it – my 70-year-old father-in-law. My mom-in-law was the wisest of us all. She decided to be the ground staff, offering us support & encouragement from the ground.  The joke going around the family was that someone had to stay behind to enjoy the billions we would leave behind should something go wrong 🙂

The anticipation

The night before the dive, I had a cocktail of emotions cross my mind – emotions of anxiety, of fear, of the joy of experiencing something new, also thoughts of this possibly being my last night on Earth (As you can tell, nothing of that sort happened as I am alive to tell you the story) But more than anything else, I had this immense curiosity that maybe on my way down from the sky, I might have this earth-shattering, ground-breaking experience and maybe, just maybe I will find my true purpose in life.

The experience

Anyway, the day arrived. It was the best day you can imagine for skydiving – not a cloud in the sky, the sun shining in my eye, no wind, no drama. After a briefing session and an interview, I see myself suited and seated in a plane with all five members of my family and of course our tandem diving instructors. And then up and up and up we went.

Very soon I realized 15,0000 feet is no joke – we were above the lake, the grasslands, the mountains, and the clouds. Then someone opened the door and in that moment I realized I’ve never been in an airplane with the door open. And then I see my husband, my sister in law, my father in law fall out of the plane like sacks full of stone. It’s my turn next and I am looking out down to death.

My instructor asks me to smile for the camera and off we go into free fall for 60 seconds.  In that moment, I was free, I was flying, I was alive. It was the most blissful experience of my life. There’s zero fear. I realized that at the point of maximum danger is the point of minimum fear.

Well, good news. The shute opened and we all landed safe to tell the story and an experience we will all remember our entire life.

Armed with my new found love for free fall, I decided to do bungy the next day. That’s a story for another blog, but the concept is the same. This time it was just me standing on the ledge of fear – waiting to take the plunge.

The take-away

A week after this event, when the adrenaline rush had settled in, I got thinking. What did I learn from this?

Why was I scared in my bed the night before? What did I need that fear for? Everything up to the stepping point, there’s no reason to be scared. It only just ruins your day.

The best things in life are on the other side of fear, on the other side of your maximum fear, are all of the best things in life.”

How many times in life do we stand on the ledge of fear. How many times do we hesitate to say yes to things because we feel uncomfortable?

1. That question we want to ask people?

2. That new opportunity that we want to say yes to, but fear we may not be good enough

3. That person we want to say hello to

4. That thing we want to learn

5. That project we want to start

And I kid you not, in that very week I received a call from an event organizer asking me if I am willing to speak at the conference. Now, public speaking is not something I enjoy, but hope to enjoy.  It is my dream to  deliver a keynote in front of a stadium full of people and this was the just a stepping stone.

In that moment, I closed my eyes, and imagined myself on the ledge of the plane, and said YES without letting fear consume me.

So, my friends, what is your biggest fear and are you willing to take the leap of faith because

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear”

#bungy #skydive #queenstown #leap #bungee #fear