"A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage." -Sydney Smith

I could not believe that I was about to do this. What was I thinking? How in the world did they convince me that this was a great way to celebrate my birthday? I was seriously about to do this. Of course I had to at this point, especially because the 150 lb guy strapped to my back told me so and in my paralyzing death grip on the handle he was able to become very convincing, but even more so encouraging. Sure enough, I was about to jump out of a perfectly good airplane....

Have you ever been paralyzed by fear? Not necessarily the fear of when your kid jumps out and scares the dickens out of you, or even as you stumble through the dark thinking you heard a noise in the garage. No, I am talking about the fear that you might not experience success the first time, or holding back or delay doing something, or even worse, not trying at all.

I sat there on the edge of this wonderful, beautiful airplane and though how surreal this really was. I consider myself an adventurer, but not an idiot (please no commentary from my distracters). The 2 hour training prior to this moment seemed so trivial and other than the strong desire to enter into the fetal position, I could not remember anything but-that would not be a good idea, makes you go down faster. I had a great coach. The man strapped to my back for this tandem jump was a former Air Ranger, had done thousands of jumps, and was very encouraging. But, I had to wonder (as you do on the edge of an airplane about to jump) had my Air Ranger ever been strapped to a 230 lb anchor while jumping? Of course not wanting to look anything but macho, as I hesitated, I said, “I just want to take this all in”. He darn well knew that it was my lunch that I was trying to keep in...

I see a lot of this everyday. I see kids who are fearful of trying something new simply because they do not want to "feel" unsuccessful. I see teachers who sometimes are not willing to take risks in classroom instruction because it may backfire. I see parents who are not willing to step out and stand up for what they believe in for their kids for fear of standing out. Far too often, I think we are all paralyzed by fear. Fear of failure, fear of being unliked, and fear of not feeling successful. I think it is the greatest hindrance of our society today.

My heart raced and pumped harder than it ever had. “Is that a cartoon down there? It looks very surreal; everything so boxed and divided up so nicely”. “Why would anyone want me to land on something so beautiful, I might mess it up?” (I did not say that you think logically at 10,000 ft when your feet are dangling out of a plane). The moment came...3.....2....1.....jump....

Have you experienced something in your own life that is keeping you back? I wonder what it is in our kid’s life that they wish they would not hold back on? Fear can be a healthy thing as well. I think it is so important to have conversations not only with ourselves, but with our kids about the good and bad results of decisions, but over-analysis can facilitate paralysis.

As I am flying through the air, not in my so desired fetal position, but in my greatest impression of a flying squirrel, I have felt nothing like the feeling of gravity taking its course and launching me towards the ground. I had to laugh, because I tried to yell in exuberance, but nothing came out.  We free fell for what seemed such a short time, but the quickly the moment came to pull the chute. Now what they do not tell you in training is when pulling a parachute when skydiving, you need prepare for what I call, - the wedgie of a lifetime. Something that had I known, would have added to the fear factor. But the nonetheless the cord was pulled and the experience of drifting thousands of feet above the ground was a reward that I will never ever forget.

Have you shared a time with your child of an experience when you were fearful and yet you moved forward to great reward? What about a time when you even failed, but you kept going and learned to fail forward?

Now I am so glad I did not experience failure on my skydiving experience. That is one of those activities that trial by error need not apply. But even as I approached the ground, the landing was going to be so important to me. I did make a smooth landing on my feet, but was shaking so much with adrenalin that I fell back and had forgotten that someone, my Air Ranger, was strapped to my back. Poor soul, recovered nicely, but more so from the bear hug I gave him for encouraging me to overcome my fear of the moment and experience a feeling of a lifetime. I am thankful for him even today, several years later.

How will you inspire your child to overcome fear today? What about a fear that is paralyzing you? What is holding you back? Don't let illogical thought keep you paralyzed, pull that cord and experience the joy that you and your kids so deserve.

Proud to be a Leopard.