My sixty-two year old neighbor is training to be a flight attendant. She has worked with kids for most of her adult life so she is already capable of taking care of a bunch of temper tantrums at once but everything else about the job is totally out of her comfort zone. Can you imagine taking that kind of leap of faith into the unknown? I can and it scares me to the core. I also think it’s the coolest thing I have heard all month. I know that a lot of people hear this kind of story and say “big deal, she is changing her career”, but to me this is huge because it takes some pretty big balls to jump without a net and just go for something unfamiliar and uncomfortable. This is pure bravery. I live to hear this kind of story because it encourages me to take those leaps of faith and to get out of my comfort zone too. It tells me I am not crazy when I jump, I am brave. I need that because I still have that voice in the corner of my mind that tells me not to jump, and sometimes that voice disguises itself as reason when it is in fact only fear.
That voice of fear yells all of those what ifs. What if you fail, what if you let people down, what if you aren’t good enough, what if they laugh at you. What if, what if, what if….. The voice of courage responds with so what? None of those things are going to kill me. And maybe it is going to hurt when I land, but the ride down is going to be exhilarating. Life is too short not to be brave. Life is too full of amazing things to discover to let fear keep me in my comfort zone. Today I choose to be brave and to live every day the best I can. I owe that to myself and to my daughter. I want her to live a life of discovery. I want her to create and explore and share her gifts with the world and that kind of living takes a lot of courage.
It’s a lot easier to be brave when the people around you are brave. I know this from experience. I am fortunate enough to be the product of brave parents, ones who do the right thing even when its hard. I grew up watching my mom do things that made her uncomfortable because she wanted to learn new things and be a better person. I’m sure it scared her, but she did it anyway. My mom jumped. I know that this kind of courage didn’t come naturally to her. It’s a choice she made every day. I can live bravely today because my mom taught me this and I owe it to myself and my daughter to do the same thing. So today I choose to jump. I may land hard but the ride is so worth it.
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