I’ve been reading this pretty awesome book called The Motivation Manifesto. It’s great because it talks about owning your personal freedom and not letting anything get in the way of walking in your God-given power. Every time I read a section I turn into this “I am woman, hear me ROAR” person! I have already been on my Xena: Warrior Princess tip because I made my New Year’s resolution to be more bold. And I intend to totally toot my horn when I say, I’ve done some pretty courageous ish. One of those things was doing a “Leap of Faith”.
I’ll paint you the picture. First, you climb a very high tree onto a platform. You basically have to pull yourself up onto the platform like you would if you were trying to get onto the roof of your house. Second, once you are on the platform, there is a trapeze a certain distance away, and you have to decide how close or far you want it from you. After you decide, you jump and try to catch the trapeze. It’s called a “Leap of Faith” because you want to challenge yourself. They do this really encouraging speech before you go up. The instructor is like, if you bring the trapeze too close you aren’t challenging yourself. Push it to the limit! WHOORAH!
So in my mind, I’m like cool, I’ll have the bar just outside of where I’m comfortable, but also close enough to where I can save face in front of the other people jumping. Duh.
Soooo…. I climbed. I jumped. I missed. And I couldn’t help but think, this is the damn story of my life…
In the last few weeks, I have gotten very accustomed to what I’ve considered failures despite my new courageous attitude. I failed my Law and Ethics exam for the second time. I didn’t pass two major written sections of my dissertation, which pushed back my graduation date, again. And I made the bold move of telling someone I was attracted to him. It was actually the first time I ever made the first “move,” and it was GREAT! But let’s just say I’m still very much single and very much heartbroken. In all three cases, I had high hopes and very hard falls.
So here I am, seemingly failing in my career, school, and in the most vulnerable aspect of my personal life. What is a girl to do? Do I readjust the bar, and take the easy way out? Do I change careers, drop out of school, and climb in a hole to wait for Prince Charming to dig me out? Part of me is like HELL YEA! Does the hole have WiFi??
Here’s what they don’t tell you about being bold and working hard: You don’t always get what you want. The instructor made a point to mention that it was a LEAP of faith. There’s no guarantee that you will grab that trapeze because that isn’t the point. The point is you went for something that seemed impossible.
This thing called disappointment isn’t an excuse to give up or beat up on yourself or believe you are a failure. In fact, it’s an opportunity to learn. When I got down from my “Leap of Faith” the first thing the instructor asked me was what did I learn. The first thing I said was that I have short arms. He laughed, but then he told me he had never seen someone with so much confidence take the leap. I had optimized the lesson. I took the leap. I didn’t hold back. I succeeded.
It reminded me that my goal for this year was to be bold. To live a life I could be proud of. Even in the times I don’t get what I want, it doesn’t take away from the fact that I’m living my life boldly. I’m asking for what I want and taking no prisoners!! So yea… there is disappointment and maybe even failures, but the only thing that should be disappointing is not going after the things you want or not accepting the lessons that come with failing.
“Heroism is taking action to do important things even when we are afraid. Cowardice is acting in accordance to our fears when our heart wishes to see us behave more nobly and courageously” The Motivation Manifesto – Brendon Burchard
Yours Truly,
LeoniaFaye
P.s. I took a video of my Leap of Faith, and when I watched it, I couldn’t have been more proud of myself. I actually had a lot of fun, and it was so freeing to let go. So I encourage you to embrace your fears and enjoy the journey. Here’s it is:
Hello Fear 