WHAT IS YOUR EMOTIONAL, PHYSICAL or SPIRITUAL EQUIVALENT OF JUMPING OUT OF AN AIRPLANE?
Last evening I went up to Baltimore to John’s Hopkins University with my mother to see our family friend Paula Boggs*, Exec. VP & General Council at Starbucks receive a distinguished alumni award and deliver the keynote speech. It was an inspiring evening. Having about 24 hrs to prepare Paula still gave a great talk on “the power of one.” She told a couple of stories about her time at Hopkins illustrating how just the love and support of one person can have such far reaching consequences for so many people. As I said the speech was very inspiring, but the real moment of inspiration and clarity came for me later in the evening.
Back at their hotel I was hanging out in the room with my mom, Paula and her parents. My mom and Paula’s mom, whom I know as Aunt Janice, have known each other from the first day my mother set foot in the U.S. from Jamaica, about 55 yrs ago! Paula, an extraordinary woman by any measure, was relating a story from her college days. While in undergrad at Hopkins she was in ROTC and decided to go to Georgia to learn how to jump out of airplanes. Apparently on her first real jump, after doing some jumps from a tower, she sprained her ankle and had to go on guard duty and could not finish the training. Disappointed but not defeated, she went away for a time after this to officer training then decided to come back and finish the paratrooper course. She had to complete about 4 or 5 jumps in two days, a grueling schedule. Of course she did it and has gone on to do several amazing things since then.
My moment of clarity and inspiration arrived while listening to her story. This clarity actually came simultaneously as a question and an answer….WHAT IS MY EQUIVALENT OF JUMPING OUT OF AN AIRPLANE? and YOU HAVE TO DO WHATEVER THIS IS! What I was realizing is how important it is for us to push ourselves to take the biggest risks, to do the things that are the hardest and scariest for us, whether these challenges be physical, emotional or physical. If we don’t do whatever our equivalent of jumping out of an airplane is we give into our fears, we get old, we atrophy and we experience spiritual death.
So what is jumping out of a plane for me? It is not just one thing. It is a constant series of choices to not take the easy way, to push my boundaries, say yes to the universe and to live my vision to its fullest expression no matter how scary or risky this proposition.
So…What is your equivalent of jumping out of an airplane?
(first posted 10.24.09)
* 1/29/18 Paula is now retired and the leader of the Paula Boggs Band. She is also involved in a good deal of philanthropic work.
