It was a hot day on the Indonesian island.
Nothing out of the ordinary. All the days there were hot. The joy of living in the tropics.
I made my way onto the crane. Up it went. Up, and up, and up.
They say fortune favours the brave. The instructor gave me the drill.
‘I’ll count 3, 2, 1, bungee. When I say ‘bungee’ I want you to put your arms up in the air, lean forward and go.’
‘Got it’, I said.
The words came. ‘3, 2, 1…’
‘STOP!’ I said. ‘I’m not ready,’ as I tightly gripped the bar in front of me in panic.
I took a step back, wondering whether I really wanted to do it. I wasn’t given long to decide.
‘3, 2, 1…’
What went through my mind in that matter of seconds was that I was at a crossroads.
I could either do the jump, the thought of which scared the proverbial out of me, or I could wave a white flag and head back down.
I knew the decision would make no difference to anyone but me.
The fear was palpable, yet I knew I had to do this.
On ‘bungee’ I leaned forward and fell.
It felt like an eternity before I reached the bottom. It wasn’t. It was over in a matter of seconds.
The terror came first, the exhilaration later.
My friends on the ground assured me my screams were of the highest pitch they’d ever heard.
It might not have been pretty, but I did it and I felt incredible!
The fear that had been palpable in a matter of seconds was transmuted into something magical and life-giving.
Because of one decision.
Our scariest moments are often our richest and most defining.
On the other side of fear is our greatness, our ability to live life on the leading edge of who we are so we can discover who we’re meant to become.
That day I reached a whole new understanding of who I was and what I was capable of.
What scares you, and what’s waiting for you on the other side?