Estimated reading time: 3 minutes, 3 seconds.
TODAY’S IDEA: Leap and leap again
— From The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly? by Seth Godin
Happy summer solstice!
In the wonderful book The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin recalls his summer camp adventures when he was a boy. He says, “I spent summers confronting what it meant to do what you wanted to do. That was a loaded obligation, because it meant you had to commit and then execute, without being able to blame the predicament of your choice on anyone else.”
The highlight of the lake, as Godin recalls, was the 24-foot-high diving board. “The deal was simple: If you climbed up, you had to jump off. It was too tricky (physically and emotionally) to climb down. Day after day, new initiates to the cult of the big leap would bravely climb up the tower. Then they’d get to the top and stop. They’d freeze in place, unable to move. Sometimes for hours. One kid once sat there for fourteen hours.”
So, what happened?
Godin then goes on to analyze what happened “between the time a kid started climbing the ladder and the internal system failure that occurred at the top of the board.” There was no new information presented. Why was then the child thrilled and excited at the bottom and frozen at the top?
“What changed was the volume of the argument in the leaper’s head.” At the bottom, part of the brain insists on going up because it will be “fun/brave/heroic/daring/wonderful, the adventure-seeking frontal lobe [of the brain] says.” Once you reach the top, the lizard brain kicks in and the internal dialogue changes completely. “Now the other part of the brain, the one that’s often more powerful, speaks up and insists (demands) that this nonsense stop. It’s high. This is dangerous. This is insane.”
So, what happens?
What happens next is an analogy for a lot of the things we do in life. “Amazingly, after the first jump, the deflowered leapers always do the same thing. They get out of the water, run to the steps, climb right back up, and do it again. Safety zone adjusted, comfort zone aligned. For now. And the opportunity is to make it a habit.”
We’ve all been through something like this: scared to death, we take the proverbial (or literal) leap, and when we do it, we want to leap again, and again.
What are you dreading to do now that you’d love to do again (or at least not be afraid to do) after you leap?
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Mary Schmich
ACTION
TODAY: Think of one thing that you’ve been postponing to do because you are afraid of it (could be something as simple as a conversation or as complex as a life changing event). What is the dialogue going on in your head? Is there something other than your fear preventing you from doing it? Put a deadline on your fear and decide to leap.
FUTURE: If, after doing something scary, as Godin says, our safety zone is adjusted and our comfort zone realigned, what would happen if we could envision that adjustment and realignment happening even before we leap? That would certainly make thing easier, wouldn’t it? How can we accelerate that mental process, or at least imagine it, before we leap so that when we do, we are fully convinced (or, at a minimum, not as scared that it takes us 14 hours to leap)? Think about this when you are dreading the next scary thing you need/want to do. It won’t be that scary on the other side. Leap.
Please take a leap and share this blog with someone who also needs to leap! You can share this post via email, Facebook or Twitter, thank you!