Stop second guessing things, just jump, you can’t really know what it’s like unless you fully commit to the experience.

You’ve heard this advice before, right?

I know I have.

It’s terrific advice to give to another person, yet terrifying advice to receive.

Yeah! Go for it.  Screw whatever conventional thought may say regarding a specific decision.  Forget what others think about the lunacy involved with whatever venture you are prepared to embark upon.  Jump in! Immerse yourself!  The only way to truly appreciate something is to leap into the maw of the unknown.

To a risk averse, tenuous creature, this sounds absolutely petrifying.

Our entire social system is engineered around tenuousness. We are conditioned to be wary of significant changes, even if it may be at our benefit.  We are fed routine diets of fear.  Caution is ingrained in each and every person from a young age.  And to the degree of self preservation, that is a good thing.  When it comes to adult decisions involving moving from ones comfort zone, ingrained trepidation is cripling.  We are constantly lulled into a state of complacency.  Which makes us soft, apprehensive, fearful people.

Possibly though, tough decisions may not have to be looked at as cataclysmically disastrous.

Maybe swan dives are not required to move forward.

Giant plunges may not a requirement for advancement.

Blind leaps from a precipice are not necessarily the stepping-stones to enlightenment.

But, to progress forward when facing difficulty, choices, still, have to be made.

The grandiose gestures of rocketing from cliffs may appeal to the chronically thrill seeking, maniacal, hope-for-foreverists.   To those who know what survival, continuity, perseverance, and hope mean, there is another way to cross the ravine.

Those who must face the precipice, they that are at the crumbling edge, faced with turning back towards rote repetition of where they were before, or progress beyond the gorge before them, should be aware that what is needed is only a minute step of faith, which isn’t a leap at all, it’s simply a stride forward, allowing one to conquer their fears.

It’s that one step, that leads to another, and another, over that chasm that we filled with unimaginable fear, which we once thought impossible to cross. Then, with each confident, sure, resilient step, we find ourselves able to take bolder, more daring strides, treads of faith, small movements forward, not reckless leaps that would cause us to plummet into chasms of frustration and disappointment. These minute, daring footfalls, cause our feet to alight upon the clouds, and, eventually, solid ground on the other side of the canyon.

Humbly yours,

J