For Christmas, my office staff bought me a gift certificate to skydive! How awesome is that? Now that means one of two things: they want to get rid of me or they know I like a real thrill! 🙂 They tell me it was the latter.
It was an interesting experience…INCREDIBLE more like it! There’s nothing like sitting in an open door of an airplane, looking at the earth from 14,000 ft. up before jumping out (My guide, Ben, actually pushed us). I told him it was hard to believe we were going to jump out of a perfectly good airplane…seems counterintuitive!
Ben’s response was, “This plane isn’t really that great-jumping out is probably the best option!” Ha! It was an old rickety Alaskan bush plane.
Two thoughts here: first, I have talked before about doing things that make you uncomfortable and this did that for me. There is a great book called the “Comfort Crisis” that I highly recommend. It talks about the negative consequences of never being uncomfortable. Now, jumping out of a plane doesn’t have to be in the cards for everyone but finding those things that are new for you are important to constantly be growing and evolving.
Second, sometimes, like my experience on the plane, you will be given two not so great choices that puts you in a situation that you are going be uncomfortable. Which is why doing things that make you uncomfortable will prepare you. Practice make perfect.
Recently somebody near and dear to me found out she has cancer. Her options were to do nothing and take her chances on death or doing chemotherapy. In her case, the treatment option has a very high success rate but not without pain, suffering, and discomfort. She has had discomfort in her life before and what that did for her is allow her remain positive in the face of hardship. It also allowed her to reach out and form a support network both in and outside of work.
The thing about discomfort is it teaches you how to reach out and ask for help or give help. Believe me, I wanted my guides’ help! When you are in discomfort, you often come to us for help. It is part of what bonds us as humans.
So go and get uncomfortable that way when true discomfort comes your way you don’t panic. Also, look for those who are uncomfortable and lend them a hand.
Read past blog posts here