Jump

Have you ever felt like your life was stagnant? Like you are stepping on a treadmill day after day—constantly moving but not really getting anywhere?

I recently heard an inspiring talk by Steve Harvey that addressed this very problem. He compared this stagnant feeling to being on a cliff, looking over the edge. Other people are flying around over the cliff, living out their dream, but for many of us, it’s too scary to jump.

I believe that each of us is given a gift that we are called to work out during our lives. Maybe your gift is something artistic, like painting or singing. Maybe your gift has to do with starting a business or making money. Maybe your gift is something technical, like programming or computers. Whatever your gift is, the goal is to find it and live it out.

But you have to make the jump first… and trust that your parachute will open.

I think there are two main things that hold us back from making the jump:

1. Jumping is scary. There’s no way around it. It’s scary to take a risk and try something new. It might not work out. You might fail. What would that mean? There could be consequences. When we experience fear, we tend to avoid the thing we are afraid of. In this case, we don’t jump. If the fear is too great, and the avoidance is too strong, we might even forget that jumping was an option.
2. It usually doesn’t work out the first time. Or the second time. Or the third time for that matter. One of the things I liked most about Steve Harvey’s talk is he said the first time you jump, your parachute won’t open right. You probably will skin your legs on the rocks below. You might tear up your clothes. You might get hurt. This can take people out of the game. “Oh, I tried that before,” you might say. “It didn’t work out. I better just play it safe from now on.” Trial and error is pretty much the norm early on. If you fail at first, don’t let it push you too far off course. As soon as you are able, brush yourself off, learn from your mistakes, and jump again.

Discussion: If you could pick one thing, what do you believe in your heart that you are gifted to do? What is holding you back from making the jump in that area of your life?