It was a record setting day of sunshine in Virginia yesterday of 100 degree heat, and I had the pleasure of being able to spend some of the day at Lake Anna. There really is nothing like being around water for me, being a water baby and life-long swimmer, I am in my element in every sense of the word when I am surrounded by water. Not only does it ease my mind, it eases my soul; water breathes life into me.
The other thing that I love about the water is that, no matter my mood, it turns me into a little kid again. There are not many things that are more fun to me than playing in the water. Born a May baby, my mom had me in the water by June and every year thereafter was spent at the pool, skiing at the lake, and spending hours upon hours on the diving board with friends. Around water I was fearless. Ask me to try a triple flip, and I would. Tell me to climb up the backs of a skiing pyramid to stand on the top, and I would. Any challenge given, I took on.
Gainers, pikes, flips, twists…life is good.
Being at the lake yesterday refreshed my commitment to being fearless. I started doing pike dives, back dives, inwards, and front flips off of the pontoon boat; it was a blast, but what I really wanted to do was a back-flip. I approached the edge of the boat with all the confidence in the world, and then fear crept up and overwhelmed me and I chickened out and backed up, choosing to dive in instead. Then, a friend, who might I mention is significantly older than me, whipped out a perfect, effortless back-flip right after I had cowered to fear. Half-pissed off at myself for being scared and half-inspired by my friend, I climbed back up into the boat, and, without even stopping, went right to the edge, turned around and executed a perfect back-flip.
The backflip. Pretty high jumping from off a boat if I do say so myself.
The only reason I mastered my back-flip is because I chose not to think. There are times in life when our fears are so irrational that the only way to silence them is by plowing ahead forward and jumping into the fear itself. Whatever it is that you are holding yourself back from, take a lesson from my back-flipping; stop thinking and just go do it.