On July 31st, 2009, I found this thought provoking article on: Make The Leap of Faith, Don’t Look Down, Don’t Look Back!, as was posted on: The Naked Soul (Blog).
“Half the failures of this world in life arise from pulling in one’s horse as he is leaping” ~ Julius and Augustus Hare
When we are shifting and growing we often are challenging ourselves to make a leap of faith. As I read the above quote this morning the visual I conjured up was of the old Warner Brothers “Roadrunner” cartoons where Wiley E. Coyote relentlessly chases the Roadrunner all over the desert and often at some point in the cartoon the Coyote is running so fast after the Roadrunner that he finds himself out in the air over a chasm between two cliffs. Upon his realization that he has no ground beneath his feet he makes a futile attempt to turn back to the cliff which he inadvertently made the leap from. Of course, he can’t return and because he has stopped in the middle he predictably plummets to the bottom of the deep chasm and crashes to the ground.
For me this is a great illustration of how we sometimes approach the leaps of faith that we take. There are times in our journey where we know that we want/need to make a change, we need to make a shift and that change/shift often means that we take a leap of faith. We summon up the courage to take a leap of faith that we need to make the change in our life because we believe that this change is needed for our continued growth.
When we make the leap we are rarely if ever 100% sure that we are making the right move. There are usually some doubts that pull at us and there is often an uneasy feeling as we move out of what is comfortable to us to that which is new and usually at first uncomfortable. Many people fall back on the old adage “The devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know” and therefore will stay in a paradigm or situation that they recognize as toxic or holding them back from the growth they desire because they are comfortable in their current discomfort and they are not ready to take a leap of faith and make a change that will take them out of what is familiar and comfortable even when what is comfortable is not serving them.
Many people do make a leap, often times though it is a half hearted attempt and when they realize they are “out there” without a net, they allow ego and fear to drive them to back peddle. When they attempt to back peddle they either go right back to where they were or they fall deep within the chasm and curse the change that they tried to make rationalizing that the change was not the right one to make.
Making a leap of faith does often take courage, it does take an awareness that there will be moments of doubt, however you do it anyway, that there is a chance that you will get hurt, yet you do it anyway, that there is a chance that you will fail on the first try or the first one hundred tries, yet you do it anyway!
The danger does not lie within the leap itself; the danger lies within allowing are fear to pull us back in the middle of the leap!
Trust in your authentic self, your true voice and make the changes, make the shifts and experience the true joy which is you!
I will close with one of my favorite poems:
Do It Anyway
People are often unreasonable, illogical,
And self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you
Of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some
False friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank;
People may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building,
someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness,
they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today,
people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have,
and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you’ve got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis
it is between you and God
It was never between you and them anyway
- Mother Theresa
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