3, 2, 1.. Send It

I’m deathly afraid of heights. Outside of fulfilling military duties, I’d never willingly jump out of a plane. A loose acquaintance of mine, on the other hand, is an accomplished jumper of all sorts in both military and recreational settings. He’s since taken up base jumping, as well as sky diving, with a swing suit.

Despite what you might think, these kinds of people feel fear, get anxiety, and have natural alarms going off in their bodies telling them, “Don’t do it!” They just, of course, continue on with the jump anyway.

“3, 2, 1… Send it,” is what he says out loud counting himself down before jumping. He says it, I’d imagine at least, because it’s a push. It quiets the worry and the alarm bells and the excuses that are telling him not to go. Watching him jump and those words “Send it” make me cringe, but I get it.

After each jump, he doesn’t regret it. Of course, there may be a winner’s circle bias there considering death is the only other option. Nonetheless, this verbal cue “Send it!” stays with me, because this same moment on the ledge shows up in our lives in many shapes and forms. A much milder version of the same zone is whether or not to train. We get on the ledge of going to the gym or not and without a push, sometimes we choose not to jump.

I am notoriously fighting urges to not train, avoid making the trip to ju jitsu class or whatever. My “Send it” is just starting. If I pull a barbell out and just start, I’ll be in it and glad I did it when I’m done. Until then, I’m like a base jumper standing on the edge of the cliff enjoying all the terror and none of the joys of flight.

Today I was searching far and wide for a reason not to go to ju jitsu class. I was tired, cutting it close, could have done other things to be productive, but I had to jump. I hopped on my bike and said, “Send it!”

You’re not weird for having an inner battle to show up, just don’t let that voice win. Count yourself down and go!

3, 2, 1.. Send it!

 

Logan Gelbrich

@functionalcoach