Last year I spent 60 days across the ocean island-hopping the north and south islands of New Zealand as well as Australia mate. I was fortunate enough that while I was there I got to participate in some pretty spectacular experiences that may not come around again in my lifetime.
On a slightly different topic, I was watching a video about Will Smith this past week. It was one of his motivational speeches about fear. He talked about how one night he had been out drinking with his buddies while on a trip to Dubai and they all amped each other up (as friends to while drunk at the bar) and decided to go skydiving the following day. Some hangover that must have been. So anyway, they all go back to their separate rooms after the bar and Will said he was sitting in bed sweating bullets as he became more and more sober, because it was finally setting in that he was going to be dangling out of an airplane the following morning, something he nor his friends had ever experienced.
The morning came and Will said he had expected a lot of “no shows.” He was wrong. Everyone showed up to their van at 8 in the morning to go to the skydiving location nearby. Will said that when they got there and as they were signing their release forms and getting suited up, he began to feel very nauseous and ran for the bathroom to throw up. His friends came to get him and talked him into getting on board the small biplane that would be lifting them to 14,000 feet in the air. Will said he was shaking and sweating all the way up until the side of the airplane opened up and his instructor (who was attached to his back) pulled them both to the edge. As he sat there with his legs dangling below, Will said he didn’t want to open his eyes or look down, but he couldn’t help it. He felt like he was losing his mind and grabbed on to the door of the plane. Once his instructor peeled Will’s fingers from the plane, they tumbled out. It was at this moment, the moment that he finally let go and fell, that Will said he entered a state of total bliss.
“Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side of your biggest fears.” -Will Smith
In February of 2016. I, too, jumped from an airplane at 16,000 feet over Abel Tasman National Park in New Zealand. It was one of the most terrifying but blissfuly rewarding experiences of my life. I highly recommend that you, not only physically, take that jump, but also take the many psychological jumps that you will come by in your lifetime. Whether it be a job interview that seems out of your reach, someone you want to get up the courage to ask out, or just an edgy outfit that you don’t know if you can rock or not. You can do it. And it won’t be until the first step that you take that you will realize it was one of the best decisions you could have made.
xx Sarah
SarahGraceTravels 