"I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS"

People so often say; “I’m afraid of heights”. Well, everyone shares that fear.

We’re all afraid of falling and that’s what we’re focused on when we are above our normal altitude.

That fear isn’t absent in anyone.

People don’t actually conquer the "fear of death by falling", that's the real fear.

Most everything successful is stated in relation to height… “To new heights”, “Climb to the top”, “One ladder rung at a time”. Imagine if we really were afraid of height… instead of afraid of falling. That’s is something that we can all conquer through preparation. Preparation has many tenants;

Education:

Training:

Exposure:

Deliberate practice:

Immersion:

Repetition:

Each of these have many Sub-categories that will allow one to conquer “fear”. For the diver, it starts 3’ above the water with the practical physics lessons that come from jumping from this height hundreds of times.

Jumping is possible because of preparation.

The skydiver hasn’t developed an immunity to fear of impacting the ground too hard from 20,000 feet.

The cliff diver is not going to stand in a dive pose on the edge of a cliff without knowing they have done the work to make the task look easy, they know how to fall and how to impact the water. The hot air balloon pilot is cognizant of everything that has to be done to fly the balloon safely into the sky and back to the ground.

For the Wingsuit flyer it comes from the hours of classes and hundreds of “regular skydives” with safe landings. Most skydivers DO NOT also Wingsuit. One doesn’t make the other easy. All of the items listed above are required to advance.

The entrepreneur makes decisions with risk in the midst of the possibilities of failure.

The infant stands knowing that they are going to fall. They have their hands poised to catch the ground and their hips and knees ready to collapse.

This recipe doesn’t change at any level. Wherever, whenever, however you are… conquering a fear is necessary and possible. Know the true fear. Don’t fear heights. Our only fear should be lack of preparation.

Get prepared and make the leap.

-Steve?