Swing from a Trapeze

Get ready for an amusing story of a personal goal that illustrates risk taking as an art, requiring an affirmative mindset, training and a step-by-step process that can be replicated by others.

Years ago, I asked a personal trainer at a City Community Centre to help me prepare for flying trapeze. The young man looked astonished, then quickly introduced me to the dreaded chin up machine. The reaction at home was two sons laughing hysterically: “You can’t do that. You’re way too old!” Their response fueled my determination to reach my special birthday goal.

I booked a trip with my mother (cheerleader and protector) to Turks and Caicos, at a resort that offered an adult circus option. Standing at the base of the trapeze ladder, I had somehow forgotten, my utter fear of heights. With white knuckles and sweaty bare feet, I climbed a narrow ladder, swaying in the tropical wind: 3.65 meters (12 feet) up the ladder, then a required switchover to the inside for the remaining 3.65 meters (12 feet). At the top, I extended a straight leg sideways to reach the plank, then the guide grabbed one arm and attached the safety lines to the harness on my waist.

Positioned: in a straddle, with toes over the ledge, hips shifted far forward, left arm stretched behind to hold a rope and with right arm on the bar. “Hep!” began the routine. Left arm met right, shoulder width apart. Pencil jump started the momentum, arms hanging from the bar. Then on the backswing: “Legs up”, tucked knees to chest and moved feet under and over the bar and hung from my knees while arching my back. “Smile” (photo taken). ”Arms up” and “legs down”, placed my arms back on the bar and unhooked my legs. Three sweeps: “forward, backward, forward”, final tuck and backflip off the bar.

After three days of trapeze, my body was stiff from head to toe. I felt hyperextension in joints and limbs. The resort joke was that when my arms hung down, my knuckles now graced my ankles (like a monkey). I celebrated accomplishment of my goal and surpassed my fear of heights. For my next special birthday goal, I’m not planning to be shot out of a cannon!

My flying trapeze story fits two of four Big Five personality traits: extraversion and openness to experience. The latter is associated with an inventive mindset, characterized as being adventurous and willing to engage in risk taking.

Cinder to Flame helps Corporations solve complex challenges with strategic services that energize people, fuel a healthy corporate culture and ignite major innovation.

Corporate case studies have identified comfort with taking risks?as a vital prerequisite for major?innovation. Targeted coaching (similar to training in sports) helps build tolerance for risk taking and this is integrated into Cinder to Flame's services.

Where would you fall on an “openness to experience” scale? What’s on your bucket “risk” list?

You are invited to collaborate: https://www.cindertoflame.ca/contact

? Deborah (Ellen) Wildish, Cinder to Flame 2022-Present. All Rights Reserved.

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