Take the Leap

It has been six months since I joined Sand Tech, and what a journey it has been so far…

A childhood memory surfaced recently as I sat facing my to-do list for the day – a memory of my cousins and I approaching the edge of a dam close to their house. The dam was deep and its wall had a good 3 meter drop before one would reach the water. Peaking over the edge, we dared each other to take the first leap. One by one, my cousins screeched with excitement, took a run-up and leaped over the edge as though they feared nothing. Then…it was my turn…my heart was pounding as the 3-meter drop seemed to be getting bigger and bigger the more I thought about it. I gathered all the courage that I could to move my legs as I started running towards the edge. The closer I got, the heavier my limbs felt, until I froze right at the edge, paused in motion by the fear of launching myself over that edge and falling toward a rather intimidating body of water. It took about 3 attempts before I could garner the mental strength to ignore my fear. Finally, I jumped, felt the air beneath my feet and immersed myself in the crispy-cool, clear water.

This about sums up my decision to join Sand Tech – I was intimidated, I was nervous, took a few “mental run-ups” to this challenge, but I took the leap anyway! And boy was it worth it. As I’ve been scaling this learning curve, my days have been jam-packed and I have learned a lot about life and about myself…so, let’s jump into what I have learned:

Challenge yourself. I’ve learned that taking on a task that scares you, implies that there are skills to be learned, or perhaps the experience will make you aware of characteristics that you have always had within you. For example, you can only become resilient through failing and needing to bounce back. You can only hone and apply your problem-solving skills when faced with problems. Without challenging yourself, you will not grow, and you won’t have the opportunity to discover what you are made of.

Change is necessary. Changing something in your life, whether a situation, a career, location etc. inevitably moves you from a familiar state into an unfamiliar state. This move from the familiar to the unfamiliar can be quite terrifying and requires some preparation. The fact that there will always be unanswered questions before moving into the unfamiliar state, has taught me to take informed leaps of faith. Gathering information in order to make informed decisions allows you to take calculated risks, which in turn, allows you to feel more secure in the decision that was made. Once the preparation has been made and the leap has been taken, the process of going through the change is not always painless. Adapting to a new situation or environment requires you to “push through the pain”, as the other side of the mountain promises immense personal growth.

Do it afraid. As you continue to embark on the journey of change, you face a lot of fears. Fear of the unknown, fear of failure, fear of what the future might hold. But just because something scares you, does not mean you should avoid doing it. Once you have made your decision to take the informed leap of faith, you need to trust in your decision and in the process. Trust that you are capable and trust that you are teachable.

Stop playing small. Self-doubt is an opportunity blocker as it seeps into the way you carry yourself and the way you respond to an open door. Some opportunities require a split-second-yes and if you think too much about what you lack, you think yourself out of a great opportunity for growth.

Pace yourself to keep up. Once you are in the race, you need to pace yourself to keep up with the daily demands of your environment. You need to live in a balanced way, in order to maintain momentum. Maintaining balance may look different to everyone, but one thing is for sure: everyone needs enough quality sleep. Sleep is the foundation of recovery, and it is an often overlooked priority.

Out of all the lessons listed above, my overall takeaway from these past six months is that doing hard things gives you wings. It gives you wings of experience and resilience upon which to rely when taking the next leap in life, whatever that leap may be. Having done challenging things does not make the precipice of a new decision any less challenging, or scary. Instead, it builds a catalogue of previous wins and losses to drive you through the process and to remind you of what is possible.

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