What Stops You?

You are waiting at the edge of a swimming pool all set and ready, but you hesitate to take that plunge into the water. What stops you?

You are all excited and set to climb the mountain, you clime up too, you need to take a peep over the ledge, you hesitate, what stops you?

You are waiting to skydive out of the aircraft, and at the very last moment when the doors open and you look down...well what stops you?

Fear, the lack of courage to take that bold step after coming thus far is something that stops us. Our mind is a queer thing, it first rakes up the interest to do the things and then also conjures up various circumstances and situations to hold us back. Let me narrate a real incident with someone I know very well.

This person I know, always wanted to do paragliding from the best spot in India, she wanted to take a dive in the open sky and feel like a bird. So we decided to go to BIR which is one of the best paragliding spots in the world. Its at an elevation of apprx 4500-5000 ft. We were all set, we chose a good instructor and we decided to take the plunge. On that very day she had cold feet and she was reluctant to take the plunge, I asked her why? She said, "I have a fear that WHAT IF fall down and die, WHAT IF the strap breaks, what if the parachute entangles what if, what if?? The list was endless. I then told her that in life, we have to take the plunge, there is no gain where there is no risk. That does not mean take uncalculated risks, I showed to her that the nos of fatalities in paragliding is way lesser than accidents on Indian highways, the instructor we have has zero fatality or incident record. Sometimes our mind needs reassuring facts to "start" the process internally like an aircraft engine, you use the battery to give that extra power to kick start. 

She finally was ready for the jump, and so was I, the feeling of looking at the vast expanse and the valley beneath you gives you goose pimples, the cold chill air fills up inside your lungs and then you take the run and you are off into the valley, feeling like a bird. This was the most liberating experience, liberating me and her from the two words that have plagued our mind - WHAT IF? 

Open your mind and move away from those things that are holding you back, cross the boundaries of your mind and soon you will discover that newer horizons appear. You will observer that we are what our mind limits us to. When we break that shackle we see a different life ahead. Your limit is in your mind. Liberate yourself, take that plunge into what you have always feared, you will realize a new truth.