No Parachute

When asked what surprised him most about humanity, the Dalai Lama answered, “Man. Because he sacrifices his health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present; the result being that he does not live in the present or the future; he lives as if he is never going to die, and then dies having never really lived.”

When is the last time you tried something really new? When did you suspect that you might be jumping off a cliff without a parachute? Every now and then when I try something new, when I find myself in front of a really different audience daring to try something I have never dared before I have a moment of doubt just before I begin. There is a little choking in my throat and a thought might dart through my mind, “Why are you doing this? Why didn’t you just stay back there in your comfort zone?” And later, after the presentation is over and whether I won or lost I have a feeling of accomplishment. OK, so most of the time I feel that thrill of doing something new and it worked out but even when things go wrong I feel good that I tried it and that I survived and I try hard to stand back and learn as much as I might from the experience.

I keep remembering something I heard a great speaker named Larry Wilson once said about hell. He said he believe that hell would be somewhere that you would be shown all that you might have done with your talents and your opportunities and then put somewhere that you could do nothing about it.

We all have talents, we all have opportunities but do we have the spunk, the courage to try something new?

I’m working on it.