Last Sunday our pontoon of family and friends pulled up to the infamous “The Rocks” at Lake Oconee.  They rise about 30 feet out of the water (ok, maybe 15) and because they have a slope to them, one must take a running leap to avoid painful contact with the rocks on the way down.

We watched for a while as teen boys back-flipped and dove into the water.  Then a dad jumped in holding his four year old son.  When an eight year old boy took the leap, the hearty dialogue began between my courageous “do it; walk the talk, get out of your comfort zone” self and the timid “this will feel really bad” self.  The matter was settled when 1) a dog jumped off and 2) my son’s girlfriend said she wanted to do it but not alone.  Somehow the dog triggered my ego and the girlfriend ignited my “be a good hostess” persona.

So, off we swam to shore, clunked into a few underwater rocks that left bruises, climbed up a slippery ladder and stood atop the rock.  Have you ever noticed that from the top of something it looks a heck of lot higher than from below?

While standing up there, I remembered that the physical symptoms of fear and excitement are similar.  A major difference is that when you allow the symptoms and the mental chatter about fear to take over you become paralyzed (and have to crawl backwards down a ladder and experience acute humiliation) OR you can acknowledge those same symptoms as excitement and take the figurative running leap (in my case, it was a real one) into an exciting new and uncomfortable territory.

So, what’s the payoff for taking the leap?  When you face your fears AMAZING  things happen. You begin to live life more fully by not letting your fear of feeling bad slow you down (doing something highly dangerous that you are not prepared for is a whole other discussion).  You gain confidence, pride, satisfaction and greater joy from doing something out of your comfort zone .You even get to experience those great feelings over and over again by reliving them in your mind.  Best of all, little by little you will begin facing other fears and doing those things that you never thought you would do but dreamed of doing.

So ask yourself next time you are feeling the tug between fear and excitement:  “What would I do if I wasn’t feeling fear?” and if the answer is I would dance, leap off rocks, speak more in public or wear a tarantula (another story), then it is time to turn that fear into excitement and take the leap.