Choice between two fears...

We hear about risk and reward and most of us get the concept. The more you risk, the higher the reward can be. The inverse is also true. The less you risk, the lower the reward.

I remember the first time I went to the university swimming pool. At the far right was the high diving board. It was 800 feet high. I timidly stayed in the shallow end watching my brave friends bounce off it to a thunderous splash below.

Watching this for a half hour, I decided to go to the top and enjoy the same fun. Each step up the ladder was easy. I wasn't scared. Everyone else was doing it. No big deal.

Until I got to the top and walked out to the edge of the board to look down. I must have miscalculated the height. At the top, it looked like 1800 feet down. I was struck with panic. I thought I was going to die. Death from jumping or death from embarrassment were my two choices. I chose embarrassment.

I had to walk shamefully back down the ladder, taking each declining step while listening to the whispers of ridicule. I was now a chicken according to my classmates.

My son was recently faced with a similar dilemma. He made a different choice. He chose death by jumping. He told me that embarrassment was too much to handle. I envy his fearlessness.

Thinking about this, I wonder how many of us have the same fear when it comes to getting into business or doing our one true calling in life.

The choice between two fears paralyzes.

In life, just like in the pool, doing nothing doesn't allow us to have the fun we could have. Only those who put themselves at great risk have the most fun. Only those willing to face their fears to find what they are looking for actually find it.

We are not here to get by.
We are not here to the ordinary.
We are not here to stand in the shallow end of the pool.

We were placed here to do great things.
We are here to live.

Where's your greatness? And what's your plan to share it with the world?

Scary shit, eh!
Just like the diving board to an eight year old kid...