It was a gift for my 40th Birthday.
It was something I had always been intrigued to try. Was it dangerous? Yes. Was it something I would ever have purchased for myself? Probably not.
I’ll never forget receiving the envelope on the morning of my birthday. I knew straight away what it was. They had called my bluff. My family had clearly had enough of listening to me wondering out loud about whether or not I had the courage to try this. My stomach went into a knot immediately at the thought.
I opened up the envelope, and there it was, …. a voucher to go Sky Diving.
I faked a smile. I tried to act brave in front of my kids. Under the brave smile however, I was dying.
Truth be told? I was already scared at the thought. Me and my big mouth. I had been called out, and now the money was on the table. This was really happening.
The first thing I noticed was the expiry date of the voucher. I had 6 months. Phew. I could put this off for a while. Time would allow me an opportunity to ease my mind into this….
Procrastination is a killer.
From that day in May, I used every trick in the book to come up with excuses not to book. No time. Too Busy. Have to travel for business. Not a great time of the year for cloud conditions. Nobody to go with. I even started to use other people’s fears. They said I’m crazy to risk my life. I’ve got a family and a business to look after. How could I put all of that at risk.
Procrastination is avoidance. Plain and simple.
You and I procrastinate on a daily basis. You put so much energy into coming up with excuses why you can’t be, do, or have the things that you want. You spend so much time designing the perfect distractions to keep you from tackling your dreams head on.
Imagine if you used all that energy to go after what you want, and what you need in your life right now.
Procrastination is one of the most popular forms of self-sabotage because it’s so easy. If you’re serious about changing your life you will find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.
5 months and 21 days after receiving my sky diving voucher, my Assistant at the time took it upon herself to book my jump. She ran after me one day after I had left the office. “Your sky diving voucher expires in a week. You can jump on one of these two dates. Which one will it be?”
She gave me no room to back out and I chose a date without thinking.
Don’t give yourself time for excuses. Don’t give yourself time for thinking up more fears.
If you have to, count down, “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, …and make a decision.” Take action. You will be right more often than you will be wrong. Any decision is better than no decision at all.
If you try it and it works out. Bonus. You win. If you try it and it fails. You learn. Bonus.
I jumped out of that plane on a cloudy imperfect day. Not quite the conditions I expected, but in hindsight, perfect for me. Instead of staring down at the ground, 10,000 meters below, all I could see was white cloud.
What I can tell you today is that it was the most exhilarating experience of my life. No words can properly describe how you feel when you are free-falling 200km/hour towards the earth. What was even more amazing is that I had the opportunity to free-fall through the clouds. How many people can say that they have felt the feeling of moist precipitation due to flying through a cloud?
It was a massive life experience for me. One that I will talk about for many years to come. One that I so nearly never got to experience.
If left to me and my procrastinating, the voucher would have expired, I would have used that as an excuse, and I would have missed out on a bucket list experience that I will never ever forget.
What amazing experiences, opportunities or business successes are you simply procrastinating away?
You’re never going to be 100% ready. Conditions will never be 100% perfect. You’ll never be an expert at business, or at life. You will never have all the information you think you’re waiting for.
Stop procrastinating your life away.
Whatever it is. Just start. Take one aspect of your life that you have been delaying over and over again, and start doing it this week.
Make it a goal for this week, then tell somebody about your goal. Don’t keep it inside your head, because that’s too easy to hide.
The only time you have is right now. Make the most of this moment.
Be Here Now.