Cliff Jumping: A metaphor of Decision
There you stand, at the edge of an 80 ft freefall into a vast lake. All you have to do is take a single step and allow gravity to assume control. And yet you're still, peering over the ledge with a marathon of questions and concerns regarding what to do or perhaps not to do next racing through your mind. Contemplate them all, engage in limitless internal dialogue weighing the possible 'pros' and 'cons' within the potential of your situation. Although no matter the level of consideration, you are still left with one choice: Jump, or turn around and go back the way you came.
Interestingly enough, these are in fact the same exact circumstances of making a decision in your life, especially the ones with an embryonic nature capable of shifting the entire course of your everyday experience. Want to get in shape? Okay, invest in the new workout plan, hit the gym and follow through - or change nothing and return to your routine as usual. Interested in learning about the details of how the Roman Empire "fell" resulting in the rise of Christianity altering the fate of the world? Very cool, time to acquire some books and other sources of knowledge, study thoroughly, take notes and make your own assessment - or just click play on Netflix and allow the next episode of a poorly produced project to numb the part of your brain yearning to be stretched into new modes of understanding. Can you see the similarities?
Maybe you've never jumped off a cliff edge, but I tell you this experience mirrors the exact mechanism of making choices. Life itself as far as choosing what to do is not complicated - it is only the mind and the runaway trains of thought that are allowed to be produced when presented with picking between two or more options. Something anyone who is experienced in jumping will tell you: the longer you stand there looking over the ledge, the harder it is to jump. No different when confronted with a choice in your life, the longer you stand still contemplating what might happen, the infinitum of 'what if' compounds and the perceived difficulty in deciding only grows.
The allegory runs true all the way into the completion of your jump. Let's say you get brave and decide to take that step, over the ledge you go and begin your descent toward the water. Making your move is everything, but it could be argued that what you do in the air during your fall is most important. When jumping cliffs that are around the 40 ft and under mark, there's just enough time to feel excitement, and let out a yell before you hit the water. But once you start to get up over 60 ft and higher our understanding - the likeness of this experience to that of making life choices becomes transparent. You holler out, the excitement fades, and all of a sudden you're left hurling through the air with nothing but your own thoughts.
Now we are at the pivotal place of changing our lives; will you choose to be calm, keep form, and break the water cleanly or are you going to psyche yourself out, open up and unfold like a lawn chair to go crashing into the waters surface? This is the determining factor for the result of your choice. See many times in life people find the courage to jump, to take that step into open air and allow the forces of nature to guide them toward a safe landing. But all too often, even when you have a clear understanding of where this decision is taking us, we allow ourselves to be swept away by interrupting thoughts that then have us second guessing our jump, resulting in a painful crash with the waters below.
All you are required to do is trust that the leap you committed to was indeed in good faith, keep your good form on the way down and break through the water into new understanding. This is all that positive life change calls for - step over the edge (make the decision to go or do said thing) and the fall is nothing but the process, endure it with the same faith and excitement that lead you to jump in the first place. Do not allow the mind to be invaded with doubt or implications of failure. It is your responsibility to assure the self of success, landing right and exactly where you are supposed to. I have no method to prevent the questions leading to doubt, but I do know the power to answer those questions with surety in yourself is entirely within your power.
Anytime the psyche probes an imaginary outcome of negative proportions, breathe and dismiss it for the mirage that it is. Immediately redesign the imagery within and replace your concerns with confidence. You're already on the way down, either be overcome with fright and unfold the outcome of pain or preside over your power to choose, trust your trajectory and do what is necessary knowing you will land in the best way possible.
The mind has a wonderful ability to convolute possibilities, probability, and potential. Yet there is only two outcomes when making a choice - it goes as envisioned or it doesn't. No one can ever say which would actually be worse, for only one of them ever happens so you won't know for sure. All you can do is mitigate your pattern and structure during the process. And what about once you finally hit the water?
Well, you've arrived. Submerged in a new world, the fall didn't kill you, but now you're somewhere unrecognizable and you can't breathe. That's the minds' response to your life being different, it will attempt dialogue saying you've done the wrong thing made the wrong choice, but you cannot allow yourself to play into it. All you can do is swim toward the surface, break the water line and take a new breath. This short journey from submersion to surface is acceptance of your new identity, each stroke towards the top an affirmation of your belief in your own ability.
And so now you tread water, looking out at a world that seems entirely the same, yet you know it's different. Because you made a new choice, you decided for it to be different. So then you look back and up at the ledge you leapt from, and realize it's not as high as it seemed when you were standing on it.
What next? Well, swim to shore, climb to a higher point, and jump again.
Our lives are a series of these choices over and over again. So jump, or don't. Just remember it's always up to you.
