Recently I took my courage in my hands and did a tandem skydive. How this came about was, my son Conor had wanted to do one for quite a while, and he suggested that we give it a try. So, on a glorious sunny day last month we embarked on our adventure at the Irish Parachute Club. It was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.
It’s given me a lot of pause for thought in the past few weeks. Why do some people take risks while others stick with a safer route? For example, why do some people start businesses in a recession whilst others cringe at the prospect? Why do some people come up with great ideas but never implement them?
When I mention my skydive to people, most of them question my sanity. Recently I’ve begun questioning them as to why they shudder at the prospect of throwing themselves out of a plane, and invariably they say that they’d be afraid of the parachute not opening. When I question them further on what they are visualizing, they describe images of themselves hitting the ground with a SPLAT! and ending up dead or maimed.
Here’s the secret. Positive visualization. When Conor initially suggested the idea to me I too shuddered, and visualized not only my own SPLAT! but his also! I tried to talk him into go-karting or horse riding instead, but that didn’t work. So what I did was to consciously imagine a beautiful day, both of us laughing and enjoying the adventure immensely, both of us landing safely, and not being in the least afraid. I imagined the best possible outcome, and as the day approached I found myself becoming more excited. I was hugely disappointed when we had to cancel due to bad weather, but when we finally arrived at the airfield at a later date we were in great spirits and full of beans. We loved every moment of it, and didn’t feel scared at all, just very excited and full of adrenalin. The real experience totally lived up to my visualization.
To me, visualization is one of the most powerful tools available to us, this ability we have to imagine a positive outcome, get us past the barriers to implementation, and get our ideas and dreams up and running. This is a good reminder to each of us, as we get stuck or find ourselves unable to move forward with an idea, to ask ourselves “what exactly am I visualizing?” We can then deliberately shift our perspective to create the best possible outcome. I think collectively we need to engage in a lot more positive visualization to get ourselves past the stumbling blocks, pull ourselves out of apathy and recession and into action.