It Is Time To Take A Leap Of Faith

There's an internal vision that comes to me when I meditate quite often.

It's me standing at the edge of a cliff overlooking a beautiful scene of nature,

The land and the ocean intersecting,

Beautiful clouds,

Sunrise,

The whole deal.

And I'm there and I'm standing on the edge and I'm harnessed in,

I'm attached by a tether to a safety rail and I'm clinging on to that safety rail with all my might.

I'm afraid,

I'm afraid to let go,

I'm afraid to fly,

I'm afraid to reach my own potential.

And I've been seeing this vision,

This concept,

This internal intuitive guidance for years and I've been working on it because I know that were I to let go,

Were I to release,

Were I to just trust,

I would achieve my power,

I would achieve my greatness.

It's like that saying that just beyond fear lies the life that you always knew you should have and deserve.

But I struggle,

I let go of the safety rail but I'm still tethered,

It's like I start to fly but I can't quite pull away because I know that I'm still connected,

I'm still safe with that tether.

So I get down,

I untether myself and then I start moving,

I go to fly but I'm grabbing onto the ledge tight,

I'm grabbing onto the safety rail.

No matter what I do I can't seem to just release and let go and trust and fly.

Like I've said,

I've been seeing this internally for years and I've been meditating on it,

Trying to heal it,

Trying to process it,

Trying to accept it,

Doing all of the spiritual,

Psychological,

Shadow-based practices that I can to try and shift this perception.

And ultimately it comes down to the fact that,

Well,

I've got to take a leap of faith,

I've got to actually let go,

I've got to actually release,

I've got to choose to trust that I'll be able to catch myself,

That I'll be able to fly and not fall.

And that is the crux of this talk right now,

It's me dissecting and sharing and expressing the process of taking that leap of faith.

Because the good news is,

Is that a couple of days ago I took it.

And I wanted to share with you what it took to take that leap of faith.

Because my thoughts are,

My intuition is,

That many people are struggling to take their own leap of faith.

They're tethered by themselves,

By the past,

By people in their lives,

By expectations,

By society,

By fate,

And they can't let go.

Now I'm not going to go into the specifics of what my leap of faith was,

Because really I've seen this play out in my life multiple times,

In multiple different areas.

It could be financial,

It could be careers-based,

It could be relationships-based,

It could be a interpersonal decision-based,

Because really it all comes down to those few things.

So I want to talk to you about all of this stuff and really break it down with my hopes that it will help you to identify and release these limiting beliefs that are no longer serving you,

And thus enable you to take that leap of faith,

To let go of the rail and to just,

Well,

Thrive.

The first thing I want to sort of highlight is the physical preparation that might be necessary before you can take the leap of faith,

Because it's easy to think that you are ready and you should just go and the only thing holding you back is the fear.

And we'll get to that,

We'll get to the fear,

Because that is the major thing.

But at least for me and some of the people I work with,

I've recognized that fear is a massive component,

But also a lack of preparation can also be a component.

And the idea that I want to sort of highlight is that if you cross off as many of these possibilities as possible,

You'll ideally be left with the only thing needing to do is to take that leap of faith,

Is to just trust the process,

Trust yourself,

Trust your preparation.

But if you've done enough,

Then you can step.

But if you haven't done enough,

If you haven't prepared enough,

Then you won't be able to step because inherently you will know that you've got a lack of preparation.

For example,

Let's say you were starting a new business venture.

And to do that,

You need a website and it needs to be set up in a certain way.

And you need to have certain processes and procedures and booking practices and all of this sort of stuff.

If you haven't done all of that work,

Then taking the leap of faith would be silly because you are jumping into an abyss without a preparation.

You haven't stretched your wings enough and you won't be able to fly because,

Well,

You'll be scrambling in that process because you haven't prepared yourself.

If you were going to enter a sporting competition and you hadn't done the pre-work,

You'll lose.

If you were going to take the plunge and ask someone out,

You're going to dress up nicely.

You're going to plan out the process.

You're going to do things in a way to be appealing.

You're going to make yourself into someone that you would want to be with and that,

Ideally,

The person you're trying to ask out would want to be with.

The point is you'll do the work.

Before an exam,

You'll study if you hope to be successful.

So there's a measure of preparation that you need to do.

But there's an intersection here between the preparation and finally deciding to act.

I'm a writer by trade.

One of the things I do is write books.

You write and write and write.

Then you edit,

Edit,

Edit.

Then you finally have to accept that at some stage,

It's good enough.

Then you release.

The problem comes in that you can continually edit forever and continually make it perfect.

I've written something along the lines of 17 books at this stage,

Millions of words,

Many,

Many,

Many posts and blogs and podcasts and poetry and all of this sort of stuff.

I've written a lot.

But I could still be rewriting that first page of my first book and it would be incredible.

But I wouldn't have ever released it because if I don't accept there's some aspect that will never be perfect,

I don't accept that I will never get it quite 100% right before I act,

In this case,

Release the book.

I won't be able to move on and those millions of words would never have been written.

The rest of the books would never have been written.

With the sporting analogy,

If you don't ever take a shot,

If you don't ever compete because you're not ready yet,

By definition you will lose because you've never even given you a chance.

So there's a level of preparation that you need to do to be ready.

But then eventually you're going to have to go,

Okay,

I'm going to have to take that step in that plunge.

But how do you know,

How do you know what needs to be done before you actually take that leap of faith and try in terms of preparation?

I think this comes down to the intersection between intuition,

The gut feeling,

And also looking at what other people have done in this same area.

How much preparation with someone else that is doing a similar business or attempting a similar exam or taking a similar test or doing a similar sporting event or,

You know,

Asking someone out,

Writing a book,

Whatever it is,

What do other people do in this same area?

What's their preparation?

What's their lead up?

And have you done that or at least close enough to it?

If yes,

And you still can't take that leap of faith,

If you still can't start,

It's probably fear.

But let's delve into this because,

And I've spoken about this in many places,

But how do you know what's your intuition?

What's your higher guide versus what's the voice of fear?

And I think this is a learned skill and a practice and it's hard.

I know with me having just taken this leap of faith that it's,

There was something in there telling me,

It's like,

Okay,

You're not ready.

You haven't prepared enough.

You hadn't prepared enough.

And my problem wasn't that I wasn't willing to take the leap of faith.

It was that I was worried that I was stuck in this preparation cycle.

But my problem,

I realized that I,

Was that I wasn't prepared.

I just wanted to jump in.

But I realized this was a bit of a self-sabotage.

If I just jump in and go and fail,

Then I can be like,

Oh,

I wasn't prepared enough.

It's like a self-sabotage.

I didn't succeed because,

Well,

I didn't prepare.

I didn't prepare because,

Well,

Why?

I should have prepared.

So I realized I had to take my process step by step,

By step,

By step,

Tick off all of the most likely necessary boxes and then act.

Now,

Yes,

I've taken this leap of faith and yes,

There'll be things that I don't see in the process,

But,

And this is the important part,

I've done enough that I can catch myself now.

If we go back to the visualization of being at the edge of the cliff about to take off trying to fly,

Let go of the handrail,

Unclip the tether and jump.

My wings spread and they don't quite catch straight away.

I start flapping,

I get into the groove and bang,

I'm flying.

There's always going to be a little bit of a teething issue.

There's always going to be a little bit of a process to get you going.

That's to be expected.

So it's about finding the intersection there and only you know the truth,

But you can always use other people in your field or industry or other people that are dealing with the same problem that you're dealing with to guide you.

You can use the services of a professional,

You know,

Professional coach,

Counselor,

Therapist,

Or other expert in that industry to guide you.

You could journal,

You can introspect,

You can iterate.

There are ways you can go through that process.

But let's say you've prepared and you're still not ready to jump.

You're still not ready to try.

Then it becomes a sort of a deeper problem.

This is an issue of self-efficacy.

This is an issue of trust.

This is an issue of faith,

The leap of faith.

This is an issue of not believing that you are worthy.

And this is where the real core and crux of most people's problems really are.

They want something.

They want it,

But they don't believe that they themselves for some reason are allowed to have it.

Why don't you deserve to be successful?

Why don't you deserve to win?

Why don't you deserve to be with someone that brings you joy?

Why don't you deserve quote-unquote that life?

Why not you?

Why is it everyone else?

Why are other people able to have that?

What is inherently wrong with you?

Or more specifically,

What do you believe to be wrong with you?

Or even more,

More specifically,

What do you perhaps falsely or incorrectly ascribe to yourself that bars you from the same level of success that you believe other people are okay to have?

Can you work out what the answer to that question is?

Because you'll dig around,

You'll circle around,

You'll process around,

And you'll end up coming to the realization that it's just a feeling.

A feeling born from the past.

Maybe it's from your parents,

Or from your education,

Or the intersection between your religion and your personality and your disposition.

Maybe it's an aspect of your age,

Your gender,

Your sexuality.

Insert any other number of things.

But something between the intersection between your upbringing and your genetics has left you feeling broken.

And there will be an embodied feeling,

And that feeling will turn up somewhere in your body,

Physically.

There's that idea that the body keeps the score.

The body keeps the score,

It remembers.

But if it remembers,

You can help process it.

So for me,

My body keeps the score in certain areas.

Primarily in my belly,

But also in my shoulder and my hip and other places.

But this is a good thing,

Because when I sit and meditate,

I turn my attention to those parts of my body,

And ask them to share and speak.

And I just listen.

I sit in that space and allow it to process.

What do you have to tell me?

I accept.

And I sort of sit in the sense of a self.

There's an idea of a sense of self from a practice known as internal family systems.

This is a psychotherapy practice.

And there's other sort of Buddhist concepts of the self,

Or spiritual concepts of the self from a variety of different perspectives.

But the point is,

You can find a part that you sit in yourself as.

Could be the observer,

Could be the heart space,

Could be alongside God.

Wherever it is,

It has certain characteristics.

Characteristics of compassion,

Curiosity,

Courage,

Clarity,

Calm,

Confidence,

Connectedness,

And creativity.

For me,

It's the main aspect of this space inside me is curiosity.

When I can sit in myself from a calm,

Curious perspective,

Sit in this confident space inside me,

And I just ask that part of my body,

You know,

What's going on?

How old was I when,

You know,

This part of me developed?

What happened then?

I start to unpick it and unpick it and unpick it.

Just allow that part of my body to speak.

Two things happen.

Number one,

The tension releases in that part of the body,

And I get less pain there,

Which is good.

You know,

Chronic illness starts to disappear,

At least partially.

And number two,

And importantly,

I start to see what I need.

And that feeling or that feeling of lack,

I guess,

Starts to disappear.

I start to be able to see that I,

The totality of me,

Is worthy.

This is a slow process of healing that we need to do.

And then you find the intersection between this sort of healing,

Between the preparation,

The internal work,

And the realization that at some stage,

At some stage,

Regardless of the preparation,

Internal or external,

Regardless of the embodied practice,

Regardless of all of this,

You're going to have to take a leap of faith.

You're going to have to,

At some stage,

Try.

Now,

This isn't faking it until you make it,

Because faking it until you make it is sort of similar to what we're talking about here,

But it's sort of almost like a shadow or lesser version of what we're doing.

We're not talking about faking it.

We're talking about attempting it and being okay to fail.

Attempting and trying,

Taking the leap of faith with trust,

With trust that our wings will catch us.

Because here's the thing,

You can't know you're going to do it until you actually do it,

Right?

How do you know you're going to win until you've won?

How do you know you're going to succeed until you've done it?

You don't.

So by definition,

You have to be willing to risk failure.

The leap of faith is the leap of faith that you will be okay to fail,

That you will be okay to lose,

That you're okay if they say no.

And that can be tough.

That can be so tough because what happens if they say no?

So when we circle back around to my realizations here,

I had to reframe what someone else's no would mean.

What does it mean if someone doesn't want to work with me?

Someone doesn't want to be my friend.

Someone doesn't want to hang out with me.

Someone doesn't want to be my partner.

Someone doesn't want to insert something about a self-judgment of their rejection.

Well,

It means that they miss out.

They miss out on me.

They miss out on me.

And this is the turning point.

This is the leap of faith.

The moment that I realized that I have something of worth to give and that if people don't want that,

I actually feel a little bit sad for them,

A little bit sorry for them.

It's like,

No,

You're missing out on me.

Now,

To be clear,

Not everyone's going to like what I offer.

And also,

Not everyone's going to be available to receive what I offer.

And once again,

This could be in any realm,

Interpersonal,

Business,

Whatever.

My books,

Who knows?

It could be in any perspective.

Not everyone's going to be available.

Not everyone's going to be willing.

But if I believe that what I have to offer is worthy,

Then I can actually reframe rejection as feeling sad for that person.

Like,

You're actually not saying yes to yourself.

I know that what I have to offer is good.

I know that I am good.

So I feel sorry for you.

That's the reframe that helped.

And then the further reframe was going,

Okay,

How do I know that what I'm doing is good?

How do I know that my offer is good?

How do I know that I am good?

Well,

The way that you process that is to enact continual work.

You continue training,

You continue studying,

You continue practicing,

You continue acting humble,

You continue your process of growth so that you know that you are perpetually improving.

Thus,

If people reject you further,

You can actually feel sadder for them because you know that you are putting in the effort.

How do you know you're putting in effort,

Not deluding yourself?

Well,

You go through proven aspects of improvement.

You look at the results.

You,

Once again,

Hire the right experts.

You go through the professional training.

You join groups and connections and clubs and all that sort of stuff that are doing the thing you want to be doing.

You take the steps that someone that is successful would be taking until you yourself are equally successful.

You do the self-work continually,

All the while sitting to yourself in the knowledge that if someone rejects this,

Someone doesn't accept it,

That's their loss.

It's actually sad for them because you know that you are offering something good and you know you are continuing to improve that offer.

Then from there,

You take the leap of faith and you act and you go and you put yourself out there.

But here's the thing that you may not realize.

It's not just one leap of faith.

It's a continual leap of faith.

Every day,

Every decision,

Every choice,

You are choosing yourself.

You're choosing yourself.

Every leap of faith is you actually leaping with the confidence that you are going to be fine,

That your wings are going to open and you're going to fly.

Now,

Yes,

If you have a spiritual belief,

If you have a religious belief,

You may believe that fate or God or the universe or insert anything else is also there with you.

But you still need to have faith in yourself.

I'll explain that because let's say the atheist or the religious person believes that they want to take this step,

They want to do something.

They still have to have a belief in themselves.

The atheist,

Clearly,

We've explained that process.

But the spiritualist also,

They have to believe that their God,

Their process,

Their practice,

Their system,

Whatever it is,

Is the right one.

They have to believe that they are worthy of that system,

That God,

That process,

Whatever,

Accepting them,

Catching them,

Helping them.

Someone that believes in a God has to take the leap of faith that their wings and God's wind will catch them.

They can't impact God's will.

All they can do is do their best to make sure they're ready to fly when the wind of God blows.

Thus,

They're back to the atheist solution of the stuff that we've talked about here already.

It's both.

For whoever you are,

No matter what you're going to do,

You have to work on yourself because you can only truly work on yourself in this.

When I come back to my vision,

Me standing at the edge of a cliff,

Handrail there,

When I first discovered this vision inside me,

In my belly,

In my belly,

In my heart space,

Inside me,

I was afraid to approach the edge.

I saw the cliff.

I saw the cliff face and I saw the handrail.

I was like,

Nope,

Not even going anywhere near that.

That's too scary.

Then I got close enough and I looked over the edge and I saw the beauty.

I'm far out.

That looks beautiful.

I was afraid though.

Then I hopped over the safety barrier and I had my hand on the safety barrier.

I'm like,

I am not letting go of this,

But I'll peer over the edge.

Ooh,

That fall looks scary.

I don't know.

Then I'm like,

Okay,

Maybe I want to try and reach out a little bit,

Harness myself up,

Attach myself with a tether.

Okay,

I can fly a little bit out there,

But ooh,

That's scary.

The wind's starting to blow,

But it's so beautiful.

Then I worked on extending that tether,

Extending the tether,

Extending the tether.

Nope,

I'm still tethered.

I'm still stuck to the ground.

I have to let go and fly.

So I meditated.

I prayed.

I practiced.

I did a whole variety of things.

And as it came back to me again and again and again and again,

You've got to choose.

I've got to choose to release.

I want to take that leap.

I've got to let go of the rail.

You know,

The lights are never always green.

Every successful person you ever hear about in whatever field,

It wasn't guaranteed.

They all had problems.

Look at anyone's autobiography,

Riddled with barriers,

But it's easy to look at them after their success and go,

Oh,

They were always meant to be successful because look,

They're successful.

But that's not true.

They weren't guaranteed anything.

They acted.

Now,

Yes,

A lot of people have tremendous step-ups.

A lot of people are very,

Very privileged,

Far more privileged than you or I will ever be.

I came from quite a broken home.

I moved out of home at 16.

I didn't have that leg up that,

You know,

Quote unquote,

A lot of successful people do.

But nonetheless,

There are other people in my situation and worse that have done far more than what I'm doing that are quite significantly successful in multiple different areas.

They took actions.

They stepped forward.

So I can too,

But it's still on me.

It's still on me.

It's still on me no matter what.

So eventually I had to close my eyes.

I had to let go of the handrail.

I had to accept that there will be barriers,

That it's scary.

I had to put down the tether,

Unshackle myself and believe that if I jump,

I will be fine.

I will catch my,

My wings will catch the air and I will fly.

Perhaps I will fall.

But you know what?

What looked like a massive fall from the top of the cliff is actually only a little step.

It's like stepping off the curve of a road,

A foot or so.

Yeah,

It'll hurt to fall,

But it won't stop me.

I'll fall.

I'll get back up.

I'll try again.

I'll try again.

I'll try again.

The fall isn't anywhere near as big as it seems.

I'll try again.

And here's the other,

Other thing that sort of pushes me down this sort of universe or,

You know,

Fatal,

Like,

You know,

Sort of a entity that's sort of joking with me in my life.

I've been praying for this.

I've been pushing for this.

I've been wanting this,

Hoping for this,

Calling for it to happen,

But I've been afraid.

And then I've noticed that it's almost like the universe is conspiring to give me what I need,

Not necessarily what I want.

It's like,

Okay,

You want to,

Uh,

You want to,

You want to fly?

You want to,

You know,

You want to do this?

You want to live this life?

You want to try?

Okay,

Do it.

But I didn't,

I was afraid.

So then it took some things away from me,

Rattled me a bit.

It's like,

You ready yet?

What about now?

Can you act now?

Still afraid.

And it took some more away from me.

What about now?

And it took more away from me.

And I've realized that it's going to keep happening.

And it's like,

How,

How close to rock bottom do I need to get before I can start acting before I decide,

Okay,

I'm going to try.

Because it's to get the analogy going,

The cliff face is going to fall.

The cliff face is going to fall eventually.

So why don't I figure out if I can fly first before it happens?

Because that's coming.

So I want to end this talk with the suggestion,

Implication.

Implication is the wrong word.

Encouragement for you.

If you've listened this far,

There is something that you need to be doing.

And I say need,

Not want,

Because you know,

It's a need.

It's calling.

There's a leap of faith you need to take.

Make sure you've prepared.

Make sure you've done all the work,

But you're not caught up in the preparation.

Then,

When you're ready,

Step.

Let go of the handrail.

Unfurl your wings and fly.

And trust yourself.

Trust that you will fly.

And even if you don't,

The fall isn't that bad.

Try and try and try again.

Learn from your mistakes.

Iterate.

Because eventually,

You'll figure it out.

And you'll be flying.

And you'll turn back around,

Look at the cliff and go,

Hmm,

That's the one.

I made it.

I'm flying.

You'll be able to see what's on the other side of the horizon.

I guarantee you it'll be a life that you never thought was possible.

There'll still be ups and downs.

There'll still be heartache.

There'll still be grief.

All of that stuff will still happen.

But at least,

At least you'll know that you can fly.

That you've taken that leap.

That you've trusted yourself.

Now,

There's far more to it.

Like I said,

If you're entering a field,

You will need support.

Support of family and friends if they are available.

Support of experts in those fields if they're available.

People to talk to.

Experts,

Therapists,

Counsellors,

Coaches.

Processes you'll need instilled into your life.

Daily routines,

Self-care routines,

Advancement routines.

All of these things.

It's not easy.

In fact,

It's probably going to be harder than you've ever done because you're stretching those,

Those wings,

Right?

You've not used those muscles before.

It's going to hurt.

But it's a good hurt.

And I encourage you to take it.

I encourage you to let go of that safety rail,

To untether yourself,

And to fly.

I believe in you.

I'll see you in the next one.

Catch ya.