What if I fall?
Yes my darling, but what if you fly?
‘There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky
And you ask ‘What if I fall?’
‘Oh, but my darling,
What if you fly?’
(Erin Hanson)
How will you ever know?
What it’s like to fly?
If you’re always afraid of falling?
How will you ever get the most out of your life, discover that you can really do more than you think,
if you always climb back down the ladder from that high diving board.
How will you ever experience the thrill of diving into the unknown?
Two things.
One. I have to deal with this myself every day too. To be honest, this is a big note to self.
And two, I’ve learned that it’s okay to fall.
Well, to be honest once again: it’s not exactly fun.
Falling is okay, as long as we get back up.
And we get back up because our desire is greater than our fear.
That’s how it works.
Otherwise, we’d all still be sitting in that buggy.
Now we walk the Vierdaagse. Marathons. To Santiago de Compastela.
Whistling. With blisters and all. But we do it. For the adventure. For life.
Because it’s usually not the fall that breaks us, really.
It’s the fear of falling.
Which, in the worst case, completely paralyzes us and, in the best case, offers us a ‘better safe than sorry’ kind of life.
And yes. We do fall, and sometimes completely misjudge situations.
We get far too overconfident and walk straight into a wall.
We regret probably lots of things that could have gone better or differently.
But we took the risks and learned the lessons.
We came out wiser, stronger and, it’s all in the game, a little more battered too.
But, just to be clear: fear is part of it.
It’s unavoidable. And sometimes it’s very useful too.
In the case of scary, dark alleys in strange cities and brown bears next to your tent in Alaska.
Those are real fears. They help us survive. Pretty essential.
But this is about irrational fears.
And not wanting to be afraid is just like trying not to be in love. Or not to be curious. Or not to be happy.
So: look the monster straight in the eye. Deal with it. And accept that you’re afraid.
And—what a brilliantly designed human system—those words make the fear lose its power.
There’s room for excitement. Adrenaline.
But above all, an all-consuming
desire to live life to the fullest.
The first What If feelings start to surface.
What if….
…..I fly?
Because something in you, in me, wants to be bigger, more intense, better, more complete.
Wants more than walking, cycling and driving. We want to fly. To fly on the wings of desire.
To grow, to challenge ourselves time and again to discover a new horizon, a new land
where we can put our hitherto undiscovered talents to use.
Where we get to know ourselves in a way we never thought possible.
The desire to grow is a law of nature.
Growing is living, living is growing.
A little more: learning comes before growing.
And that, sorry guys, just happens to take place in that zone where things aren’t all that comfortable.
So, heroes and heroines, climb up onto that diving board and jump right into the water.
Because if you’re brave enough to jump, you’ll grow wings.
‘Yes, my darling.
What if you fly?
Then there is freedom waiting for you
On the breezes of the sky’