Cool Moms and the Cliff of Courage

wow~ i was just browsing through this year's pictures attempting to choose what's going out on our Christmas cards and as i look back i'm struck with what an amazing year it's been!

our life here at home - our daily "humdrum" if you will, is extraordinary ... we're home with our kids, we're volunteering in their schools and driving field trips and golfing and dancing in the kitchen and we're assisting others in creating the life they want for themselves. fabulous!

my little walk down memory lane reminded me of a huge distinction i got in cancun, mexico with my daughter this past march.

we'd been conferencing with 1,000 of our closest friends and afterwards Riley (now 10 years old) and i had a "girl's date" at Xel-Ha, a nature preserve/marine animal water park south of playa del carmen.

Xel-Ha is federally protected because of its unique eco-system ... a lagoon where an underground river meets the ocean. The snorkeling is fantastic and the wildlife on the paths around the lagoon ... well, let's just say I didn't know iguanas grew that large!

we floated down a river, rope-swinged into freezing cold cenotes fed by underground springs, went shelling on an iron-shore shoreline where the beach used to be prior to Hurricane Wilma ... and learned a little something about life along the way.

you see, where this underground river emerges from the rock and flows into the lagoon there are cliffs that form a small canyon. one of these cliffs is called the "Cliff of Courage" as, you guessed it, they've built a bridge and a pathway up so you can jump off into the river.

so, naturally, Riley and i jumped. now, i don't possess a natural love of heights but with a fearless 9 year old I get to do a lot of "high" things these days. the "Cliff of Courage" is one of those phenomena that, from the river or even the other side, doesn't look THAT high ... in reality it's probably 20 to 25 feet above the water.

but when you're actually up there with your toes hanging off the edge it can be daunting. because it "looks" a lot easier from afar, there were a lot of people milling around up around the ledge with us ... young kids, teenagers, older men ... i was one of the few mom-types up there ... and I noticed something very interesting while observing all this anxiety and activity:

less than half the people up there on the "Cliff of Courage" with us actually jumped.

who were they? there was absolutely NO demographic ... no age, no physical fitness level, no gender ... the people that jumped simply did it. you could see in their eyes they were resolute in their choice to jump. they walked up to the edge, checked out the drop, backed up a step or two (if you're 9 years old this is when you back up 10 feet and take a running start) and flung themselves into the air.

those that didn't jump? they were all standing back ... thinking about it ... mulling it over ... peering over the edge ... commisserating with all the others who were "trying" to jump ... feeding each other's fear ... the longer they stood there in their in-action the greater the probability was they would find themselves walking back down.

and i really got "it" in that moment ... the power of CHOICE. You see, when you CHOOSE to do something, you have two options: follow-through on your word/commitment to yourself or violate your own integrity.

i climbed up there having made the CHOICE to join my daughter in a leap off the "Cliff of Courage". i could relate to those who were hanging back out of fear ... again, heights don't thrill me. but because i'd made a CHOICE to do it i had NO FEAR because the end-result was already determined. not jumping was NOT an option.

so i just did it.

and then i wound up doing it about five more times before the day was over because at that point my daughter had one of the coolest moms in all of Xel-Ha that day.

as for those who were "trying to jump" ... as i see it "trying" to do anything is meaningless. standing on the edge of a cliff isn't "trying to jump" ... it's NOT jumping. i guess "trying to jump" would be leaving the edge and somehow floating in mid-air and failing to fall. not likely to happen.

"Trying" to do anything is a middle ground reserved for mediocrity ... it's an excuse for not achieving something extraordinary in life.

don't TRY to do anything. CHOOSE what you want to do and then Just Do It! (maybe those guys at Nike were on to something!).

CHOOSE to be extraordinary and COURAGEOUS and before you know it you'll be INSPIRED and then you'll discover more areas in your life that deserve to be extraordinary and you'll find yourself being courageous again and that inspiration will ... ahhh, you get the picture!

here's to your extraordinary life!