“Does the door stay open the whole time??”  Yes ma’am, I remember it well!

What are we talking about? The Bush/Meade jump of Friday, June 12.

Former President George H. Bush celebrated his 85th birthday yesterday and marked it by going skydiving.  He’s done so in the past and committed to a goal of a repeat on his 90th birthday.

Skydiving with him was CNN’s Headline News anchor, Robin Meade, who interviewed him before and after the jumps. It was her first jump and she’s the one who uttered the words above as the plane took off for the jumps.

It brought back “fond” (wild) memories of my own skydiving experience of a quite different variety.

Surprise “Gift”

As a Trainer for years with Tony Robbins and his transformational events across the nation, you never knew what “opportunities” would present themselves. Tony created a surprise experience for the trainers in the several days before a big event was to launch. They were meant to be fun, as a thank you of sorts, and to further prepare us to support to the fullest the teams of participants assigned to us. You didn’t know where you would be going for the surprise and were to show up ready for anything.

Before attending my first Robbins event, as a participant, I had an intense phobia to flying in an airplane. I left that first event free of that and all kinds of fears … plus empowered beyond imagination. But overcoming a fear of flying was a bit different than being thrust into the experience of skydiving. Yet that’s what the surprise was for my first tour as a trainer.

We showed up at 5:30 AM ready for whatever it was to be. We boarded a bus and traveled to unknown places. After a long drive, full of speculation about where we were going, we pulled into a grassy field and drove to an area where there was a hut and a few small planes. It had all become sickeningly clear!

We were ushered to the hut and an unshaven man in grubby attire handed us forms to sign waiving all liability and warning of what could happen. Words like “all FAA regulations are waived” got my attention right off the bat. But the real zinger was when the man told us “you could be maimed”, followed, of course, by “you understand that you could die?”.

You Could Be What??

He then asked who wanted to go first. While the fear had already welled up within me (and I knew that was just the start), my hand shot up in the air. I knew enough from my experiences with Tony and his events that huge value awaited those willing to step past their fears. So I committed to myself to do what it took.

The open door, plus no seats in the plane, started things off. With the door open, it was loud and you could feel the wind (and imagine yourself being sucked out, without even a seat to hang onto). I couldn’t even bear to look in the direction of the opening (a gaping wide open side of the plane) and the fear was intensifying.

The jumpmaster had been told that the group they were receiving would be excited about the experience. My excitement was taking quite a different form. As I began dramatically hyper-ventilating he knew we were in for trouble. He did everything he could to calm me down, with no success, then as a last resort cuddled me and started started petting my head. He was very sweet and kind, to my good fortune.

Sickening Reality

Then the utterly sickening word came that it was our turn. We had to inch our way to the opening, while seated on the floor and strapped together (and me gyrating with fear energy). When we got there, he had me sit on the ledge and hang my legs out the door. In an instant we were pushed off and tumbling through the air.

He began yelling at me to do something (we probably weren’t supposed to be doing summersaults as we were) but I couldn’t hear him and was frozen with fear. After all, we were plunging at a speed over 125 mph from a height of over 10,000 feet! The fear grew even more as I didn’t know what he wanted me to do.

I’m not sure if I was supposed to pull the cord for the chute or if he was. But if I was supposed to take any active action on anything whatsoever, it wasn’t going to happen. I was paralyzed and terrified to the nth degree.

When he pulled the cord and the chute opened I thought it was all over for sure. We were jerked so hard when the chute filled with air that I thought all the cords were going to tear loose and we’d plummet to our deaths. Plummeting was a recurring fear throughout.

The jump was not from any ol place. We were in Hawaii near the coastline in one of the most beautiful places in the world. Of course, my eyes were slammed shut most of the time. Gladly, though, I got to see some of the scenery later. The jumpmaster remembered that I had a camera with me (not knowing of the real surprise) and that it was tucked away in my jumpsuit. He started fishing around for it and ended up taking pictures of us and the exotic views all around.

As we approached the ground he started calling out instructions that, fortunately, I did hear and did follow – to tuck my legs up when we were landing. This was very important so that his experienced legs would take the force of the touchdown.

The video crew ran over to us the moment we landed and expected me to be spurting words of exhilaration. I was still absorbed in the energy of fear beyond belief. We unstrapped and I was so exhausted from the energy of my own emotions – which were continuing as I remained shaking like a twig in a raging storm -- that I had to go scollapse on the ground in a quiet area and try to recover.

Why Would Anyone Jump?

Then the reality began to set in. Not of the jumping but the meaning of the jump to me. And therein was the gift of the experience.
It was as though everything in my life was re-calibrated. The remaining fears I had evaporated in that moment. The keen awareness of how much I could do as a human being was radically expanded. I had pushed myself past limits of wide variety and created the capacity to accomplish a gazillion times more in my life – and in the lives of some 50 souls who would be on my team for the Robbins event.

The experience, for me, was life transforming and its value went way beyond the act of jumping out of a plane.

Life’s Hidden Messages

The meaning we give to our experiences, no matter what they are, determines how we feel about them, what we learn from them and the value they serve for us (and for others through us). The jump experience was one of the most profound in my history. I jumped, so to speak, to a whole new level of being.

Life presents an ongoing stream of experiences to us all, and our particular combination of emotional wherewithal and skills determines the results that show up for us.  We may not always get to choose the experiences we encounter, but we can indeed choose how we “experience”  them and what we do in the process. 

Courage, trust, faith, a desire to learn and grow, leadership, spontaneity, a focus on a higher purpose -- these are qualities we can grow within ourselves. And you don’t have to jump out of a plane to do so!

Even better, the list doesn’t stop there. Love, optimism, gratitude, enthusiasm, compassion, cheerfulness and a seemingly endless list of other capacities can be cultivated within us by our choice as well (by indeed our everyday choices).
 
For me, the decision to jump – and to not back out when given the option – was a strategic decision to further shape and enlarge my fundamental being and my capacity to serve others.

Turned out, there was one trainer who didn’t get to go up for the dives because she chose to go last and there wasn’t an available jumpmaster at the time. So they planned a final flight and, having room for another pair, asked who would like to dive a second time. My hand shot up again.

I was still shaking, exhausted, and literally “transforming” (with a rush of many emotions, insights, confusion, etc.). But even in that condition I knew there was great value to again be had by putting myself on the line.  The next step for me was to place myself in a frame of mind (actually, emotion) of discovering the thrill (rather than terror) of the experience.

Someone else was chosen to go. But being ready to do it was enough for me. I left that primitive little airstrip with about as much value as anyone could.

That was 17 years ago and it remains with me today as a part of who I will always be.

Marcia Elder is President of Creative Pursuits, Inc. and Tech-Knowlogy.com. Come see their Websites for ways to transform your business or organization for the best success in changing times.

© by Marcia Elder & Creative Pursuits, Inc, 2009. May be re-printed as article with written permission.