ABSTRACT: Do you engage in life and take the risks necessary to achieve the results you seek? This article outlines some barriers that prevent us taking action and provides suggestions on how we might overcome those self-erected obstacles.

You are standing on a platform on the outside of a bridge 50m (170ft) above a flowing river. Tied to your legs, and pulling at you as though to pull you to your doom is a large, heavy elastic cord. Thousands have been here before you, but now it is your turn! Thoughts flood your mind of all the other things you could be doing. Images of splashing into the river without any restraint scream in your head. Your heart seems to be much larger today. How is it going to stay in your chest cavity, and when has it ever thumped so hard or as loudly? Can’t the watching crowds hear the thump? What if you are the first fatality? The count commences. “5…4…” and your heart seems to be moving from chest to throat. Your mind seems to have encountered an amazingly solid wall. How can you possibly get through that barrier? “3…2…” You have decided it must happen, you are committed. “1 jump”. At that moment something within you compels you forward. The fear rises but you push through it. Your body moves beyond the point of no return and you are falling…and like everyone else who has jumped from that site you live.

My first bungy jump was the most frightening experience I have voluntarily put myself through, and the most exhilarating. An amazing rush of excitement replaced the fear once I was off the platform and falling. The barrier at the time of jumping could not have felt more real if it was made of concrete. Fear had to be tamed and movement made. All that fear…and for what point. Fear is so often out of proportion with the true nature of the situation, the gnawing agony of what might be stopping us in our tracks.

The biggest barriers to our success seem to come from within. We erect barriers and run background dialogues. Often our inner, loud and easily discernible voice is critical, presents all our faults and failings, presents ‘facts’ from our life and the criticism from all those who have ever been significant to us. The voice that articulates our dreams and aspirations is often quiet and waits for a hearing. Against all the background noise we choose to either relinquish our dreams, procrastinate, or to move forward. The strength and direction of all the positive and negative forces working within and without us will determine the level of energy we focus and the extent of our success, and how quickly.

For many of us, it is the truly important and significant, deeply personal and meaningful endeavours that we tend to put off or avoid. Although succeeding would be sweet, to fail would be worse. When I hit those moments that first bungy jump has become my own source of inspiration, empowering me to overcome those personal doubts, self-erected barriers, and the other fabricated distractions that seek to stop or retard me in pursuing those things that are significant to me.

Do you have a dream? Have you identified what you want out of life? How will you be remembered when you die? How do you want to be remembered? Will it be for things that are important to you? Do others know what you stand for, what triggers your passion? Or are you busy fulfilling the dreams or plans of others? Do you engage in life or are you too busy coping? When did you last congratulate yourself and celebrate who you are and what you have achieved? Can you and do you find things within yourself to praise and celebrate? Are you sure about who you are, comfortable with yourself? Or are you afraid you will be discovered as a fraud by others or by some honest part of yourself? What barriers have you erected to fulfilling your potential and connecting with the passion, power and energy within you? Living life passionately is a risky business. It requires us to conquer fear, barriers and competing forces. If you have no fear in your life, have nothing that threatens disappointment and failure, then are you actually living? Are you pursuing that which truly matters to you or are you just existing? Would you like to access and manifest your passion? I encourage you to consider what life means to you, what it is worth, what you are willing to do to create the value you seek, and to take the risk necessary to be true to yourself.

Are you fully engaged in life? Are you free of impediments to success? Do you have a clear idea of what you want from life and how you will get it? Achieve your potential with the coaching support from Harrison International Ltd. Be all you can be.

Stephen Harrison, PMP
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