Taking a “leap of faith” is often associated with risk and reckless behavior, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.
Making a successful leap of faith can be absolutely life-changing, especially when you are taking bold steps in the direction of your dreams to more fully live into your purpose!
There are many ways to take a leap of faith, from starting a new career, to jumping back in the dating game to find a loving life partner, and more.
And while you’ll still experience trial and error, there’s a proven system to realize your dreams and build confidence along the way.
One question you can ask yourself if you’re looking for personal transformation is, “what’s one bucket list item I can put into action today, without further delay?”
For a jumpstart, I’ve laid out 8 steps to a successful leap of faith so you can make your own quantum leap in the face of fear, distraction, and delay as a woman leader!
So without further ado, let’s jump right in. 🙂
A Personal Example of Taking a Leap of Faith
When I was about to turn 40, I remember asking myself the following question:
“What are some of my bucket list items of things that I would really love to do and what would be a real stretch for me? What would really signify this 40th birthday?”
Number 3 on that list was flying on a trapeze.
So I thought, well, how amazing would it be to actually fly on a trapeze?
After all, I’ve dreamed of flying since I was a little girl.
This one dream led me through all 8 steps of a successful leap of faith, and it all started with putting it on my calendar.
Step 1: Calendarize Your Dream
So I had this dream of flying on a trapeze and actually put it on my calendar right on my birthday.
But that birthday passed, a number of things came up, and I allowed myself to delay.
That March turned into that summer, that summer turned into that fall, that fall turned into the next March. Next thing I knew, I was turning 41.
More delay.
Then on my 42nd birthday I finally thought to myself, “If I don’t do this now, when am I going to do it?”
Step 2: Override the Negative Inner Voice
I doubt that my dream would have moved beyond my imagination if I had continued to write it on the same date every year.
Realizing this, I knew I had to overcome the voices of fear, doubt, worry, delay, and distraction.
As I was unpacking my thoughts, I started identifying all the internal dialogue holding me back:
“Are you strong enough? Maybe you need to do some physical fitness training. Maybe you’re too heavy. Maybe your butt’s too big so that when you’re hanging on the trapeze, the weight of your behind is going to pull you off the bar.”
In all seriousness, I meant all those things. But instead of delaying again, I found a bar and started hanging off of it.
I thought, if I could hang from this bar, I could probably hang from a trapeze.
It was this small step that moved me out of the thinking patterns that were keeping me stuck.
Because if I had continued to think the same way, in the same low vibration, it was never going to happen.
I had to take action, even though I didn’t feel fully ready.
Step 3: Invite a Partner in Believing
Not only did I move myself forward in the direction of my dream, I brought along a friend and accountability partner to keep me focused.
I knew if I kept this trapeze dream to myself, I would have never shown up.
So I called my best friend, someone I knew believed in me, and invited her along my journey all the way up to the next birthday celebration.
Step 4: Seek Mentorship
On top of having a partner in believing, I made sure I had master guidance — master coaching — and master support.
In other words, I didn’t just go to some abandoned trapeze and try to do it by myself.
I found a gentleman who had 20 years of full-time, professional trapeze experience. He dedicated his life to helping absolute beginners from the ages of 8-80 fly on a trapeze.
So I knew if they could do it, I could do it. That was really key: having that feeling of guidance.
Step 5: Befriend Your Fear
When I first started out on this dream, I didn’t think I had much fear. All I anticipated was a ton of excitement!
So when I started training and I looked up 30 feet to the top of the trapeze, I felt pretty confident.
30 feet doesn’t look all that bad when you’re standing on the ground, so I thought to myself, “Oh, this looks so easy! This is great!”
But once we started climbing the ladder up, all the fear thoughts started flooding in.
First of all, the ladder didn’t even look like it was connected to anything!
And once we got to the top, all I had to stand on was a platform about two hands wide.
I had to move around people because it was so tiny, and if I fell, I might have died since I wasn’t harnessed.
As those dreadful thoughts swirled around me, they finally hooked me in.
I started panicking, “This was the training I got? Grab the bar and hop?”
And the other thing I wasn’t anticipating was what would happen to my physical body as the realization set in that I was three stories up, facing a tiny bar, being asked to dive into the abyss.
My mind really wanted to do this, but every cell in my body was screaming, “Don’t do it. Don’t do it. You’re going to die.”
My body was shaking and I wondered, “What is going on with my body?”
But my mentors were smart. Having that master guidance was really helpful because they had a large man.
They had two women on either side of me and a large man behind me. They knew that for first-timers, most people won’t leap no matter how much they want to because their bodies physically won’t let them.
So he picked me up and threw me.
And while on the outside, I looked great and happy, I was terrified.
It was so much more terrifying than I ever imagined.
But it takes befriending your fear and just going for it to get past the paralysis.
It’s the big, bold, imperfect action where you don’t overthink it, you don’t overtrain yourself for it, but you just dive in.
Step 6: Take a Deep Breath
So here’s what I did right before my big leap:
I grounded my energy and took a deep breath.
My trainers said, “Don’t look down.”
Looking down represents looking at the fear, the doubt, the worry, the lower vibration thoughts.
They said, “Look straight out. Look at where you’re headed.”
You set your intention. You set your vision. You focus on your vision.
Step 7: Take Massive Imperfect Action
And from grounding my energy to keeping my head up, I took a massive step that I didn’t even feel ready for.
I did my one swing, and that was fine.
The second time, they instructed me to swing out, hook my feet around the bar, swing back, let go of my hands and hang from this bar 30 feet in the air.
I remember telling them, “You’ve got to be crazy. You want me to do that my second time up?”
And they looked at me and said that they said, “You can do this. Trust.”
So the first time I did it, it didn’t work. This is why master guidance is so important.
They gave me a very specific tip and I followed that tip. I was able to get my tippy toes on that bar enough where I could pull my legs over and I hung upside down.
The third time, they wanted me to swing my knees over, let go of my hands while another man swung towards me, catch his arms, and let go of my knees.
And they said, remember, “You’ve got to let go, and then as you come back up and around you push off and go to catch that bar.”
So what I love about this is setting the bar higher and higher.
But I remember when I was training for that moment, every part of me said, “You’re fine. You’ve accomplished your dream. First, your dream was really just a swing on the trapeze….
“…But then you hung upside down on the trapeze! You don’t really need to do this one. You don’t really need to go this far.”
The logical part of my brain was trying to set my limitations.
But here’s what I said to that part of myself, to manually override the thoughts in my head that were trying to keep me from growing:
Step 8: Set the Bar Higher
I thought, “You know what? I’m really here to grow. The whole point of this exercise for me is to befriend my fear and stretch myself further than I thought I could go.”
And the beautiful thing about continually setting the bar higher is knowing there’s always room to grow.
So my encouragement for you is to really stretch yourself, lean into mentorship, and grow your confidence as you build your dream.
A Leap of Faith: The Parable of the Trapeze
Finally, I’ll leave you with this powerful story about “Turning the Fear of Transformation into the Transformation of Fear” by Danaan Parry. It wraps up everything we discussed into one powerful message, and calls us to dream bigger, brighter, and braver.
Sometimes I feel that my life is a series of trapeze swings. I’m either hanging on to a trapeze bar swinging along or, for a few moments in my life, I’m hurtling across space in between trapeze bars.
Most of the time, I spend my life hanging on for dear life to my trapeze-bar-of-the-moment. It carries me along at a certain steady rate of swing and I have the feeling that I’m in control of my life.
I know most of the right questions and even some of the answers. But every once in a while as I’m merrily (or even not-so-merrily) swinging along, I look out ahead of me into the distance and what do I see? I see another trapeze bar swinging toward me.
It’s empty and I know, in that place in me that knows, that this new trapeze bar has my name on it. It is my next step, my growth, my aliveness coming to get me.
In my heart of hearts I know that, for me to grow, I must release my grip on this present, well-known bar and move to the new one.
Each time it happens to me I hope (no, I pray) that I won’t have to let go of my old bar completely before I grab the new one.
But in my knowing place, I know that I must totally release my grasp on my old bar and, for some moment in time, I must hurtle across space before I can grab onto the new bar.
Each time, I am filled with terror. It doesn’t matter that in all my previous hurtles across the void of unknowing I have always made it.
I am each time afraid that I will miss, that I will be crushed on unseen rocks in the bottomless chasm between bars. I do it anyway. Perhaps this is the essence of what the mystics call the faith experience. No guarantees, no net, no insurance policy, but you do it anyway because somehow to keep hanging on to that old bar is no longer on the list of alternatives.
So, for an eternity that can last a microsecond or a thousand lifetimes, I soar across the dark void of “the past is gone, the future is not yet here.”
It’s called “transition.” I have come to believe that this transition is the only place that real change occurs. I mean real change, not the pseudo-change that only lasts until the next time my old buttons get punched.
I have noticed that, in our culture, this transition zone is looked upon as a “no-thing,” a no place between places.
Sure, the old trapeze bar was real, and that new one coming towards me, I hope that’s real, too. But the void in between? Is that just a scary, confusing, disorienting nowhere that must be gotten through as fast and as unconsciously as possible?
NO! What a wasted opportunity that would be. I have a sneaking suspicion that the transition zone is the only real thing and the bars are illusions we dream up to avoid the void where the real change, the real growth, occurs for us.
Whether or not my hunch is true, it remains that the transition zones in our lives are incredibly rich places. They should be honored, even savored. Yes, with all the pain and fear and feelings of being out of control that can (but not necessarily) accompany transitions, they are still the most alive, most growth-filled, passionate, expansive moments in our lives.
We cannot discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.
So, transformation of fear may have nothing to do with making fear go away, but rather with giving ourselves permission to “hang out” in the transition between trapezes.
Transforming our need to grab that new bar, any bar, is allowing ourselves to dwell in the only place where change really happens. It can be terrifying. It can also be enlightening in the true sense of the word. Hurtling through the void, we just may learn how to fly.
Conclusion: Be Confident in Your DreamBuilding
With my own trapeze story and Danaan’s message, I hope this heightened perspective encourages you to step even one inch closer to leaping forward.
As women leaders, we lead the charge for healthy change, with our most vibrant lives waiting on the other side of the abyss.
But usually, that requires a lot of confidence — a confidence level you may not feel like you possess right now.
If you would love to build that confidence so you can make YOUR successful leap of faith towards your dream, I encourage you to download my FREE Confidence Kit!
In this guided meditation, you’ll begin the process of repatterning disempowering thoughts and habits, releasing feelings of unworthiness, and deepening unconditional self love!
To your quantum leap,
Jennifer Joy Jiménez
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