I have always been pretty good at stepping outside my comfort zone – doing NLP Trainer’s Training, I think, proved that. However, as I discovered recently, there was a whole further level of comfort zone which I decided to face up to…and then put behind me!
I have always been a ‘little nervous’ of heights and have spent too many years watching my children enviously as they fearlessly swing from the trees and scale rope ladders.
Rhonda Britten refers to really scary things as stepping into the ‘Die’ zone…and for me, swinging from the trees in the Hertfordshire countryside was about as removed from my comfort zone as I could get. So as my ‘big’ birthday approached, I decided it was time to stretch myself even further than usual and overcome any limiting beliefs I may have about both heights and my incompetence around anything involving a rope ladder.
My birthday present to myself was a family trip to Go Ape with Tom, Daniel and Shannen, Tom’s lovely girlfriend. This was intended to be a safe test bed for me, in preparation for the Dutch equivalent of Go Ape which was planned for our Holland Scout expedition……after all, I had no intention of making a fool of myself in front of 100 Scouts!
Having spent over 40 years feeling less than happy about heights, I proved to myself that anticipation is far, far worse than just taking action! After all those years of worry, when faced with the prospect of stepping out onto a wooden platform high up in the trees, it transpired that saving face and being a good role model proved to be far greater motivators than any fear of heights. I also discovered that repetition is key – just keep going until any trace of fear has long gone!
I enjoyed ‘Go Ape’ so much I was able to get really excited about repeating the experience in Holland two weeks ago and I enjoyed that even more…but I am still resisting any offers to go bungee jumping – that really is a step too far!