Leap Frog

By: Cynthia Litman

Enlightened Frog

Pearl of the Day: Baby steps are actually big leaps.

A client of mine proffers the pearl that when faced with life’s next phase take the jump off the mountain and throw yourself off it whole heartedly.  

This brings up another pearl from Gay Hendricks, a business partner of mine, which is that we often set limits on ourselves as to what success we can have.

When I was younger I lived and breathed the jumping off a mountain mantra by throwing myself often face first into the pools of the unknown, without care or question. I remember spending a summer at a beach club where I would watch the divers at the big pool and then follow suit. Fear was not in my vernacular and off I went doing front dives, flips, side dives, cannon balls, back flips, back dives, no problem, it was fun.

Then one day I did a back dive into the pool and when I got out a woman rushed over to me to ask if I was okay. “Why???” I asked, she said it looked like I hit the diving board and she wanted to see if I was okay.

This totally freaked me out. Is a dive worth a potentially fatal head injury or worse the guilt of causing heart attacks to these women? Looking back this woman could have been overly neurotic, however, it scared me straight and I reached my limit. It was my last back dive.  A professional would have taken the tip as a heed of caution and corrected their dismount. Sometimes I am thankful to this woman and other times I want to turn back the clock and tell her to shut it.

Then as a student in law school I was practically trained to be a paranoid freak, so now in my older and less bold days I somewhat merged my two former selves and proceed with cautious optimism.  I’m now more of a don’t jump without a net type person and like to brace for any falls off into the abyss. Sometimes, however, your net has a mind of its own and catches a gale force wind.

I look at my kids and see one whose boldness likely surpasses my younger self’s and the other as the observer making more calculated moves. I closely monitor how I react to their bold ambitions so as not to cut the off as our reactions to their actions shapes their development. 

Moms are the ultimate shape shifters. My parent’s method of setting guidelines and watching kids make their own choices works for me. You wouldn’t want to be the mom who snatched 9 year old Stephen Spielberg’s video camera away because you were afraid he'd break it.

We spent Mother’s Day (circa 2009) at a park and the kids were off exploring. I was on duty with my son and watched his face light up as he worked the slides. There were a few different level of play sets and he kept advancing through them until he met the rope ladder. He was all for it and did great until he was but two climbs from the top. He froze. He couldn’t figure out how to pull himself up onto the landing area. He was scared. I assured him he could do it and explained how he could maneuver himself to get there. He still was frozen and afraid.

This was a pivotal moment in his development. The outcome effecting his ladder climbing future. My instincts resisted pulling him off the ladder. I remained calm. He was silent. 

I held my hands out for security and he calmed down, looked forward, calculated his moves and pulled himself up onto the landing flashed his gorgeous smile and said “I did it!!”

This little baby step of an achievement will hopefully go a long way in assuring us that our leaps of faith will be triumphant and we should not shy away from obstacles or succumb to fear.

 For more information on how you can surmount obstacles in your life, pick up Dr. Gay Hendrick’s book “The BigLeap!” & visit: http://www.thebigleap.net  

Originally posted Twolia, May 14, 2009.
Copyright © 2009, 2013 Cynthia Litman d/b/a Tigris Imprints. All Rights Reserved.