This is the most raw and open interview I’ve ever given.
About the most challenging time in my life and career to date.
One of my longest and most loyal sponsors in the sport of skydiving, Airtech Cypres, asked me to sit down and share about the 2-year break I took away from the sport I had spent the last 20 years deeply immersed in.
Even though those years away were the hardest I’ve yet to experience in life, they also were crucial in my transformation forward.
FULL of bigger-picture gifts we only get by growing through so much pain.
We all live insane lives. Sometimes we end up in some wicked lows that make us feel like we’re f*cking it all up and we’re all alone in it too. That everyone else is killing it at life while we flounder.
Well, I’m here to tell you, that’s just not true.
You’re doing just fine.
You’re doing GREAT.
The “f*cking it all up” is normal.
And nothing you can’t get through too.
If you REALLY feel like you can’t figure it out on your own (I couldn’t), reach out to a professional who can help.
Photo by the amazing Zach Lewis <3
Get a therapist.
Hire a coach.
Watch YouTube videos on the subjects you’re struggling with.
Read articles that might redirect your brain with useful insight.
Talk to your loved ones.
Be gentle with yourself.
Rest.
Keep trying.
…
That’s what I did.
Every single one of those things.
…
Keep going.
Keep growing.
Being down in the emotional basement never feels like rising, but I assure you that low is the catapult that launches us to insanely epic new heights ONLY because of what we learn at our lowest.
If anything has changed for me, I’d say I am that much more clear on what really matters to me, that much more committed to living into my most core values through deliberate goals, that much more clear what my boundaries are, how to effect them, and the willingness to do so even in the face of conflict. I’d say I am that much more confident in my own strength and capability to resourcefully navigate and grow through ANYTHING, and as such now have a calm I know I earned. Lastly, I’d say that I am even more called to share the real stories and lessons of my life.
Why?
Because I believe that is one of the most powerful ways to give back.
This interview is a version of that for sure.
One of my idols in this work, Elizabeth Gilbert, leads in this way. Writing from the core of herself, courageously contributing by putting it ALL out there.
She’s hard core.
As a result, she MAKES A F*CKING DIFFERENCE.
Her book Eat Pray Love has been a go-to resource for me for emotional support and inspiration over the years as I navigated my own life achievements and mushroom clouds.
If I can contribute even a fraction of what she has, I will know I’ve done exceptional work.
That’s why I keep writing.
Why I keep sharing.
Why when my fear would have me sit back and not be seen, instead I do an interview like this.
I did the time in the emotional trenches of my deepest self, and I continue to every time something else pops up on my path and in me. I go there.. I feel the pain.. I do “the work”… I give myself the biggest gift I could ever give myself because that work is an essential piece of growing forward into our legitimate full potential.
As wickedly cheesy as that sounds, it’s true.
I encourage EVERYONE to do this work.
I’m NOT saying it’s easy.
It isn’t.
The work is excruciating and ecstatic and you cannot untangle the two.
Go for it.
For you.
For your life.
For everyone you love.
For everything you’ve ever dreamed of doing and being.
I hope in telling a bit more of my story, you’ll find some bits of wisdom and inspiration in there for yourselves now.
Trust that everything that happens in life is for us. FOR us.
In all my experience… it is.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE INTERVIEW.
Hugest love to you and any thoughts you have as always, I’d love to hear them.
XO
