Lessons from skydiving (4) - Who is responsible? I´m responsible.

The "Accelerated Free Fall"- system of learning skydiving is based on a sensory overload under supervision of 2 trainers in the beginning and later one teacher.

So basically you first get out of a plane one time strapped to a trainer (also known as a tandem- jump).
After that you exit a plane three times with 2 trainers holding on to you, stabilizing you, to be honest, they do most of the work...
Then you are off to four jumps with one trainer(who should by now only be a safeguard in case you screw up big time).

Then you are off on your own in the sky, from the moment you decide to reserve a spot in the next plane going up, through the gear-check, the sitting- order in the plane (most people think they just throw all on a huge pile, cram them into a small plane, let them cuddle till they are at 4000m altitude and then everybody is fleeing the plane embarrassing about whatever has happened...No, there is an actual system involved and there is much less cuddeling than expected. ;-D) up to the moment when you exit the plane, falling, openening your parachute and avoiding a crash while navigating towards your landing- spot.


Most of the people now get the idea one is responsible from the first free- solo- jump up to the last one for his/her own doing...
WRONG!

One is responsible from the moment you start the theoretical course.
They tell you over and over, they ask you many times and it took me quite a while and a book by Carlos Castaneda to realize the value of the lesson for life outside the gear...


From the moment your "are", you are responsible...Even though there are things outside of yourself which seem out of control, even when not wanting something to happen, only you decide what to do with what you have been given.


Take some of those pathological optimists... No matter what is happening to them, they only see the bright- side...
Take guys like myself... I do know very well things will go bad sometimes, to me that´s life.
In the same way I challenge myself in training every day I´m looking forward to challenges life will provide me. I may be beaten down during those times, sad, even desperate for moments...Still, I got my mindset of fighting through.


Sometimes one can not change what´s happening only how to percieve it. I recently read about it as the "mood of the warrior", which seems to be one of the toughest things to develop.
You can whine. - You can remain quiet.
You can ask yourself "why me?" - You can ask yourself "How am I gonna move on and what can I learn from this?"


Who is responsible? - I´m responsible.

What does it mean, "to be responsible"? - It means making decisions and dealing with the consequences, whatever they may be. Only then can one make decisions and be sure enough to stand by them, honest enough to see and admit mistakes, flexible enough to make decisions solving the consequences.
Think abou that last few lines...Read them again and think about your decisions today.


And please remember one of the points in the code of the warrior: no whining.

There is no whining because... Right! Because You are responsible!


Train hard and enjoy life!
All the best,
Harry