The Last Time I Did Something I Was Afraid Of

When was the last time you did something, you were afraid of?

I thought about writing about my fear of doing Facebook Live. But I remembered the time I went on a leadership retreat.

It was the first time I attended a retreat, and I was not smart enough to inquire about how we should dress. So, I packed the type of clothes and shoes I always wear.

Mistake number one. I brought the wrong type of shoes and clothing.

Mistake number two. I did not bring sufficient funds.

Mistake number three. I misunderstood what you did at this type of retreat.

I will share three of the things I did, that I was deathly afraid of. I had to sing solo. I do not have much of a voice to sing alone. With a group my voice gets lost in the crowd, but alone is a real treat of missed cords and words. But I did it because my team would have lost points if I did not participate.

When they brought in the platform setup, I wondered what they planned to do with them. They set up three, and we were put into one of three teams. Again, we had to participate, or our team would lose points. We were told they were six feet high, and then we were told we would each one-by-one fall off backwards onto springboard that our team members were holding. We had to trust our team would hold us up and not let you fall.

I have a strong fear of heights and falling. However, I made the climb up the steps, and was led to the edge. I had to stand on my toes before they let me go. I don’t remember if I screamed, but I’m sure I must have.

Then there was the tree climb. They holstered us up very well, but it was still a scary climb for me. We were to climb to the top and touch the disk at the top of the tree.

I did far better than I expected. My team kept encouraging me, and I would pull myself to the next rung. Finally, my legs started shaking, and I couldn’t raise it high enough to make the next rung. I missed the top by six or seven rungs. Now here is the scary part for me. The only way back down was to let go of the rungs, and push out, then we glided by down, again trusting that your team members were there to catch you if something went wrong.

Went you look at the pictures, you will see I look bulky. That’s because I had a dress on, and they had some extra pants they loaned me. There was no where to change, so I stuffed my dress into the pants, and my shoes into my pockets.

To top it off, we were doing this in the rain and cold. Thankfully they didn’t let me participate in the last event. It was more dangerous, and I did not have the proper attire or shoes. They were afraid between my shoes, and the rain, I could have a bad accident.

At the end of the retreat, I received several congratulations and accolades because I was the oldest participant. I made friends that I am still in touch with today. I am glad I took part in it because I learned I could fear a thing, face that fear, and do it anyway, but not that again. Once was enough.

That was my fear. What about yours. Share with us. Until next time, stay safe, and keep the faith.