The Leap of Your Life

by Tommy Baker

  Choose a date and time to show up. Regardless of your leap, you must have an event you’re chasing. This event requires you to show up and put yourself on the line. Running a 10K in your local neighborhood on a Saturday morning is quite different from a Spartan beast with tons of other motivated, pumped up competitors in a raucous environment.

  Pay, or else you won’t pay attention. Investing in yourself for your physical leap will secure your commitment long term. Join a new training facility, hire an online running coach, put down the hotel and guide money on the hiking adventure; paying means you’re locked and loaded and much more likely to finish the endeavor. Even if you feel financially strapped, there’s always a way to make it happen and secure your (financial) commitment.

  If You Do This Right, You May Never Be the Same

  There’s a physical leap that’s been calling you. It’s a new sport, adopting a yoga practice, hiking a mountain you’ve always wanted to, or taking the adventure you used to dream of.

  These are always easy to put off until next month, next season, or next year—and we often do, because we need to make money and pay the bills. But remember, your physical leap may be the catalyst holding you back from rapid growth in other areas of your life. I’ve seen firsthand how a burned-out entrepreneur transformed his or her life and business by enrolling seven friends for a physical leap on a hiking adventure. I’ve witnessed people radically shift their lifestyle and take a leap into a new sport and practice, leading to newfound confidence and enthusiasm.

  It’s easy to put off physical leaps, especially if you’ve been used to putting your health and vitality on the backburner. No more, and you know this is for you if you’ve been avoiding it—and there’s no more looking back. It’s your time.

  Chapter 11 Key Takeaways

  Your physicality is about much more than looking good. It provides clarity, mental toughness, resilience, and a myriad of chemicals proven to boost confidence and purpose.

  Having a deeper “why” will get you out of bed. Training for vanity doesn’t endure; instead, embrace the deeper why and you’ll never rely on willpower again and you’ll get the benefits from looking great too.

  Big dreams require big energy. Without energy, none of your dreams will come to life. If they do, they won’t last. Embrace this and take an honest look at your physical and mental energy in regard to your leap.

  CHAPTER 11 LEAP POWER STEP

  What is the one decision you’ve been putting off in your body, training or lifestyle to produce clarity, energy, and momentum?

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  What’s been holding you back from making this decision and why?

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  What are you committed to doing now?

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  Notes

  1 https://www.amazon.com/Finding-Ultra-Revised-Updated-Discovering /dp/0307952207.

  2 http://www.vegsource.com/news/2009/11/meet-rich-roll—one-of -2009s-mens-fitness-magazine-25-fittest-guys-in-the-world-and-dedicated -vegan.html.

  3 http://www.healthdata.org/news-release/vast-majority-american-adults-are -overweight-or-obese-and-weight-growing-problem-among.

  4 http://psycnet.apa.org/record/2008-02933-000.

  5 https://sealfit.com/kokoro/.

  6 https://resistaverageacademy.com/ep-33-how-to-forge-an-unbeatable-mind -body-and-spirit-with-sealfit-founder-mark-divine/.

  CHAPTER 12

  The Spiritual Leap (Disconnect to Reconnect)

  Jack Dorsey is a busy man. As co-CEO of two massive companies, Twitter and Square, he’s got a lot on his plate. He’s being pulled in millions of directions, making countless giant decisions every day, and dealing with the intensity that comes with running not one, but two major tech companies that run global operations on a grand scale.

  And yet, he needed a break. Most of us believe we don’t have the time to meditate for five minutes, let alone to disconnect from the planet for 10 days. To kick off 2018, Dorsey did just that; he enrolled in a Vipassana meditation retreat, a grueling Buddhist practice where all of one’s time is spent in deep, quiet solitude.1 This isn’t your local yoga studio’s version of meditation, plush with cushions and a little-too-much Lululemon.

  This is hard. Hard as in you want to quit. Every part of your body aches from sitting cross-legged for nine hours and your mind is swirling in chaotic thoughts mimicking more of a serial killer than someone looking to acquire presence and Zen. And yet, on the other side of the discomfort is a new perspective on life, work, purpose, and meaning.

  Dorsey’s retreat was an example of a spiritual leap: taking time to disconnect from the world to tune in to what really matters. Here is where baggage is released; obstacles are obliterated; and the mind, body, and spirit are restored. What seemed like a big deal earlier now dissolves, and you operate with a deeper, more grounded sense of clarity and purpose in your everyday life.

  The spiritual leap is a game changer and will take you to places you could have never imagined.

  If you have the courage to step in, of course.

  Leap Tip: Insights Happen When You’re Not Forcing It

  Take a moment to think of the last idea you had or moment of clarity. Were you in a place of forcing it? In most cases, our ideas and clarity don’t happen when we’re pounding the pavement.

  They happen during the white noise of life. It’s time to break up with the do more, to be more model. Where can you be more, to do more?

  Destination Nowhere (Except Inward)

  Black Rock City sits in a desolate stretch of desert two-and-a-half hours from Reno, Nevada where nothing seems to be happening except intense, swirling dust storms. And yet, every Labor Day weekend, thousands of people descend on this empty stretch of barren desert and create a temporary city and community out of thin air.

  At this point, you’ve (likely) heard of Burning Man: a yearly gathering where the hippies go in the desert to meditate, dance, and do-what-those-people-do. Except, the stereotype is gone, and the event attracts people from all over the world, from the tech billionaire to the 19-year-old surfer to the mother of five.

  Describing the Burning Man experience is near impossible, as that’s exactly what it is: something you must experience. On a superficial level, there seems to be nothing special about the gathering: it seems like a lot of young people partying in the middle of nowhere. I spoke with my friend and two-time burner (the not-so-unique moniker you gain from experiencing it all) entrepreneur and owner of Life Is Rare – Brandon Duncan, to expand:

  Burning Man is another planet … a vast ocean of dust and art and music and people and so much creative energy … and then the evening comes, and it feels like a video game turns on and you suddenly know how to code your experience into whatever you desire.2

  Sounds like a high-school, dream right? Except some of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs, artists, business moguls, and creatives make up a large percent of the crowd. Elon Musk is a known participant and credits the gathering with deep insights. Tony Heish, owner of Zappos, is a regular alongside Larry Page, former CEO of Google. Page used it to find his successor as CEO, once he’d found out Eric Schmidt was a burner.

  Clearly, there’s something to it. People can party and dance anywhere and weaning off a hangover is hard enough (at least for me) in a plush Las Vegas hotel room. Try a tent in the middle of the desert.

  But regardless of your notions of this gathering, one thing is clear: it changes people. It provides a shift in perspective. Connectio
ns are made, businesses are born, and life-changing insights are commonplace. A renewed sense of spirit and enthusiasm is brought back to life upon reentry into society. When I asked Brandon to expand on the benefits, he told me: “I experienced a gigantic shift in the understanding of my personality and why I am the way I am as well as why I do the things I do: both positive and negative, or healthy and unhealthy. This gives me a beautiful opportunity to design a new, more useful approach to key aspects of life such as business or being a father.”3

  Burning Man, then, simply produces the outputs you’ll be achieving with your spiritual leap: clarity, connection, a sense of purpose, and tapping deeper into who you really are. All work synergistically to fuel every part of your life while providing a sense of fulfillment and reflection, which is rare.

  Often, you won’t find the groundbreaking insight you’re looking for learning from someone at a whiteboard. Although this is effective, sometimes it takes a radical shift in your environment to open up a new possibility you never saw coming.

  And that in itself is worth its weight in gold.

  Who It’s For

  Do more to be more, right? The conventional wisdom states we must do and then do some more, and that leads to results. And yet, this is the old model that has left many people with a lot of external markers of success but missing the key ingredient of fulfillment: feeling connected from the inside out.

  The truth is: we can fill our lives with all the external objects, shiny cars, and vacation homes and still feel empty inside. The story of the entrepreneur, business mogul, or artist achieving success only to feel depressed sounds like a broken record by now, doesn’t it? And yet, it paints a powerful reality: if we don’t fill ourselves up internally, then our external success becomes fleeting and painfully hollow.

  Because achievement and fulfillment don’t mix. It’s like pouring cement into your oven and wondering why you’re not eating a delicious dessert that evening. You may be thinking, well, I’m here to create results, and the book title is about action, and a leap. You’re right, but there’s a stark difference between action for the sake of action and purposeful action anchored to a vison (as outlined in Chapter 7).

  The old model works; don’t kid yourself. Yet, we must define working.Because my definition of success never means financial prosperity in exchange for relationships, my physical well-being, and my spiritual connection. The new model, and the one adopted by the uber-successful is the following: be more to do more.

  No, this isn’t about sitting around Indian style in your living room dreaming of a million-dollar check, heading across your driveway, and opening the box only to find the latest Valpak coupons. It’s about injecting time being into our lives, so when we sit down to create the new marketing plan, we do so with intention and clarity. When we wake up, we’re doing it for a reason that matters. Although these differences can seem subtle, they operate on a razor’s edge and can create a colossal difference in the quality of our lives.

  Who’s the spiritual leap for? Here are some ways to know it’s for you:

  If you feel you’ve been on overdrive or aimlessly wandering, it’s for you.

  If you’ve been on the verge of burnout, quitting, or giving up, it’s for you.

  If you want to go from doing to being and achieve a powerful perspective, it’s for you.

  If you’ve felt yourself running on fumes too often and wondering how long it will last, it’s for you.

  If you feel a calling to explore some of the deeper truths of life, the spiritual leap becomes your quest.

  It’s hard to find someone who can’t benefit from a spiritual leap. No matter who we are, we can all benefit from some time away. Too often, we wait to have a crisis or life-altering moment to disconnect and go within.

  And sometimes, it may be too late.

  The Greatest Quest

  We’re all on a quest with our lives. Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey studied the history, origin, and themes of myths through the ages, culminating in a brilliant summary of key events that are part of every story, countless Hollywood movies, and, most importantly, our very own lives.

  The quest, then, is what you’re here for. And your spiritual leap is the quest within: back to center. This is why the result of the spiritual leap is palpable in people’s lives: it’s the greatest journey you’ll ever take, and one designed to alter and amplify every part of your experience.

  One of the great benefits of tuning out to tune in is the power of reflection and deeper questioning. After passing the initial resistance of quiet, we’re often left with a set of questions we don’t have the answers to, but simply by asking—we open up new pathways to discover them. These chart the course of our lives, and give it more depth, vibrancy and color.

  But that’s not all—far from it. Here’s why your spiritual leap can be the most powerful experience you’ll ever have:

  Leaps break down your reality and patterns. Life can seem monotonous every day, even if we love what we’re doing. Often, we don’t, only making things worse. Everyone knows what it feels like to be in a rut. Nothing seems to change and looking forward to our day seems like a pipe dream. A spiritual interruption breaks our reality and provides a hard shift to our experience. This shift, alone, is tremendous in its lessons and insights.

  You question everything (and that’s a great thing.) Once your patterns are broken down, you create enough white space to start asking some deeper questions. Often, these questions have been inside us all along; we simply drowned them out. These include:

  Why am I here?

  What is my purpose?

  Am I living my best life?

  What am I grateful for?

  Where do I want to go?

  What am I doing this for?

  What is not working?

  Through this questioning process, you may even question your path: a great start to creating change or doubling down on your vision. Many times, my clients will come to me in the depths of questioning their path, thinking it’s a sign of impending doom. It’s not. Questioning our paths in life is crucial, and we should be creating enough space on a daily basis for reflection and questioning. That’s where powerful initiatives are born.

  You feel what peace truly is. When was the last time you felt deep inner peace? For most, the question sounds like a bad joke. Yet, we all want to feel inner peace. But it’s never been more elusive. We can’t spend a moment in silence, let alone not check Instagram for the 87th time today or listen to the latest made-up drama on sports radio or the local news. Inner peace won’t be achieved in the day-to-day hustle, it’s only going to happen when we disconnect and break the cycle.

  Disconnect to reconnect. Disconnecting in life allows for an opportunity to reconnect to what matters. We get caught up in mindless tasks, responsibilities, and a “to do” list that only grows longer every time we knock something off it. For those who run their own businesses, the endless pressure of revenue goals, launching marketing campaigns, and payroll can send us into a tailspin of epic proportions, robbing us of the reason we got started in the first place: freedom.

  You remember what’s essential. The spiritual leap is a reminder of what’s important. By asking the bold and uncomfortable questions, we remember the essential. There are only a few important things in this life. Based on our personal philosophy, we’re able to remind ourselves of those and live a more congruent life. That’s what we’re here for in the first place, right?

  You’re less likely to be reactive. We live in a reactive world. Hopped up on caffeine and noise, we’re often running in circles and chasing tails. Okay, that’s a nod to Coldplay’s brilliant The Scientist—but you know what I mean. It becomes impossible to not be reactive. You wake up and, instead of owning your day, it owns you. Your spiritual leap flips the script and propels you to be proactive.

  You’re more likely to show empathy. Throughout your spiritual leap, empathy will be strengthened—a powerful way to build connection with the wor
ld and people around us. Instead of coming from a place of judging others, we can feel what it’s like to be in their position. And we can also imagine a place where we are with them, which shifts our entire experience.

  You achieve a deeper, clearer connection. A spiritual leap is a deep experience, one designed to strengthen your connection. Your connection with yourself, those around you, your environment, and the world at large. You’ll feel more in tune, and the small dramas of life won’t seem as big a deal.

  Your day-to-day quality of life increases. Last, although some of what I’ve mentioned is deep and powerful, your spiritual leap is most integrated in your day to day. You know, the way you react to that passive-aggressive email, the guy or gal who cuts you off in traffic and flicks you off, or the miscommunication with your spouse about who was supposed to get dinner.

  It’s within these micro moments that your leap is practiced and cultivated. Instead of seeing something as a challenge in your business, you see the possibility of a solution you never saw before. Instead of getting triggered by your employee’s lack of following direction, you can showcase a little empathy when you’ve been that way, too.

  #NotesFromTheLeap

  Elizabeth Lyons

  Book Publishing Entrepreneur

  What’s the boldest leap you’ve ever taken and why was this important to you?

  I was driving down the highway and one specific song hit me hard. I’d heard it many, many times before, but I had to pull over. As an irregular crier, I was unable to control the tears that were pouring out of me. My human being wasn’t sad; my soul was devastated. I knew it was time to take the leap off the highest cliff I’d ever jumped from. It was time to own who I was, who I wasn’t, and who I was ready to step more fully into. That meant a massive shift in every significant area of my life that couldn’t be undone once it was done.