The Leap of Your Life

by Tommy Baker

  CHAPTER 8 LEAP POWER STEP

  Craft the vision for your leap. Allow yourself to go to big places, and ensure it comes from the heart. This is not a time to focus on the how: focus on the what, and the why. If it doesn’t get you emotional or nervous, repeat it until it does.

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  Notes

  1 https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534121/higher-is-waiting-by-tyler-perry/9780812989342/.

  2 http://time.com/3858309/attention-spans-goldfish/.

  CHAPTER 9

  Embrace Your Moment

  Standing on the edge of darkness, it was time. His entire life had been a lead up to this moment. As he released the last harness, he took a pause to take it all in. It had been five grueling years in the making. Several times, quitting would have been easier. Knowing the world was watching, he delivered his final message:

  “I wish you could see what I can see. Sometimes you have to be up really high to see how small you are. I’m going home now.”1 And with that, Felix Baumgartner took the leap of his life as he tumbled from 128,100 feet down to Earth in a dizzying freefall.

  You, too, will have your moment. How it looks will differ, but you’ll know it’s your moment by the way it feels. It’s a blend of inspiration and fear surging through your veins, and you’ve never felt more present.

  You’re in a transcendent, flowlike state where you know exactly what you need to do. You’ve got a direct line to your future self, knowing the waiting is done. You feel a rush of inner peace. You’re doing it.After all the talk, all the tapes playing in your head about what to do, or not to do, none of that matters anymore.

  Chronos, Kairos, and the Feeling

  The ancient Greeks had two definitions of time: chronos, meaning the familiar and linear passing of time—past, present, and future. Once the present turns to past, it’s gone for good. Kairos, another Greek construct, was entirely different; it’s about “supreme” moments. These moments are soaked in opportunity and are about seizing them, or else they may be missed forever.

  And that’s exactly what you’ll need to do for yours, because your moment is transformative. It’s the crossing of the threshold and taking the call to adventure. It’s the moment where everything has changed.

  The moment is one of my obsessions. I live for exploring what happens in this split second of time, when we are compelled to choose ourselves in a way we’ve never done before. With all the incredible guests I’ve hosted on the Academy podcast, I’m always pulling at the strings of their moments.

  So, what exactly happens in your moment and how will you know you’re in it?

  In the moment, you have a level of clarity you’ve never had. You can’t remember the last time you felt this way. This clarity represents an inner knowing it’s exactly what you need to do. It’s a straight download from the universe, spirit, or whatever-you-may-believe. It’s pure, life-force-energy gold.

  In the moment, you’re listening to your intuition. You didn’t arrive at the moment with blueprints, projections, and P&L statements. In fact, those can’t even mix in the same container as the potent energy of the moment. Sure, there is a time for logic, but the way you get to the moment is by tapping into your intuition or what Ralph Waldo Emerson called “the blessed impulse.”2.

  In the moment, you don’t give a crap about the how. When you’re engulfed in the moment, the how doesn’t matter. What used to bother you and keep you stuck in the past is now a distant memory. You know how the how loves to play tricks on you and you aren’t having it. No way, not this time.

  In the moment, there is no turning back and there is no Plan B. When you’re in the moment, the other path closed off. It is no longer an option for you. Technically, you could go back, but it would eat you alive for the rest of your time here. So, it may as well be dead to you, because there’s no turning back and there’s no Plan B. Plan B is being relentless in your belief in pursuit of Plan A.

  In the moment, doubt and resistance have been replaced by power and momentum. Doubt, fear, resistance, worst-case scenarios are long gone. They’ve melted off you and no longer exist in the moment. You can’t be experiencing both the highest level of clarity in your life and doubt at the same time. It doesn’t work.

  In the moment, you feel limitless and on fire. The moment is your Limitless transition—the Hollywood movie starring Bradley Cooper. In this scene, Bradley’s a broke, tired, and half-homeless writer who bumps into an old friend who offers him a pill to help him wake up. He thinks little of it, until he’s walking up the stairs, shoulders slumped and apathetic to life. And then, it hits him. He wakes up and sees life through a completely new lens. He notices everything. He feels alive. Although your moment may not have Hollywood sets and actors, it’ll be just as transformative in the way you feel.

  In the moment, you’ve given yourself permission. The moment feels amazing because you’ve (finally) given yourself permission. You’ve allowed yourself to declare what you want, even if it’s just to yourself. So often, we make halfhearted declarations to ourselves, while we are swimming in doubt and lacking self-worth. Now, you’ve released the self-imposed shackles and have granted yourself and your dreams permission.

  In the moment, you’ve forgotten all the old narratives. The old tapes of where you failed, messed up,or why your high school sweetheart broke up with you on the evening before prom are nothing but a distant memory. In the moment, you forget all these and instead unravel a deeper belief you didn’t know you had. Your core essence comes out, because it’s who you really are when you drop the baggage.

  This is how your moment will feel. Yours is going to look, sound, and be packaged in a way that doesn’t look like anyone else’s. That’s the point, because you aren’t anyone else. There will never be anyone quite like you. Not living in the period of history you did, with your background, your genetic sequence, and your life experience.

  Own it.

  #NotesFromTheLeap

  Craig Daigle

  Fitness Transformation Coach

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

  The morning of December 1, 2015 I woke up around 4 a.m. and was choking and couldn’t breathe. I was wearing a CPAP machine and being diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and acid reflux; it made for a bad combination. That morning I thought I was going to die. At the time, being a single father, I could think only of my children. I had a legitimate conversation with myself and told myself: “something has to change right now, or your children will be without a father.”

  What did you feel as you made this leap, and what happened after?

  I was terrified. I did my first physical activity immediately following that conversation, and it was the hardest 25 minutes of my life. As soon as I completed it I thought I was going to pass out . . . fast-forward and I’ve now lost 130 pounds, I’ve been cleared of sleep apnea. I no longer take blood pressure medication, I am no longer classified by doctors as morbidly obese. I am a fully active father who enjoys physical play with his children. I have inspired and motivated thousands of others to take control of their health. I’ve become an entrepreneur and been able to provide for my children as a single father while working full time and taking back my health. It’s created confidence and happiness that I only fantasized about.

  Looking back, what would you tell someone else in a similar circumstance knowing what you now know?

  You are not alone. The life, situations, and circumstances you’re living in right now do not define you, and the moment you want to change your story anything is possible.

  Other Key Ingredients to Define Your Moment

  The moment will come when you least expect it. Although we’re going to cover how to manufacture your leap, there’
s only so much you can do. Your moment will be an elegant mix of manufacturing the conditions, while letting the universe do its thing. Your moment will come unexpectedly and in a form you didn’t quite imagine, which is simply a test—a test of trust and faith, and how open and willing you are to take the next step.

  The moment will demand the highest version of who you are. Your moment will demand the highest version of yourself. It will demand you to step into who you really are. Since we’ve spent so much of our lives relying on external proof in order for us to move forward, this becomes your boldest challenge yet. Your highest self, however, already knows what to do. It doesn’t need more validation. It doesn’t need approval from others. It’s much more powerful than all of that, and it’s got your back.

  The moment will (soon) seem daunting and impossible. Although you’ll feel a sense of energy you haven’t experienced in ages, once it’s over your moment can seem daunting. Later, we’ll cover how to navigate this gap where most people get lost in a way that propels them forward. But don’t fret, if your moment didn’t seem daunting, then I’d argue you’re not thinking big and bold enough.

  The moment will expose who you really are. During your moment, you’re going to be exposed. You’re going to face who you really are, and for some, that’s incredibly frightening. It has often been said we fear acknowledging the greatest version of ourselves—or even fear ourselves achieving success as much as failure. As the famous Marianne Williamson quotation goes: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.”3

  Your moment has the potential to send you on a path you could have never imagined. An experience so riveting, it brings you to your knees. A story so powerful, it becomes an epic in the novel of your life. But what happens immediately after will decide whether you bring it to life or it stays as a movie in your mind.

  My Moment (Back in New York)

  Back in New York.

  Damn, I forgot to excuse myself from dinner, I thought to myself. For a moment, I was deeply concerned for what my friends may be thinking. But then I remembered: I needed space.

  Once I clicked the stop recording button, I looked at the timestamp: 4:37. I sat with my legs crossed, my heart beating, and every breath creating a canvas of clouds with the full moon as the backdrop. I sat there, letting the energy of the moment dissipate. I’d made my declaration and faced myself. I was exposed. There was nowhere to hide anymore.

  Now what?

  I could feel the dopamine slowly wearing off, drip by drip. The lightning strike of intensity was fading, replaced by doubt. The whispers of the how started to invade the fortress of clarity I had just created. And I knew, if I didn’t act immediately, this entire experience may become a fading memory.

  So, sitting on the icy grass, I chose to act. I chose to do something to start bringing the declaration to life. But we were approaching midnight and there weren’t too many bold steps I could take towards my vision.

  But I did one thing. I hopped on Google and found it. I found the visual representation of the vision I’d declared moments earlier.

  And that simple act was more than enough to cement the experience as real.

  Don’t Let Your Moment Become a Video Game

  The great tragedy of our lives is letting these empowering moments become video games. We experience the vividness of our moment, wake up the next day and don’t change anything. Time passes, and our minds find all the reasons to not do it. What I don’t want for you is for our experience together and your leap to become a video game. Because no matter how real they seem, they will never be real. At least not in my lifetime.

  With your moment, it becomes crucial to ensure you do everything in your power to bring it to life. If I hadn’t completed the sequence I’m about to share during my leap, this book isn’t being written and you’re not here.

  Step 1: Declare Like Your Life Depends on It

  Declaration. Your first step to cement your moment into your life is to declare it with everything you’ve got. Declare it like your life depends on it, because it does. This is no time to be humble, play small, or use weak language.

  Quite the opposite. This is the time you declare your moment, your vision, and your leap with everything you’ve got. For me, that declaration looked like speaking into an iPhone voice recorder and speaking my truth. As I spoke those words, there was no space left for doubt.

  Remember: this is not about being loud or boisterous for no reason. You can whisper and speak in conviction, just like you can yell and not believe it. Find your sweet spot, the place where you’re in alignment and speak it into the world.

  Leap Tip: Don’t Keep Your Dream a Secret

  Most people keep their dreams a secret for a reason. Because something magical happens when you declare your dreams—now, they’re real. You’re on the hook. Within this energy is the power to transform your life.

  Now, it’s your turn: declare your dreams, or else no one will take you seriously. Including you.

  Step 2: Commit with Mind, Body, and Spirit

  Commitment. It’s time to create a contract of commitment with yourself. This is the moment you vow to not let yourself off the hook. No longer a fleeting memory, this is a life-changing moment.

  Real commitment is not simply something you say, it’s who you’ve become. It must transcend and include your mind, body, and spirit. This is full alignment, and a line has been drawn in the sand—a clear before and after.

  Everything has changed, unless you don’t commit. This means you must change who you are on a fundamental level, starting now. Not in a few weeks or when life gets a little less hectic.

  You need to start now.

  Step 3: Execute Immediately or Else

  Execution.The third step is to bring your moment down from the clouds and into the dirt. This is where you collapse the gap between your vision and your reality. Often, we believe it must be an act of boldness in the face of deafening adversity.

  Although it certainly can be, that’s often way too much pressure. Back to my first action: sitting there on the frigid New York night, I couldn’t do much in that moment in terms of magnitude, but it didn’t matter. Once I’d found the visual representation of my declaration, I set it to become the background screen on my phone.

  The next morning when I woke up and was in a completely different emotional state, I was reminded of my declaration. For each of the 77 times I would touch my phone that day, I was anchoring my declaration.

  Your action step may not look anything like mine. It may be much bolder – saying what you feel during a conversation with your boss, filing the LLC papers for your business, or making the call you’ve been putting off.

  Do it now and don’t wait one more second.

  Step 4: You Are All In, Act Like It

  All in.The last part of turning your moment into reality is a complete and total shift in worldview, or how you view your place in the world. It’s a brand-new lens, and it fundamentally changes the way you experience the day to day.

  For years, an explorer was obsessed with finding a new land. He’d stay up for weeks at a time planning his quest, the voyage of his life. Where he lived had nothing to offer him, or so he thought. Years went by until the day of the voyage finally came and he set sail. What he didn’t know was the tumultuous storm awaiting him, sending him into a frenzy.

  The storm finally passed, and he came across a piece of land: he’d done it. He’d found a new world he’d never experienced before. With endless enthusiasm and excitement, he arrived at the shores. Everything was mesmerizing, and he could barely contain himself. His dream was now a reality.

  What he didn’t realize was he hadn’t gone anywhere. The storm had shifted his entire voyage, and he’d arrived in a different area of the land he’d known his entire life. What had changed everything was his perspective.

  This simple parable is a metaphor for what you’re going to experience; it’s not so much that ever
ything around you will change, but the way you perceive it will.

  When you’re all in, people feel it. The world feels it, and it’ll begin to provide you opportunities, events, people, places, and synchronicities to help bring your vision to life faster and with more grace. It’s beautiful to watch it unfold, but without harnessing the power of what we’ve gone through, it won’t happen. Before it comes to life, you better believe it more than anything else you ever have.

  This is what all in means.

  Unless, of course—you miss your moment.

  Leap Tip: Eradicate Weak Language

  Language opens up doors to what you and I really believe. Often, we use weak and half-hearted language that provides us an easy out and way to blame someone besides ourselves if things don’t work out.

  It’s time to eradicate weak language. Words and phrases such as: trying, maybe, we’ll see, thinking about it, depends, one day, someday, might, etc.

  Instead, step into your most powerful self by practicing clear and powerful language.

  Don’t Miss Your Moment (It May Never Come Back)

  You now know exactly how to identify your moment, and what to do next. The reality is you and I have had countless moments in our lives where we didn’t fully step in. And while we can look back and rationalize why it worked out, we’ll never fully know what one door could have led to.