Skydiving

Nothing meaningful happens inside the comfort zone.

The comfort zone feels safe. Predictable. Familiar. But it’s also where growth quietly goes to die. When I look back over my life, every real step forward I ever took came from doing something uncomfortable—something I would have preferred to avoid if I’m being honest. Confidence never showed up ahead of time to escort me into those moments. It always arrived afterward, once I’d already stepped forward and survived it.

That’s the part people get wrong about fear. It doesn’t disappear before action. It disappears because of it. You move first, fear follows behind, and suddenly what once felt impossible becomes… manageable. The comfort zone stretches a little. And so do you.

So when I try to answer the question, “What’s the thing you’re most scared to do?” I have to rewind the clock and answer it as my younger self. At 69, there are plenty of things I’m cautious about now, but that has less to do with fear and more to do with respecting gravity and joints that have mileage on them. That wasn’t the case back then.

Truth is, younger me wasn’t afraid of much at all. I took chances. I figured things out as I went. Fear rarely got a vote.

Except for one thing.

Skydiving.

Not the height. Not the speed. Not even the landing. It was the exact moment when a perfectly good airplane—one that was doing its job just fine—opens a door and someone casually suggests I step out of it.

That’s where my bravery politely excused itself.

What would it have taken to get me to do it? Probably a combination of peer pressure, overconfidence, and a very temporary lapse in judgment. But even then, I suspect my internal voice would’ve kicked in and said, “You’ve pushed your comfort zone plenty in life. You don’t need to prove anything by jumping out of working machinery.”

So yes, nothing meaningful happens inside the comfort zone. I believe that. I lived that.

But I also believe wisdom is knowing which lines are worth crossing…
and which ones are just fine to admire from the plane. 😄