On a recent adventure with one of my grandsons to a giant adult "jungle gym" type obstacle course, I learned several interesting lessons. I would like to share the first one.

This course had three different levels and once you entered a level, the only way off was to finish that level so freezing in the middle was not a good thing. As I attempted to conquer my fear of heights on the second level, I noticed a young man struggling on the third level. He was standing on a swinging beam and was supposed to move to a hanging ladder and then to another swinging beam.

I saw him hanging on for dear life (as we all would be, I think) and really having a hard time letting go of the scary swinging thing he was on to climb onto the even scarier floating rope ladder. He was right above my head which gave me a different perspective than his buddies who were all encouraging him from the same place he was. They were shouting, "You can do this! You got it. Just keep going."

As I observed his tnemaciderp, I suddenly called out, "Trust your harness!" Hearing a strange voice, he looked down and we made eye contact. "You are trying to make yourself do it, but you need to trust your harness and lean into it a little bit. It will hold you, trust it!"

He relaxed a little, leaned into his harness and jumped/swung over to the ladder. He made it!!!
I have been thinking a lot about that situation. Wondering how many times in my life, I have made things more difficult by not "trusting the harness". How often have I made things harder for myself by not trusting my knowledge, skills, intuition or even the people around me.

In our jobs, we can find ourselves second guessing ourselves regularly. Are we doing the right thing? Sometimes our clients can't tell us what they need, and we can feel as lost as they do as we try to figure the puzzle out. You are an intelligent, caring human with a special set of skills. I want to say to you- trust your harness! You can do this!