Can You Pull The Silver Handle?

Some friends of mine decided to try skydiving a short while ago for the first time.

I decided to go with them to observe and lend my support.

I used to skydive frequently.  I have survived a couple of interesting “emergency” situations with parachutes in the past.

So I have not taken that risk again since my two children were born.

The skydiving school my friends went to offers static line jumps.

Unlike tandem jumps where you are strapped to another jumper, with static line jumps you jump by yourself.

For a static line jump, your parachute is hooked up to the airplane by a strap.  The jumpmaster opens the door of the airplane.  You step out and hold on the wing strut. When you are ready, you just let go.  As you fall the strap hooked to the airplane pulls your main parachute open and you steer it to a safe landing on the ground.

Before you can do a static line jump, you are required to go through about an 8 hour ground school class in which you learn basic parachuting techniques for leaving the plane, steering the chute, landing and what to do in emergencies.

All jumpers have a main chute and an emergency chute.  The emergency chutes at this skydiving school all have a large silver handle.

If you have an emergency with your main parachute, such as the lines are tangled, the main parachute does not deploy properly, etc., you have to activate your emergency parachute to land safely. You do so by pulling the sliver handle. When you pull the silver handle, the main parachute is jettisoned and your emergency shoot is activated and allows you to land safely.

In this crticial situation, you have to depend soley on yourself and your own decision making.

What is drilled into the student’s head over and over during ground school is that in an emergency situation, all you have to do is pull the sliver handle.

They repeat over and over, in an emergency situation, ALL you have to do is pull the silver handle.

Your life depends on your own ability to complete one simple task.

That is it.  Nothing else to do.  Nothing else matters.  No one can help you.  You cannot procrastinate even for a second.

You have to pull your own silver handle.

Can you decide? Can you “pull the silver handle?”

If your life depended on pulling the silver handle, could you do it?

Do you have a task to complete, a decision to make, or a person to talk to that requires you pulling your own silver handle because of unwanted change that has entered your life?

Can you do it no matter how terrified you are?

I know that you can.  Decide. Even if you silver handle is imaginary. Then just grab it and pull.

You will land safely somewhere…Always.

When you had a tough decision to make, a tough converation to have, or you were in an actual emergency situation what gave you the courage to “pull the silver handle?

Let’s start a discussion on this topic. Leave me a message below.

Out There on the Edge of Everything®…

Stephen Lesavich, PhD

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Copyright © 2019, by Stephen Lesavich, PhD.  All rights reserved. – originally published on coachsl.life