“You gain strength,
courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look
fear in the face.”
I’ve
Been Thinking . . . that compared to some other people; I have the courage of
the lion in the Wizard of Oz.
Courage
is nothing more than simply doing what you are afraid to do. Simple to say. More difficult to do. Maybe this true story of incredible courage
will help.
In
1978 Roger Reynolds finished his fourth Boston Marathon in intense pain. Running with one leg shorter than the other,
Reynolds trained fifteen miles every morning.
According to a story by Bill Shaw in the Indianapolis Monthly, Roger’s real passion wasn’t even running, it
was skydiving.
Before
telling you the rest of Roger’s incredible story, keep in mind this comment
from Brian Tracy: “Fears diminish and
lose their power over you as you confront them.
Every time you back away from a fear situation, the fear grows and
becomes more powerful.”
Now
back to the story. In 1974, at age
twenty-one, Roger was a Green Beret and a member of the U.S. Army parachute
team, the “Golden Knights.” He was, as
they say, rough, tough, and ready.
It
was April and the team had arrived in Charlottesville ,
Virginia , to perform at the
Dogwood Festival. Despite the overcast
day, the team leader decided to go ahead with the performance. Roger would be doing the dangerous
“cut-a-way” stunt where he would intentionally collapse the first chute to
thrill the crowd and then at the last minute open his second chute and land
safely to the crowd’s wild applause.
This would be Roger’s 959th jump.
The
plane bounced around in the cloudy turbulence as Roger jumped out of the plane
at 2000 feet. Moments later he was
descending at more than a hundred miles an hour when he discovered his chute
was tangled and not slowing him down. He
had committed the cardinal parachute sin that morning - he hadn’t checked his
chutes.
Roger
reassured himself that it was OK as he pulled the cord for the second chute to
release. However, the second chute
tangled in the first, leaving him to slam into the earth below breaking every
bone on his left side.
The
doctors predicted he would die, and if he survived, he would certainly never
walk again.
Sixteen
months later Roger painfully walked out of the hospital with a cane. Physically, he was fifty pounds lighter. Mentally, he was determined to overcome the
nightmares his hospital stay had produced.
While
in the hospital Roger had studied for his pilot’s exam and shortly after his
release, climbed into a plane and earned his pilot’s license. One challenge down.
Next,
he drove back to Indiana
to an area where he had learned to parachute as a kid. All those closest to him thought he was
crazy. Surely he would permanently
damage his weak body or kill himself.
But Roger ignored their advice and prepared for a confrontation with
fear.
The
equipment was carefully checked - twice.
At three thousand feet Roger exited the plane and left behind a fear
that could have crippled him for life.
The jump was successful as he carefully landed on his good leg, at the
relief of his friends anxiously watching.
That’s
when the physical conditioning began to rebuild his body. Running produced unbearable pain. Little by little he extended the distance but
still felt excruciating pain. Then in
1978, without anyone’s knowledge, he traveled to Boston to compete in his first marathon. Although he participated as an unofficial
entrant, Roger finished the race.
Another fear had been confronted and overcome.
For
Roger Reynolds, pain became a way of life, but fear was overcome by facing it
head on.
Many
people discover when coming face to face with their fear, that their fear of
fear was the only real fear. As Logan
Pearsall Smith put it, “What is more mortifying than to feel you have missed
the plum for want of courage to shake the tree?”
Keep leaning against your fear. In turn you will produce the intestinal fortitude to keep on forging ahead. Courage will surface to assist you in acting in spite of your fear.
Courage
is the ability to acknowledge fear and work through it on the way to your
dreams and goals. Courage isn’t having
the strength to go on - it’s going on in spite of the fact you don’t have the
strength. When defeat or despair knocks
at your door and you answer with the courage of Roger Reynolds, you’ll find
nothing there that you can’t overcome.
“Real courage is when you
know you’re licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no
matter what.”
Harper Lee
"To Kill A Mockingbird”