A Gutsy Guide to Getting Your Mojo Back

My new friend Bojana Ozegovic, about to fly high

With a week of being disconnected from the internet, and with loads of inspiration, I wrote a bunch of Owning Pink posts while vacationing on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  To avoid boring you with too much of my personal yada yada yada, I’ll post them slowly.  Here’s the first in the series of things I learned in North Carolina: Bucket List #1 Go Hang-gliding. CHECK! When Joy and I were writing our bucket lists a few months back and I wrote “Go hang-gliding,” I had no idea my Pink Goddess friend Katsy would call me days later to ask me if I wanted to go hang-gliding in Kitty Hawk on the Outer Banks of North Carolina.  My jaw dropped. I was sitting in my office right next to where my bucket list is written on the wall, and there it was- #1 on my list.  Had I not written my bucket list, I might have talked myself out of going hang-gliding- too dangerous, too expensive, too scary.  But I wrote it on my bucket list, so my authentic self must want to go hang-gliding, and who am I to hold her back? So, voice shaking, I said yes. And today, I fulfilled a life long dream and did it.  Although the weather report threatened rain that would have required we cancel our plans, we went forth, in faith, believing that the Universe wouldn’t prevent me from fulfilling my bucket list destiny.  When we arrived, the sky was blue, without a cloud in the sky, and we were given to the green light to proceed. Along with a group of friends who were egging me on, I strapped myself into the harness, attached to Steve, my tandem partner and hang-gliding instructor.  The plan was that we would strap our hang-glider to an Ultralight plane, and the Ultralight pilot would drag us up to 2000 feet, where we would release the strap that attached us to the plane.

Here We Go- WHEEEEE!!!!

So there I was- strapped into my padded harness, grinning from ear to ear like a chimpanzee with a banana. And before I knew it, someone was helping hook us to the umbilical cord that would tie us to the Ultralight, and then the Ultralight was buzzing into the sky, and we lifted off, just like we were in an airplane, only with wind rushing through my hair and my sunglasses threatening to fall off.  Putting my arms out in front of me, I channeled my inner superhero and closed my eyes, reveling in the pure bliss of the moment.  Then when I opened them again, we were flying with a view of the Currituck sound and the Outer Banks. Flying, Untethered When the pilot gave us a hand signal out the window, Steve unclipped the hook that tethered us to the Ultralight, and with a giant hiccup of wind, we were hang-gliding, soaring like a California condor.  What does it feel like? Words cannot describe it.  You feel like you have wings, with the wind rushing through past you and the people on the ground diminished to mere specks.  Like you’re in outer space, and the only thing disrupting the stillness of the moment is the sound of the wind.  Like your heart is cracked wide open and the whole world is nothing but love.  How else do you describe it? Gliding through the air, Steve turned over control to me, and I was suddenly turning and dipping and swirling, as we coasted gradually closer to the ground. While we still had enough altitude, Steve asked if I wanted to do “rollercoaster.”  Rollercoaster? You betcha. I LOVE rollercoasters.  Steve took over and nosed the hang-glider upwards until we lost all speed, stalled, and dipped down into a free fall.  WHEEEEEE! Truly, it was thrilling.  Once I put my feet back on solid ground, I leaped up and down and mentally checked “Go hang-gliding” off my bucket list. Check. So what did I learn during my moment in the sky? Here are some life lessons I learned while hang-gliding.

1. 

   Pink Goddess Georgiana Alavanja, letting her freak flag fly

   Don’t let fear keep you from truly living. Was I afraid to go hang-gliding? Yup. Did I let that stop me from doing it? Nope.  I still experience fear, but I no longer allow it to rule my life.

2. You’ll never fully live your life unless you’re willing to assume a certain level of risk. Sure, you can play it safe if you like. But not me.  When I’m on death’s door and my life is flashing before my eyes, I want to see myself flying above the earth in a moment of exhilaration.
3. You don’t have to do everything alone. I didn’t hang-glide by myself- I strapped myself to an expert with a back-up parachute.  It’s tempting to try to be Superwoman, but sometimes, it makes sense to lean on those with more life experience than you.  Trust in others.  If I tried to control every aspect of my hang-gliding experience, I would have gotten in Steve’s way and potentially sabotaged the whole experience.
4. Even if things get rough, you gotta keep soaring, keep gliding, keep living.
5. Extricating yourself from the ordinary and doing something extraordinary brings your life into sharp focus and makes you feel more alive. Shake it up. Own Pink.
6. Listen to your intuition. When I took over the reins of the hang-glider, I veered right, when my intuition told me to veer left, and suddenly, we were spinning in a circle and losing altitude. But when I threw my body to the left, whoosh! We caught an updraft, straightened out, and got back on course.
7. Sometimes you need to let others carry you high in the sky in order to truly fly.  Whether we’re talking about friends or an Ultralight, we all need a lift from time to time.
8. Believe that you will achieve your dreams, even when the forecast says otherwise.
9. Just go for it. Don’t wait for tomorrow to do what you can do today.  Carpe diem, Pinkies!
10. Whenever you have the chance, let go of the handle. Clinging to the handle may give you the illusion of control, but it’s more fun if you just let the wind carry you. Let go- and glide.
11. And last, but certainly most importantly- you can do anything, if you’ve got the right Pink Posse.

What’s on your bucket list, PInkies? Need tips on writing yours? Check this out. Don’t forget to dream big! Still gliding and grinning, Lissa

Tags: Bojana Ozegovic, Georgiana Alavanja

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 7:39 am and is filed under Finding Mojo, Lissa's personal yada yada yada, Mojo Mondays, Owning Surrender, Personal Empowerment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.