Going All In: Conquering Our Fears of Unknown

Going All In: Conquering our Fears of the Unknown

A couple of weeks ago my niece and nephew came to visit from Newnan. They wanted to swim in our pool one last time before we officially sold our house and moved out. They swim like fish because they have always been around pools. However, they have never jumped off the diving board into the deep end. In fact, they have never swum in the deep end at all.

Uncle Andy is notorious for challenging kids to do things that are outside of their comfort zone. So, he challenged them to jump off the diving board. Needless to say, they were scared and kept saying they couldn’t do it. Uncle Andy kept begging them to (and eventually promised them Sweet Frog if they would do it).

Emmalyn was the first to try. She stood on the diving board for an extended period of time. She would walk to the edge of the diving board and then back up. She did this several times. Then all of a sudden she mustered up every ounce of courage and....

...she jumped. She went ALL IN. Because of her courage Ethan (her twin) gained the courage to jump in himself.

What happened next was amazing. They just wanted to jump in over and over and over. Their fears was gone. They weren't even thinking about the initial bribery of Sweet Frog that was used to get them to jump in the first time. They realized that their fear was unfounded, that jumping ALL IN could be fun and it was not unknown to them anymore.

It just took ONE time. And even though Ethan was scared to begin with, when he saw his sister jump in, her COURAGE motivated him to be BRAVE.

Lesson from this: At Alto Park Elementary School we are going ALL IN for our students this year. We are not going to do the same 'ol same 'ol things we have done in the past. We are not going to stay in the shallow end because it is comfortable. Why? Because our students (each and every ONE of them) deserve more. Some of us are going to be asked to do things that we have never done before in order to reach that ONE student. Some of us are going to be innovative and think outside the box. You may be scared to step out and do something new, but just do it.
JUMP OFF!   GO ALL IN!

I can't bribe you with Sweet Frog, but I can promise you that if you go ALL IN the reward will be well worth the effort and better than Sweet Frog any day (nothing against frozen yogurt). 

And if you see one of your colleagues scared to try something new, then you lend them your courage. Your courage motivates someone else and someone else's courage motivates you. 

...let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good work. Hebrews 10:24