Here’s this week’s installment of Five Minute Friday. You might remember the task is to write for five minutes on a specific prompt word. The initiative was started by Lisa-Jo Baker (http://lisajobaker.com/2013/04/five-minute-friday-jump/) who thought about writing and how often our perfectionism gets in the way of our words. And she figured, why not take five minutes and see what comes out: not a perfect post, not a profound post, just five minutes of focused writing.

To be honest, I came up blank with this week’s prompt …  JUMP. I thought about it for most of the day … and just couldn’t get the thoughts to click. I thought I had something going, but as I started to put words on screen {that sounds odd, doesn’t it?} it sounded awfully familiar. I was right. I wrote virtually the same words back in January under the five minute prompt DIVE.

I decided to re-run the part of the post and set the time for two and half minutes to expand the thought.

So, the timer is set … so here goes. {clock starts now}

[There I was, about eight feet above the water, a scared seven year old who made the big mistake of listening to his friends.  “What if I break my neck?” “What if I drown?” What if I got hurt?” Those questions were swirling around in my head. But as the line started to form behind me and my friends started cheering and jeering, I knew it was time to just do it … jump into the placid pool.

It wasn’t a 10, but it was a clean entry into the water, a deep submersion and a quick exit to the top of the surface. I DID IT! I didn’t get hurt. I didn’t drown. I didn’t break my neck.]

It’s a lot like that in life as well. We spend so much time thinking about all the “what ifs” we take our eyes off the prize. Whether it’s a job, a business venture or even our faith choices, we often miss opportunities. [We don’t know what to expect so we procrastinate. We fill our minds with all sorts of crazy thoughts and … often do nothing.]

I’m also pondering thoughts on “passion” — as in pursuits — for things that matter and this exercise reminded me … STOP

… after you do due diligence there comes a time for action. Jump in and follow through.

Well, that’s what popped into this mind this week.

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: If you don’t try, you can’t fail.