Making The Jump

This is an old article from 2017. Right after I made the move to Indianapolis. Leaving my entire life behind. Brand new house and all. Moving into a single bedroom in a college house because I believed in the vision of Iron Valley Barbell.

The premise of this article is making the leap of faith. Sometimes you’ve just gotta trust your gut and make that jump. Even if it doesn’t make any sense on paper at all. Which this move didn’t.

It has been about 15 months now since I made this move. I’m happy to say that it has been everything I thought it would be and then some. I’m happier than ever. Stronger than ever. Business is better than ever. I’m impacting more lives than ever. Growing more than every mentally & physically.

Hope you enjoy the article.

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I was standing at the edge of the cliff w/ two options in front of me.. I could either turn around & return to my comfort zone OR I could take the leap of faith & jump.

I had never been in a situation quite like this before .. To be honest I was a bit overwhelmed w/ emotions & extremely nervous, but at the same time I felt extreme clarity in my decision making process. It felt as if I was being pulled in a certain direction. As if something much greater than myself was guiding me. This brought me a lot of comfort.

In that moment I had a decision to make. Long story short, I jumped ..

Something deep down within my soul was guiding me on this journey. I felt an energy within me pulling me in a way that I had never felt before. Instead of hesitating or questioning this energy within my heart, I decided to follow it. I made the jump.

Les Brown talks about this scenario in depth through his legendary speeches.

When people get to the edge of the cliff & are faced w/ a decision of this magnitude, they quite often turn around & return to their comfort zone. It’s just easier that way. At least initially.

They receive that initial instant gratification of sliding back to the comfort zone, but it quickly subsides for most. Over time they return to this scenario in their head & quite often regret not taking the leap. They are left wondering what could have been if they had the courage to take that final step forward.

This was a huge component in my decision making process .. I could see myself living w/ massive amounts of regret if I didn’t JUMP. It would’ve drained me mentally over time.

As Les Brown says, we ignore our destiny. We give up on our dreams because life beats us up. We sell out on our true potential. Feeling like we aren’t good enough to deserve what we truly want. We begin to fear success because the responsibility is too big. We begin to unconsciously sabotage ourselves & work against ourselves. Through procrastinating, not taking care of business, not spending our time wisely. Spending time watching idle television. Using our energy negatively rather than positively. Complaining rather than producing. That’s what we do when we’re afraid of really making it. When we’re afraid to take that leap. Afraid to venture out there.

The last paragraph described my life perfectly leading up to this recent decision that I was faced with. I was living in my comfort zone. Doing well, but not doing what I needed to be doing to lead myself towards my ultimate vision. As a result, I was unhappy w/ myself. Often depressed. I was unconsciously sabotaging myself. Using my energy negatively instead of positively at times. I knew that I had so much more potential within me, but something needed to change for me to begin pursuing the vision I had for myself & the impact I could have on this world.

Now que the analogy we discussed at the onset of the article ..

Shortly after my 2nd visit to IVB in early 2017 I began to ponder the idea of moving to Indy & joining the team that Zach was building. I knew that something very very special was going on here & I could see myself playing a pivotal role in the growth of the team & gym.

Something I quickly realized over the years of being close friends w/ Zach was that he builds people & helps them get the most out of themselves. Helping them find their strengths & then going ALL IN on those strengths. This played a massive role in my decision. On top of many other components of course.

I spent the following few months considering the opportunity that was right in front of me & then finally scheduled another trip to Iron Valley Barbell to see what my potentially new life would look like. I had seen first hand what Zach was building here through previous visits. It had been over 6 plus months though since my last visit when I first considered the move, but through frequent phone calls w/ Zach I had a pretty good idea of what was going on here. So I had extremely high expectations going into the trip. Within the first few hours of being here I was absolutely blown away with the experience. It surpassed all expectations by 10x.

I immediately felt at home. The atmosphere was unbelievable. Very quickly I knew that this was the place for me.

After being here for a few days I sat down w/ the entire team at IVB & told them that I wanted in. I wanted to be apart of what they were building here. I knew that I could help the team grow & at the same time this situation was going to help me in all areas of life as well. It was a win win for everyone.

Once the decision was made I wanted to be out here asap. I just had a few hurdles to jump before I was able to make that happen.

Having a house back in Columbus made things a little tricky, but I was gonna do whatever it took to make the move right away.

I went home that weekend, called my Realtor, got my house listed & began the moving process. Packing up the entire house into boxes & trying to condense my life down into a single bedroom as I would be moving into a house w/ a few guys here & wouldn’t have anywhere near the same amount of space I did owning my own home. None of this mattered to me though. All that I cared about was getting everything taken care of so that I could move to Indy within a week.

I did just that. It’s Monday, November 27th & i’m sitting here @ IVB writing this article. I put myself out there & made the leap. I jumped. Now it’s time to work. I’ve got every single opportunity in the world now, i’ve just gotta capitalize.

I just wanna thank everyone who hit me up over the past week on social media to wish me luck on this new journey. The amount of positivity that I have received has been unbelievable. I appreciate each & every one of you more than you’ll ever realize.

Until next time,

Much Love.

Jay