Inspiration

I was on my way home on Sunday when Felix Baumgartner was taking his historic free fall from the edge of space. I pulled over and watched the jump on my phone. Since that time people have posted online and mentioned in person that they were glued to their televisions for the jump. I thought about that for awhile. What is it that drew people in?

I think as humans we identify with people who are willing to try incredible things. Even though it is the individual accomplishing the feat, in some small way we all feel a part of the event. It stretches our potential as a species and as individuals. We may not become inspired to jump out of a balloon 24 miles above the earth, but we might become inspired to tackle a task in our own lives that we thought we had never thought we could accomplish before. The cool things is that often when we accomplish those things in our lives it inspires others to do something as well.