Felix Baumgartner , the man who fell to earth.

Last weekend, alongside millions of other viewers, I watched Felix Baumgartner leap from a tiny capsule suspended some 24 miles above the earth’s surface by a huge helium balloon.

It took about three hours to ascend to the height of the jump spot, and then took him just under ten minutes to reach solid ground. At points of his journey he is believed to have hit speeds of 833 miles per hour, the fastest any human has been without the aid of an engine and broken the speed of sound.

Before launching himself Felix declared “Sometimes you have to get up really high to know how small you are.”  Obviously this was a well rehearsed phrase at a poignant moment, but it did make me think.

Now I’m someone who experiences a slight nausea looking at those images you see of people’s feet on a bungy jump ‘ship’s plank’ seconds before they leap into the void beneath them ! But what struck me is that I wasn’t thinking Wow, I wish I’d done that , but rather how amazing it was that Felix had done it.

I’m celebrating that notion that we’re all unique.

Well done to the team involved and to Felix for making us appreciate that our possibilities are wider than we sometimes see them.