This weekend I did something that I can safely say was a first for me: I rappelled down the side of a 13-story building. I lived to tell the tale. Phew!

The event was a partnership between New England Epilepsy Foundation and Over the Edge, a non-profit that helps organizations raise money through “urban rappelling” experiences. Over the Edge has led events like this for over 20 years, and has raised over $150 million for a wide variety of causes.

I arrived around 10:00am to the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge to register and watch a few of my fellow rappellers before needed to suit up. The weather was fortunately beautiful (light and day from the day before, when a surprise hail storm blew through the Boston metro area), and Tim and I sat in the hotel courtyard together observing the other climbers and enjoying the sunshine.

Shortly thereafter, I started suiting up with the Over the Edge volunteer staff and fitting my harness, helmet, and gear, joined by three other rappellers in my registration group. After a brief safety check on the equipment, we took an elevator to the top floor and walked onto the roof of the Hyatt.

Hoo boy, did the roof look a lot higher from above than it did from below! No rails, no barriers, just a sheer dropoff to the streets of Memorial Drive below. The view from the roof was both beautiful and unnerving: we had a 270-degree view of the Boston skyline, the Charles River, Cambridge, and a cloudless sky. (I did not look down over the edge at this point.)

Another volunteer briefly demonstrated how to use our climbing equipment, and away we went to the ropes. After one more safety check, I stepped up to the edge of the Hyatt and two more volunteers suited and hooked me up to the ropes that would take me back down to the ground. And then, another safety check. (I appreciated that very much, actually.)

I was ready to go.

The volunteers looked at me with a smile and then said, “Okay, now step up here to the ledge of the roof, and lean back over the edge.”

I took a moment to be mindful and awareof my feelings: I wasn’t nervous, I had no butterflies, my stomach wasn’t somersaulting. But I did feel something in my body that was telling me, “No, don’t go over the edge!” My preconscious lizard brain was trying to protect me from a perceived threat, I think, and it was tough to push past the evolutionary need to not go over the side of a building and, well, do just that.

I quieted my lizard brain and down I went, gripping the rope and inching down the side of the building step by step. About four minutes later, my feet were back on the ground.

The obvious: I can do hard things.

I’m lucky to not have an immense fear of heights. I don’t shy away from edges of cliffs or canyons, I have no issue looking out of windows in tall buildings. But this experience was objectively unnerving, something that the most reptilian part of my brain and body tried to stop me from doing. Nonetheless, I was able to push past that resistance and do the hard thing—and I’m proud of myself for that.

Beyond that, the experience was reminder that sometimes, having no reason to say “no” to doing something is enough of a reason to do something. I first learned about this event a few months ago from a targeted Instagram ad. I had no immediate experience with climbing or rappelling (save a few day pass experiences to climbing gyms) and have no direct connection with the New England Epilepsy Foundation, beyond appreciating the work that they do in education and advocacy.

The thought I had upon seeing the ad wasn’t, “Why should I do this?”

It was “Why shouldn’t I do this?”

A subtle difference, but approaching the experience in that way gave me more of a nudge to sign up. Those few months ago, I couldn’t think of a reason not to rappel down the building (save the very, very low risk of something going wrong), so I added my name to the list of rappellers.

I don’t think I’ll ever say yes to every opportunity that comes my way—overcommitment is a recipe for disaster—but I do think it helps to sometimes interrogate reasons not to do something over reasons to do something, particularly if you (like me) are looking to expand into new experiences.