I have reached a bizarre moment in my life today, as I am most surprised by it myself. The place, or rather the point in time, that I have found myself in, the implementation of a global charity project to support climate refugees, has been incredibly interesting to me. It has become more of a picture and an event that I am just looking at, rather than a precisely planned path through life.
In 2014, I performed the highest parachute jump in Europe with two skydiver
s, jumping from a height of almost 11 km. The two years of preparation for this jump were filled with fear, fear of death, fear of leaving my family at the mercy of the fate I would inflict on them at the price of pursuing my passion. However, it happened differently, I survived and everything went well.
The emotions that accumulated in my head during those two years were finally poured into the book “The Story of a Thousand Fears”, which I published, thinking that it would stay under the weight of dust for many years. But it didn’t happen that way. The book sold more than 7,000 copies, and I received hundreds of letters in which readers thanked me for showing them that a man who jumps from the stratosphere is as afraid as anyone, but he is also filled with weaknesses that can be used as great potential.
Because I helped a lot of people with my accidental book, I decided that if I did something extreme again, I would help people intentionally. And that is how Project 
48 was created, in which I decided to jump 48 times in one day in the 48th year of my life, dedicating each jump to a specific seriously ill person.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BjsSZr25Fw
A year later I jumped 100 times in one day raising money to buy 100 specialized wheelchairs for children: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-ObAjQSWWw
In this project, an unusual thing happened to me – in the middle of preparations, the sponsor withdrew, which put me and my wife before a very difficult decision. To stop the project, in which we had already raised money for about 50 wheelchairs, or to continue with the thought that we might not find anyone to finance everything. In the end, we didn’t find a sponsor and in order to be able to carry out the plan, we had to take a loan and pay for the plane, the preparations, and all the complicated logistics. In total, the project cost us 100 thousand zloty, which we are still paying back. But thanks to that we managed to buy 117 carts.
Today, as a result of these strange entanglements, I am implementing the JUMP FOR THE PLANET project, which I would not have imagined in my wildest dreams. But nevertheless, it came into being and is already accelerating very strongly. I don’t know how it all happened, but I can’t wait for another day when I will again be watching the struggles of this weak man that I am, who by some strange coincidence finally manages to overcome all the difficulties of fate. I won’t count the hard times I’ve given up, but I also know one thing – I will finish this project because it’s more important than me.
And I will give up many more times, but I will get back up again….
https://jumpfortheplanet.com
Thomas Kozlowski
- Motivational speaker and experienced coach. Psychologist, consultant.
- Author of the book entitled “Historia tysiąca lęków” (literal translation: The story of a thousand fears”– in English Version).
- Initiotor of JUMP FOR THE PLANET Project, Skydiver, tandem-pilot (1700+) – in December 2014, he completed the highest skydive jump in Europe (10,735 m) after being raised to the stratosphere on a hot air balloon.
- In June 21, 2017, he jumped 50 times in 7 hours. Each jump was dedicated to a person with particular problem (cancer, brain tumor, etc.). By this Project he collected over 50.000 EUR for charity purposes, for which he received the award of CHARITY HERO). A year later, he completed 100 jumps in one day, raising $150.000 to finance the purchase of specialised wheelchairs for handicapped children in need of them.
- Specialist in diagnosing teams and leadership.Professional MATRIK Management Trainer.
- Specialist for Crisis Intervention. Works in Poland and New Zealand in the area of TEAM BUILDING projects.
- Conducts training courses taking into account the multicultural aspects (e.g. for Officers of the NATO Multinational Corps – 2011).
- (1995-2012) Rescuer of Mountain Volunteer Search and Rescue (instructor of mountain rescue). Ski instructor.
- Instructor during training of the Polish Military, Police and Special Forces. Certified qualified first aid rescuer.
- Author of training projects concerning the functioning of teams in difficult conditions.
- Completed courses in the scope of critical intervention, psychological support in critical situations as well as psychological and social aid in mass traumatic events.
- At the request of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration, he provided psychological aid to refugees from Lebanon in July 2006.
- Author of publications on health psychology and issues related to the human factor in mountain accidents as well as articles relating to TEAM BUILDING projects and safety during organization of extreme projects.
- Invited as an expert to the main television stations.
Before going to New Zealand in February 2009
- Member of a task force for psychological support of rescue services and organizations of the Department of Critical Management and Defensive Matters of the Ministry of the Interior and Administration. Member of the Polish Association of Research on Traumatic Stress.
- Psychologist of the Polish Medical Mission. Vice President of the Management Board of the Association of Critical Intervention.