Fear to a great extend, is born of a story we tell ourselves. - Cheryl Strayed
You made a great point here, Cheryl.
Most of the time fear is a construct of our imagination. It's also an essentation part of self-prevention being driven by evolutionary rules: If it scares you, it might kill you. Thus, it doesn't contribute to survival.
However, in our today's world risk has many more faces.
'What would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn't fail?' I stumpled upon that question in a today's published article by @unterwegs (German: on the road). What an interesting line!
If we had nothing to lose, would we be much braver than we're now?
This picture was kindly provided by pixabay.com
If you had one safe shot, what would you do?
Since I read @unterwegs' post about his current trip on the famous Way of St. James (Camino de Santiago), I'm wondering what I would do if I wasn't able to fail.
What surprised me most is that a million answers suddenly came to my mind! Actually I've always considered myself to be a relatively 'brave' person. I find pleasure in trying new things, am neither afraid of change nore challenge and usually prefer to try and fail instead of regretting a missed chance.
But it seems that even the bravest are not completely fearless.
What are possible drivers that keep us off certain dreams?
- The social driver: fear of losing reputation.
- The financial driver: fear of losing wealth.
- The emotional driver: fear of losing a love attachment.
- The physical driver: fear of getting injured.
- The psychological driver: fear of failing in general.
There might be even more!
Most of the time our angst is directly related to other people that surround us. So compared to the pure self-oriented survival instinct I mentioned before, our today's challenges are often socially driven.
Talking about fear and stepping over edges: Here's the video of my one and only bungee jump, done from a 50m high crane into Munich's Olympic regatta route in May 2010. I called it 'Angslust' - haha! No more words needed.
Ah and yes, I voluntarily decided on dipping into the water - lol
I still need to laugh a lot when I watch that clip. There is this priceless moment when I suddenly stop talking like a waterfall. It happened when the instructor opened the belt and I knew: oh shit, it's for real. I will jump into that river. Haha!
It was a great experience, but I wouldn't repeat it.
I suffered a heavy dizziness during 48 hours after the jump, and that really scared me. When I bounced out of the water the rope rotated very quickly for an unknown reason. So my body got round and round and round...
Again, it was a great moment, but it's nothing I would need to do twice.
Now my one and only passion is surfing. And getting back to my initial question in this article: I would definitely attempt a lot of things in the water if I knew that I couldn't fail!
If I had a safe shot while surfing, I would try to ride the bigger waves.
But my instinctive fear and the respect for the power of these massive water walls in combination with the awareness regarding my own skills and limits, tells me to not even attempt to do it.
If I had one shot, I'd ride a monster wave, no doubt about that!
That's my extreme point of view from a surfer's perspective.
Taking risks and stepping over the edge is something we're also able to do in our regular daily routine. Just to give you one example: 'Who stands up in a meeting and tells his boss that he doesn't agree with him?' You may be celebrated for your bravery and commitment, but you could also be punished for breaking ranks.
Failure can have many faces, and most of the time we don't fear the consequences of our doings but failing itself.
So what would you do when you had one safe shot?
Looking forward to reading your stories,
Marly -
Thanks for your valuable time!
This blog was launched at the end of July 2016
aiming to provide stories for open-minded
people who enjoy living on the edge of their lives,
stepping out of comfort zones, going on adventure,
doing extreme sports and embracing the new.
Welcome to the too-much-energy-blog!
PS: Don't forget that this is a troll-free zone.
Original content. Quote found on foodforthoughtblog1.com.
WOW! I've been bungee jumping too and it was an experience for sure. That's a great question... if I could do anything with one safe shot... I think I would like to hang out with lions. I think that would be such a magical experience! :)
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Hang out with lions! What an amazing idea!! Really cool :-)
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Thanks for this great post and thank you for mentioning me.
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Vielen Dank an Dich für die Inspiration!!! :-)
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I would make a space shuttle that can travel with the the speed of my will and explore the universe and visit all other life forms out there
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Nice.
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OMG!
My comment was in your blog already goddamit!
As i was saying.......
This!
Bungee was good, Free-fall amazing - So i guess it's this one next!
Welcome to Too Much Energy Blog Wednesday! :D
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Haha, dublicated content is part of our daily business on steemit right now... I hope they will fix the comment functionality quickly.
I'd never try to free-fall to be honest. Every passion has their limits, haha! But I jumped off an airplane once and did a nice skydive, that was also a lot of fun :-)
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Such a brilliantly positive post @surfermarly! I LOVE stumbling across motivational stuff like this! It is right up my alley and completely my cup of tea! We ALL need a lot more of this in our lives - DAILY!!!
I love thinking about things from this precise perspective, because when you remove doubt from your mind, anything is possible! In addition to this - removing doubt permanently is simply a process of repetition, as the mind will believe anything you tell it often enough!
Really awesome write up! Thoroughly enjoyed it!
If you are keen - I would like to invite you to join my recently launched discord server "Steemit Bloggers" - it is still in infancy stages as I only launched it about three weeks ago, but it has grown amazingly already! Here is the invite link if it takes your fancy: https://discordapp.com/invite/gRypnga
Thanks again for spreading such uplifting content x
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Thanks for your positive and encouraging feedback, @jaynie! I really appreciate that :-)
To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of chat rooms in general, but thank you very much for the invitation anyways. I will come over when I'm on discord the next time.
Have a great day, and again thanks for your kindness!
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Only a pleasure :) and no problem, I completely understand @surfermarly! you can pop by whenever! Take care and keep on being awesome ;)
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What wouldn't I try to do. I would try to take on every project my mind could conceive. The only difference is I would try to stay focused on them long enough to see them achieve the most it has to offer. Be careful and be safe don't do anything to risk your health.
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Quit working and travel the world.
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Haha, not an option for me personally, but a lot of steemians are on that track. The #travel section is full of world travelers here :-)
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predict which cryptos will be top 5 in the next 10 years.
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LOL - nice one :-)
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excellent post sharing
Upvoted and following updates..
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Excellent post. I keep the quote on my refrigerator, " What would you do if you were not afraid of failure?" I have stepped out several times but I have to admit that I was fearful!
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Haha, I have a lot of quotes at my refrigerator, too :-)
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fantastic post, i saw that video clip and wow you are so brave indeed, the way you jump is simply unbelievable but you did it, well you ask a question what would i do if i had one safe shot, i would definitely love to buy bitcoins at low rate, stay awesome and enjoy your week ahead thanks for sharing
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This is one experience I'm happy to live vicariously, through your excellent video!
If I "couldn't fail," I would have pursued a career as a professional pilot, starting about 23 years ago. Mild narcolepsy has meant that avoiding that career-track may have been a life-saver!
I think real courage involves analyzing - and accepting - a certain level of risk, and deciding that the risk matches your priorities. Then again, sometimes you've just got to jump.
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If I couldn't fail I would put all on Red.
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LOL
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OMG!
My comment was in your blog already goddamit!
As i was saying.......
This!
Bungee was good, Free-fall amazing - So i guess it's this one next!
Welcome to Too Much Energy Blog Wednesday! :D
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wow! very nice post
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Woww .. It looks very challenging, you do it with calm and good. I love the challenge especially with the background of the beautiful scenery, thanks @suefermarly has shared this fun looking post ..!
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A very brave girl. This jump can do not everyone.
We must have the courage to do it.
Congratulations.
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A very brave girl. This jump can do not everyone.
We must have the courage to do it.
Congratulations.
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Hi dear @surfermarly, very attractive and interesting post full of adventure, video is amazing you done a great in this video. Your passion for surfing and excitement is praiseable and Very nicely in detail written article about fear.
:- Have a look on my latest post, hope for positive feedback, Thanks.
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Congratulations @surfermarly, this post is the tenth most rewarded post (based on pending payouts) in the last 12 hours written by a Hero account holder (accounts that hold between 10 and 100 Mega Vests). The total number of posts by Hero account holders during this period was 203 and the total pending payments to posts in this category was $2962.65. To see the full list of highest paid posts across all accounts categories, click here.
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nice work man
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Man? :-D
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Hi dear @surfermarly, very attractive and interesting post full of adventure, video is amazing you done a great in this video. Your passion for surfing and excitement is praiseable and Very nicely in detail written article about fear.
:- Have a look on my latest post, hope for positive feedback, Thanks.
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fail
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If I were not so cowardly, I would write a book and take it to the editor :)
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ungli
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You shaddapa!
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Sehr schöner Post, muss mir die Quelle der Inspiration unbedingt anschauen, heute ja extrem aktiv meine Liebe :-)
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Hehe, Dankesehr mein Lieber! :-)
Ja, heute habe ich glaube ich so viel gepostet wie noch nie - bin total platt, haha!
Bis morgen :-*
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I want to fly like Superman, but ...
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aa thuuuu
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i think , the work faild
you try again to do.
god bless..you
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