Remember when you were a young child and curious about everything? We were bold and fearless in our pursuit of knowledge, wanting to know about all the things the world had to offer. This thirst for adventure was both good and bad. Sometimes we had to learn things the hard way, but it was still a lesson. The innocence of youth allowed us to experience life in an active format.
As we grew older and experience enlightened us, it also exposed us to the constricting emotion of fear. Fear serves a purpose. It helps to keep us out of harm’s way. But it can also restrict us from achieving the best version of ourselves we can be. In order to keep growing as humans, we must take risks to experience new things. Allowing our fears to overcome our ability to try something different brings us to a stalemate in our progress.
The biggest fear stopping us from becoming the best representation of ourselves manifests in the form of failure. How many times have we walked away from a move in class because we struggled with it? We toss it to the end of the trick list, refusing to try it again for a while, sometimes forever. Was it because we didn’t want to learn the move? No. The little voice in the back of our mind telling us we’ll never get it is keep us from trying it again. The fear of failing and never getting it prevents us from progressing.
Never is such a definitive word, yet our minds like to measure things in the extreme. We want immediate gratification both in pole and in life. Don’t be afraid to take risks, to learn from our failures, and keep building ourselves into someone better. Yes, it will take work. It might take a different strategy. Next time we want to quit, just listen to the rhythmic beat of our hearts as our mind start to tell us to stop. Use that heartbeat to remind us to live and be bold. Embrace the fear and keep pushing forward despite it.
