What’s Scary?
Posted on 27. Jul, 2007 by Susan in Motivation
"Do something every day that scares you." Eleanor Roosevelt
This is a picture of my son Ryan, after he helped his team score a goal. Second grade flag football. It scared him. Check out the worried and pensive fiddling with his mouth piece shot. I love that one. That’s the "before."
I met a really spiritually advanced teacher recently, named Byron Katie. She very clearly pointed out, that life gives us the teachers that we need in our lives. Especially our children.
While I’ve learned volumes of things from Ryan about life, one thing that I admire about him is that he quickly identifies what scares him, and he does it anyway.
When we enter any theme park, he has usually already researched among other kids to find out what is the scariest roller coaster or ride, and wants to do it first. Now, I know that he’s a bit scared, but he’s driven to do it. He likes to tackle big challenges. At what age do we condition ourselves away from what is challenging? When do we accept, like sheep, that going beyond our comfort zone is a bad thing?
What are the benefits of doing what is "scary?"
Well, we usually find out that it isn’t so scary after all, and the road blocks that we had built in our minds were all not true. On top of that, we get the chance to really live and experience new things.
So far just this year, Ryan has faced his wasp phobia, tubed twice as fast as any adult on our boat, snow mobiled through the continental divide, led a dog sled team, ridden roller coasters, and wants to build his own computer. Was he scared? (shhhh don’t tell him that I told you) YES! Did he love it afterwards? Absolutely!
What are you going to do today, and the next, that is scary?
I think I’m going to start jogging again. I’ve got a bunch of "you can’t do its" to unravel there.
Happy Trails!
Susan
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