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?

1. The social driver: fear of losing reputation.
2. The financial driver: fear of losing wealth.
3. The emotional driver: fear of losing a love attachment.
4. The physical driver: fear of getting injured.
5. 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.