02/06/2023
Have you heard of Alex Honnold?
He’s a rock climber that climbed a 3,000 foot (914 meter) rock wall in Yosemite called El Capitan with NO ROPES!
Check out his documentary Free Solo where you can get sweaty palms just watching him.
Anyway, neuroscientists did an fMRI scan of his brain to try and learn more about what makes him tick.
They concluded that his brain doesn’t respond to fear the same way a ‘normal’ brain does.
“That explains it!” I thought.
Of course he can do something no else has ever done… It’s because he doesn’t feel fear the same way as the rest of us.
But here’s what Alex said:
“I find that slightly irritating. Because... I've spent 25 years conditioning myself to work in extreme conditions, so of course my brain is different—just as the brain of a monk who has spent years meditating or a taxi driver who has memorized all the streets of a city would be different."
He said, if anything, it’s his preparation that’s abnormal.
"The level of fear depends on the level of preparation." —Alex Honnold
For example, he was afraid of El Capitan for years. “I’d drive into Yosemite,” look at the wall, and think, ‘No way. Too scary.'”
So to gradually expand his comfort zone, he climbed El Cap hundreds of times with a rope first.
Then on 3 June, 2017, he became the first person to climb El Cap without a rope.
So what does this have to do with you?
No one is born fearless…
If you want to overcome your fears, you have to SLOWLY expand your comfort zone through practice and repetition.
Then over time, you’ll reach the peak of your own ‘El Capitan’.
What do you think?
Do you struggle to overcome your fears?
Leave a comment and let me know.
