The secret connection between stupidity and success

During the first years of our life we try new things and experiment every day. That’s how we learn. One of the key things we learn at some point is fear. Fear is awesome because it prevents us from injury or death. We’ve all heard that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, so we shouldn’t let fear prevent us from that goal.

And yet we tend to turn into very presumptuous idiots… 
Indeed we start to “think”.

We “think” working abroad is impossible.
We “think” climbing that mountain is impossible.
We “think” a girl or guy is way out of our league.

We “think” that things are impossible because “thinking” feels much safer than actually trying. And so we keep rolling along in our comfort zones.

“Thinking” keeps you from facing your fears, even the most insignificant ones

I remember going out for a run with a friend few years ago. She was running at my speed up the hills, but I had to wait for her every time we descended. It was driving me crazy so asked her why, she told me “I can’t run faster”. I asked “Did you try? Did you try to run down the hill until you’re almost falling over?”. She answered, NO.

How can you know or even get closer to your full potential if you don’t try to grasp its limits?

I began to run behind her, nudging her just a little with a single finger and gradually increasing our speed. She’d never run that fast, and almost threw up at the end of the run, but she learned that she could do what she’d thought was impossible.

This story is a good reminder that it can take something as small as the push of a finger to create a big difference, a small kick to start facing your fear and seeing that everything is possible! Of course you need to “think” to make things happen more effectively, to find the right solution, etc, etc… But each time you start to question whether you should or shouldn’t do something, first ask yourself if you aren’t just holding yourself back because it’s scary!

How do you know you can’t run a marathon? Climb a mountain? Work in Paris or New York? Turn freelance? Travel the world? Learn a new language? Change your career? How do you know? If you can’t answer this question simply and clearly, then the only way to know for sure, is to try. And you may fail, but you won’t have that doubt anymore. And you’ll be surprised by how often it works out way more easily than you expected.

So take a chance, be a little stupid and try more. You might just surprise yourself by how fast you can actually “run”.

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