My Fear Of Sharks Is Completely irrational …

… and at the same time, totally debilitating.

A couple of years ago, I was part of a relay team that swam across the Lake Tahoe.

There were six of us total … and we had 13 miles to swim.

The plan was that each of us would start out with a 30 minute stint in the water. I was third up, which meant I was on the guide boat for an hour before it was my turn to swim.

It also meant that two facts would be true when I jumped into the 61 degree water:

Fact 1: I would almost get knocked unconscious by the shock of the cold.

Fact 2: There would be 1,644 feet of clear blue water between me and the bottom of that lake.

Of course … I couldn’t see all the way to the bottom. I could probably see 100 feet down into the expanse of blue.

In my mind that meant there were 1,544 feet where all of the sharks were waiting to rocket toward the surface and eat my skinny ass … then have one of those huge breaches like you see on Shark Week and that would be the end of it for me.

I actually swam my first 30 minutes in backstroke so at least I wouldn’t see them coming.

No bullshit. Like I said … it’s a totally irrational fear.

Funny how fear works like that. It got me thinking how many of my other fears are irrational …

I recognized a lot of the things I was genuinely worried about happening were no more likely to go down than a 16 foot Great White shark being in Lake Tahoe.

For example … I was scared that I would fuck up my kids all because I had no idea how to be a dad.

Well … that and the fact that I say fuck a lot.

Working on it … sort of.

Really though, what was the right thing to do when it comes to helping them be ready for the world? How would I teach them important lessons?

When my son is being a stubborn asshole about cleaning up his toys was the best course of action:

A) Bribe him with ice cream to do it?

B) Give him the “You done fucked up, son” look … grab Optimus Prime from the floor … take it outside … pour lighter fluid on it … strike a match and torch that bitch?

It turns out that the answer is neither of those.

It also turns out that I’m pretty sure I would’ve fucked my son up had I chosen option B.

So what’s the point of all of this?

What does my fear of sharks in Lake Tahoe have to do with my fears that I will fail my kids?

It’s that our fears our irrational when we fail to acknowledge facts about the situations we are in.

When it comes to parenting, we need to acknowledge the fact that there are mindsets and skill sets we don’t inherently have that our going to make our own lives a whole lot easier with young kids.

We have to acknowledge the fact that there are COSTS associated with not learning those.

COSTS for our kids. COSTS for our marriages. COSTS for ourselves.

Time to study up.

If this resonated with you … what I want you to do next is go follow me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/brent.kocal/ where I will give you daily fuel to survive life as an entrepreneur, business owner or executive with young kids.