Monday, January 27, 2014
Overcoming Fear
During the break, I went to California to skateboard and snowboard in Los Angeles and South Lake Tahoe, which caused me to keep my body active during most of the time. And something I pondered a lot was if there was anyway to overcome fear. As a snowboarder, you have to keep pushing yourself in order to learn and land new skills and tricks. However, how good you get only depends on how much you are willing to put your body at risk, and I came to realize that fear is the principal factor that ultimately impedes you to try new things. Fear of getting hurt or fracturing a bone. When I went snowboarding last year in Canada, I tried to overcome this fear as I tried to land new trick but ended up dislocating my left shoulder. And during this Winter break, I was afraid to get injured again, so I concluded that the more knowledge you build upon experiences, the greater your fear, since you're more aware of the consequences. Though to overcome this fear, you must be confident that you can make it.
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When I first learned snowboard, I also got hurt. I had to overcome my fears, and it is not an easy thing to do. But once I learned it, it was all about improving. Improving does have overcoming fear in it (since you have to try new things), but I think that you can improve without having fear, like your example, just practicing your turns and not going to the park. I don't disagree with you idea, but for people who ski/snowboard frequently, might not agree with it, probably because they are so pros that they don't have fear. And this is because of their experience. For me personally, and for you also, having fear is perfectly fine, since we don't have the same number of opportunities to ski/snowboard. Last, but not least, I feel like fear is a positive thing also. It makes you aware of always trying to do the right things. It makes you more responsible, and this is a good thing. So overall, I agree with what you said, but probably someone who ski/snowboard frequently, will probably go against on what you said.
ReplyDeleteHi André,
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with your initial assessment on fear, where you argue that it is the biggest barrier between new experiences and consequently new knowledge.
However, I totally disagree with your conclusion, where you support that more knowledge will lead to more fear. From my past experiences, the only time I am afraid of something, if before doing it for the first time. However after several times doing it, my fear vanishes, and I become more confident on that particular activity. When you support this statement, you are probably focusing on your own emotions, as if everybody else in the world supports this theory. It makes no sense saying that if you know more, you are more aware of the consequences, and thus have more fear. It's the contrary, with more knowledge, you are aware of the consequences, and thus you are more alert to possible dangerous situation. In my opinion, this situation gives me more confidence, and thus I have less fear.
Andre, like Val, I think you've set up the first part of the post well. But then I think you try to wrap up too fast, before you've really explored fear. At the moment in your post where you are closest to an insight, you bail out and jump to a conclusion. Think about it: you had the hypothesis that fear was the only thing holding you back. So you tested it by doing something that was really scary. You hurt yourself. Then you tell us that this winter you were afraid of getting hurt again. This is the point where there's a missing piece. What did you do in response to being afraid of hurting yourself? Is that that the only decision you could have made? What are possible explanations for this? Would this have been different if you had tried something scary and hadn't gotten hurt? Once you cover these, then you have to extend into implications: How can you be sure that knowledge creates fear? How could you test this? Does knowledge always create fear? What would it depend on? Do any of your subject areas support or conflict with this conclusion? Can you apply your conclusion in other settings? What about the logic of your claim: if knowledge creates fear, then wouldn't we all be huddled in our homes, afraid to go outside? Why would your teachers help you get knowledge if knowledge always creates fear? And finally, you seem to bring up a new idea in your last sentence. This needs explaining.
ReplyDeleteSo can see, that a short blog post will suddenly get MUCH longer as you ask yourself questions as you write.
Good idea!