Member-only story
Take a risk. It Probably Won’t Kill You.
Our curiosity is bigger than our fears as children.
That’s how we learn what we like, and what we don’t.
We don’t know if we can run, so we try it. It’s worth the risk. At that point, maybe we don’t see the risk. Or maybe we do, and we do it anyway.
Somewhere along the line, we start to learn not to take those risks. Maybe it starts with a well meaning parent. Johnny decides to climb a tree and falls. The parent yells, runs over and scoops up little Johnny. He scraped his knee and there was a little blood, not much. He didn’t even notice.
But once the parents starts with, “Oh no! little johnny, you got a boo boo. And then the kid starts crying…
Then the parent follows with, “Dear Johnny, don’t ever do that again. You might get hurt. Come sit over here beside me where it’s safe.”
That’s how it starts. Maybe not to that extreme, but you get my point.
Over and over, lessons like that get absorbed.
As we grow up, we learn to fear pain, discomfort, and ridicule from our peers. We learn to choose being safe over being happy.
That’s a long slow path to being miserable.
That learning of aversion to risk taking carries over into other aspects of life too.
