The Key To Becoming A Total Badass Might Just Be Nascar After All
“The opposite of fear is freedom”
I recently attended a country fair held in Bridgewater, Connecticut. It was a lot of fun, filled with livestock, fried dough, tractor-pulls and games of skill and chance. The place was busy and buzzing, and that especially held true when the loudspeaker suddenly cried out that the motor cross attraction was just about to begin.
As my boyfriend and I made it over to proper location, I became instantly mesmerized, not unlike the rest of the crowd. In fact, it was all that I could do to refrain from screeching with sheer delight and amazement as I watched three young daredevils perform tricks that every mother in the crowd would admonish their own sons for doing. The photos, above, speak for themselves. And yet, not once, throughout the entire performance, did any of these gentlemen show even a smidgen of fear.
My thoughts quickly turned to a phrase I recently read in a great book I picked up at Atticus Bookstore Cafe in New Haven, “You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” (Author Jen Sincero, Running Press). The phrase noted how freedom was the opposite of fear. The author would go onto say that “if you want to live an awesome life, you need to shake off fear and seek freedom through one solid, irreversible decision.”
Certainly the guys careening through the air in their brightly colored gear demonstrating all kinds of heart-stopping tricks couldn’t make for a better visual representation of this principle. I can’t imagine there is a more freeing experience or feeling in the world than mastering flight on a motorcycle with such unshakable confidence. Sorta makes all the rest of the boogie men and challenges in life a whole lot less scary when you do that, I am sure.
This was an unexpected reminder that has me wrapping my arms around a few really exciting, new opportunities and challenges of my own even more tightly. No, none of them will send me sailing through the air quite like these guys. But free me to do a few things that I have always wanted while growing me in ways that will stand to increase the influx of awesomeness in my life? That it will, my friend.
“The sky’s the limit” in other words; fear is the nemesis to greatness; and the universe needs another badass in it. Who knew so much would come from a simple ride in the country or choice to kill time in a bookstore?
Imagine the revelations that might have emerged in me had I attended Nascar. Come to think of it, maybe that’s next. Oh won’t my boyfriend be thrilled to discover I finally made that leap!
Nascar, here we come!!!!