Josh Allred's Blog

There’s clinical anxiety that is difficult to overcome. That is a whole separate conversation. What I wanted to write about is the general anxiety that humans face.

All of us worry. We worry about things that haven’t even happened yet. In fact, we experience this anxiety based on a movie we have played in our heads. One that causes us stress as we imagine the worst thing that can happen.

Then the thing we are worried about passes and we are usually fine. But then we perpetuate the cycle by worrying about the next thing.

The difficulty is in identifying the trigger. What causes us to worry about something that hasn’t happened yet? Why do we let our imagination change our current mood? Why are we living in the future and not the present moment? Why play through this movie over and over again, imagining the worst that could happen? Do we really know this is how it will play out or is it fiction?

All things to consider as we overcome our fears.

“You are only as young as you feel.”

An older cheetah doesn’t look at younger cheetahs in jealousy. Age is very much a human construct. It is an imaginary number we have created. A way to measure how many times around the sun someone has traveled.

But no one cares other than humans how old you are.

The reason I say this is because the science says the older we get, the more rigid we become. We stay in our ways, get comfortable with our thought patterns, we think we have things figured out. Nothing can be further from the truth. No matter how set we are there is still room for change. Our brains are plastic. It just takes more effort.

Leonard Cohen didn’t begin his music career until his 30s. Hallelujah was initially rejected. Bob Moore was 45 before he opened up his first Mill.

You don’t need more time, you just need to start.

When Alex Honnold is inevitably asked why he climbs some of the tallest walls in the world without a rope, his answer is the same as many athletes who engage in high consequence sports–he loves it.

It was the same for Phillippe Petite and even artists like Shepard Fairey who lay it on the line.

The love of the activity outweighs the consequences. To them, it is worth the risk. It doesn’t mean the fear disappears. Death is still inevitable but indeed feels very present in these moments. Much like one has a close call in driving a car.

The love of what one does truly can overcome all. Even fear.

Love-based decisions versus fear-based change our choices. We might not jump in front of a bullet for a stranger but would perhaps do it for your child.

A two-record set had two sides to it. Side 1 and Side 4 were on one record. Then Side 2 and Side 3 on another record. You could play them all in a changer without having to stand up and change them.

But each side could only hold 23 minutes of music on it.

That’s a lot of interruptions to get into a flow.

I know for me, I can get really irritated if I manage a flow state only to be interrupted. So much so, it can ruin the great experience I just had.

Don’t.

Instead, treat interruptions like a record player. Just wait for the record to change and keep listening.

If you want to start a band, you can. Simple as that. No lawyers or permits or permission are needed.

However…

There is no guarantee that it will make you a living. You are not entitled to have people come and listen. You probably will get booed.

That is what being in a band is.

Learning to deal with rejection. Practicing. Getting feedback and getting better.

No promises but you do get to start.

There actually isn’t the worst flavor. It’s just jelly beans. Some flavors are obviously more popular than others.

It turns out there’s even a market for like black pepper, sausage, earwax, or soap jelly beans.

Your idea isn’t bad just cause it isn’t popular. It’s just different.

Phantom fear gets in the way of real learning. We worry about the unknown. The loon noises. The things that get in the way of us fully experiencing something. We often hesitate and don’t fully commit. Paradoxically, in the process, increasing our chances of failure.

You are not entitled to your desired outcome. No matter how much effort you put in. Even if it was stolen.

The question I have is, what makes you think you know which outcome is best for you in the long run?

And if you got every outcome you desired, how would you learn anything?

Death is the ultimate teacher. The lows allow us to appreciate the highs. Some much more to take away from a failure than a success. How high do you know to fly if you never push a limit? How do you know where the limit is if you don’t go for it?

The ceilings we often imagine are made of glass, not an iron curtain.

A hundred years ago, it was predicted that automation would be so advanced that we would not have to work today.

Of course, we were wrong but it doesn’t seem to be out of the question in the next 100 years (or sooner) that AI will be so advanced that most jobs will become obsolete.

However, this opportunity terrifies many. For good reason. We say we want free time. Yet, we want something to do, a reason to get up every morning, to feel validated and important. We often trade security and reliability to be told what to do next.

Working less is indeed a sales pitch.

What we say we want doesn’t match the opportunities we take.

Everyone remembers what they were doing the morning of September 11, 2001.

But do we remember what we were doing on September 10, 2001?

It is the highs and lows we remember. Not the routine and the banal.

It took Anne Sulivan ten weeks to teach Hellen Keller the word water.

Keller said, “I knew then that ‘w-a-t-e-r’ meant the wonderful cool something that was flowing over my hand. That living word awakened my soul, gave it light, hope, joy, set it free.” 

That night, Keller ended up learning 30 more words. The rest is history.

Finding words where words were absent can truly enlighten and heal us.