Dale Jr. and facing fears at a slow speed
On identifying and confronting the things we're afraid of
In this issue:
A lesson on fear from Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A money quote about suffering
Links
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won four Cup races at Daytona International Speedway, the most famous and hallowed grounds in NASCAR. He drove 6,010 laps covering 15,025 miles, the vast majority of them in the 200-mph hour range in front of more than 100,000 people.
But one of the most important laps he took around that 2.5 mile oval happened when the track was empty and he was in, of all things, a Chevy Suburban, moving at a comparative snail’s pace.
It was the summer of 2001, 20 year ago this week, not quite five months after his dad died at the track in a crash on the last lap of the Daytona 500. Before NASCAR returned there that July, Junior was afraid he would hate the track. He was worried he would resent it. He feared that this most historic of sports cathedrals would haunt him.
He wanted to visit the track on his own terms before being there with the throng of the NASCAR community watching his every move. If he was going to break down crying or throw a fit or whatever, he wanted to do it in private. So he showed up at the track one evening with a Suburban packed full of his buddies, pulled out onto the track and ... what happened next … well a) it’s equal parts hilarious and heartfelt and b) I have a feature on it coming out next week at NASCAR.com. I won’t spoil it.
I bring this all up here because of what he did with those fears. It’s a lesson I need to learn over and over again as I face challenges either out in the wild, at work, or as a dad: He identified the fears, named them, forged a plan to face them, and then executed that plan.
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I love this quote from Steven MacDonald: “The suffering is what makes life beautiful. A lot of people don’t have any desire to appreciate life like that. They’d rather sit in a chair and watch TV. People who really aspire to suck as much life out of life as they can are people that in the end are ultimately happy. Adversity creates the best memories.”
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Links
Recent travel/adventure stories:
Good assignments require me to either a) sign a waiver b) use carabiners or c) wear a helmet, and the very best require all three. I had one such assignment last summer … with my daughters. Signing the waivers, clipping the carabiners, strapping on the helmets for them was so much harder.
Pro tip: If your 14-year-old daughter asks to road trip with you, you say yes. We went to Serpent Mounds (among other places, see photo on magazine spread above), one of the most serene, thought-provoking and mystical places I’ve ever been.
What I learned when I spent three days kayaking the river of delights—the mysterious, foreboding, enormous Mississippi River. My friend John was on this trip with me. He took the pictures in the story. This was one of many trips we’ve taken together.
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