Sunday, March 20, 2005

A Lesson in Fear from a Surf Legend

This was reported by Scott DeVaney in Wave Magazine:
Fear keeps you alive. Fear makes you aware of things that are not possible, situations that are not going to have a happy ending. Fear is a healthy thing. Fear is what stirs the challenge. You can use fear to motivate, or it can just shut people down, freeze them up.
-- Jeff Clark

Jeff Clark was the first person to ride the insane waves that swell off a Half Moon Bay surf spot called the Mavericks. For 15 years (1975-1990), he was the only person in the world that dared surf the 50+ foot (and sometimes as large as 80 feet!) waves that swelled there.

I think what Jeff said hits the nail squarely on the head. Fear, like fire, can be a good servant, but a very poor master. It can be a fantastic driving force, but also can be a nigh-impassable barrier.

Mark Twain expounded
Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.

Mastery of fear, that's where it's at.

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