Suspend your Fears - Travel into the Unknown
- for those in need of inspiration and the strength to push fear aside, with seven awesome quotes to help you take the first step into the unknown -
“If I don’t get on that boat, I know exactly what I’m going home to. If I do, my future is unwritten.”
I recently watched 180° South for the first time, a 2010 documentary about a photographer's grand expedition to Chilean Patagonia. The photographer in name is Jeff Johnson - he is well known for his photos, writing, and his love for surfing and climbing. His quote above is yet another that resonates with me.
In the beginning of the film, Jeff must decide if he'll get on a sailboat for a very long voyage to Chile. It's obvious that he will or else there would be no film, but the way he presents the conflict is what intrigues me. He understands that if he doesn't go on this trip, he'll go back to the same life he's known for years. He also knows if he does hop on that boat for a few months, he is traveling deep into the unknown to achieve a life-long goal of climbing the Corcovado Volcano.
“Suspend your fears - travel into the unknown.”
My quote above has become my motto for the past 12 months, and what I said is extremely reminiscent of Jeff's way of thinking. He urges people to learn that life doesn't have to be lived in a dull, lifeless routine. We need to experience the world and the people around us, rather than shut it all out. When we do so, everything becomes less foreign. The problem is, we are all scared. We all fear something, and most of all, we fear the unknown.
At the point our fear becomes greater than our ambition, we relinquish our ability to progress. Because this is something I feel strongly about, here are seven quotes to inspire you to do more and fear less.
“Fear has always seemed to me to be the worst stumbling block which anyone has to face. It is the great crippler.... You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
“For me, adventure is when everything goes wrong. That’s when the adventure starts.”
“If I had my life to live over, I’d dare to make more mistakes next time. I’d relax, I would limber up. I would be sillier than I have been this trip. I would take fewer things seriously. I would take more chances. I would climb more mountains and swim more rivers.... I would perhaps have more actual troubles, but I’d have fewer imaginary ones.”
“Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you.”
“In life, there are no shortcuts to joy. Anything that is worth pursuing is gonna require us to suffer just a little bit.”
“We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.”
I've attempted to live with these thoughts in mind, and it has changed the way I view the world, the people in it, and my path in life. After starting my own business of filming and taking photos, I watched it grow to something I never thought it would become. I've been able to go places I only dreamed of before and meet people I would've never known otherwise. Sure, it's always terrifying putting yourself out there or committing to something that may result in criticism, but you'll never know what you can accomplish if you're too scared to try.
I'm writing this blog post because one of the things I want most out of life is to inspire people to chase their passions, work hard, be kind to others, and enjoy their time to the utmost. Fear separates us from these things. Fear keeps us from living, loving, and ultimately from being our best selves. So, while being scared is only natural and impossible to completely eliminate, I hope you all can suspend that fear enough to live the way that makes you and those around you smile.
