https://twitter.com/bpoppenheimer/status/1661852924455034890
In the documentary “Free Solo,” neuroscientists perform an fMRI scan of rock climber Alex Honnold’s brain.
The neuroscientists conclude that Honnold’s brain doesn’t respond to fear stimuli like a “normal” brain.
“I find that slightly irritating,” Honnold later said. "Because…
I’ve spent 25 years conditioning myself to work in extreme conditions, so of course my brain is different—just as the brain of a monk who has spent years meditating or a taxi driver who has memorized all the streets of a city would be different."
Honnold says that, if anything, it is his preparation that is abnormal.
For years, for instance, Honnold was afraid of El Capitan—a 3,000-ft rock wall in Yosemite.
“I’d drive into Yosemite,” he said, “look at the wall, and think, ‘No way. Too scary.'”
So, “to gradually expand [my] comfort zone,” Honnold said, he climbed El Cap hundreds of times with a rope.
Then on June 3, 2017, Honnold became the first to climb El Cap without a rope.
Takeaway 1:
Honnold is right: No one comes hard-wired with the ability to abnormally respond to fear stimuli.
There is a body of research supporting the fact that emotions like fear are shaped by prior experience.
Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett writes in her bestselling book, How Emotions Are Made:
"Your past experiences…give meaning to your present sensations.”
This means that fear and preparation are inversely proportional.
As Honnold puts it, “The level of fear depends [on] the level of preparation.”
Takeaway 2:
Before climbing El Cap without a rope, Honnold strategically expanded his comfort zone by doing incrementally harder and scarier climbs.
It makes me think of the big wave surfer Laird Hamilton.
Laird regularly surfs 40-foot waves. So if he and I were looking at the same 10-foot waves—Laird would see small waves. I would see big, scary waves.
Your prior experiences, Laird says, shape your current perceptions.
If you want to make your stressors or problems seem smaller, Laird says, conquer bigger stressors and problems.
If you want the massive waves to seem more manageable, gradually surf bigger and bigger waves.
If you want the confidence that you can climb a 3,000-ft rock wall without a rope, climb it hundreds of times with a rope.
“If something seems really scary, I either put in more time preparing or I just don’t do it.” — Alex Honnold
Here’s a link to the “Free Solo” Documentary (https://amazon.com/Free-Solo-Dierdre-Wolownick/dp/B07HM95Q4L…) I also quoted from this Alex Honnold interview (https://hbr.org/2021/05/lifes-work-an-interview-with-alex-honnold…) Here’s a link to “How Emotions Are Made” by
(https://geni.us/sAynle) And the Laird Hamilton reference is from this interview (https://open.spotify.com/episode/21AOoYTrUCf8YetMDZ0MQB?si=mlc7Re_GQEifIaq2yJccOQ&context=spotify%3Ashow%3A039MxsYIYljMCoPcuJZdiI…)
For me part of the preparation is emotional. And part of it is taking small steps to build my preparation.
This astounding feat I heard about before… but not the 100 climbs that preceded it with a rope. So… we often see people doing things that feel astounding to us, or immensely uncomfortable to imagine doing on ourselves! Yet… how much prep went into them?
Interesting, eh?
Rick