Pick a moment of your life. In that moment, I’ll wager you faced this choice: will you follow? Or will you wander?
Following has its comforts. Hundreds of people have already tried things THAT way, and they seem to be doing okay. There’s nothing wrong with THAT way.
Nothing wrong with it at all. There’s got to be reasons why people don’t try these other ways, though. Right?
Well, yes. There’s a very good reason: all the other ways are scary. We instinctively fear the unknown. The unknown roads—the peculiar fashions—the less-reviewed restaurants. Fear’s a strange way to react to strange things, if you think about it. Fear is an adaptation that’s supposed to boost awareness so we can deal with the dangerous thing over there in the bushes. So what I want to know is, what’s the dangerous thing in trying a restaurant with only two reviews? Seems fairly innocuous. Most restaurants don’t store tigers in the kitchen, waiting for a chance to pounce on unsuspecting diners.
Finish This Responsibility vs Accept a (perhaps) Once in a Lifetime Opportunity in an Industry you LOVE?
This testament to a Hero's Journey is often mired with additional complications. The danger in making choices that affect our future is more insidious. We are afraid of them because we’re afraid of getting thrown off the island. We’re part of this global tribe, you see. Being part of a tribe is one of the most deep-seated needs we have. Which means we have a deep sense to protect our sense of belonging. If some choice steps in front of us, we will almost always choose the thing with the least risk of giving our tribe even the smallest reason to consider casting us out.
So we’ll choose the most popular thing almost every time. If a majority of our tribe picked something, then it’s good odds we won’t be ostracized for picking the same thing.
But perhaps you have have that epic crossroad moment I asked about in the beginning of this story: Perhaps you didn't follow the crowd. Maybe in that moment you picked something strange to do—you turned a different way from normal—you put on a different-than-usual outfit—you picked that unknown restaurant.
“FREEDOM LIES IN BEING BOLD” - Robert Frost
Is it just about being bold yourself, or is this why, perhaps, we need bold souls in our life whose presence in our lives make us bolder by proxy (or by nurtured companionship)?
We asked another Pinrose MUSE, published author Oliver Blakemore:
The answer to that depends on this: who is your tribe? Because it’s true that we all belong to this world wide tribe of humans. But if you think about all the times you did something that felt valuable, I bet you that someone takes part in that memory. Or maybe some few people. Or maybe some memory of a person—meta! Because some people, the ones we know well, the ones we want to know better, they fill us with daring.
These bold souls show us how to be brave. Some people in our lives show us the good in choosing the less traveled road. They don’t even need to lead the way. It can be enough to see how they do bravery.
Some of the bold souls in my life:
My dad. Wanted to be his own boss. Been a self-employed person for his whole career.
My fiancé. Really good at learning the way people usually do things and then NOT doing it that way, because there are other ways to try.
My friend, Kristina. Ahead of the curve in areas of talking to crowds.
Who are your bold souls?
We’d love to hear about them. They’re worth rewarding. We want to send them something for being inspirations to us all. Look at your life and tell us about the bold souls inspiring you. We’ll send them a little gift. And be a little self-aware. If you can’t figure out the bold souls in your life—showing you how to be brave—take some inventory of yourself. It might turn out that you’re the bold soul for someone else.