Jumping into the cold water

Intellectualization is when you take an emotional problem or pain point and try to solve it logically

Mark Manson

I stood at the bank of the cold pond at Dancing Rabbit Ecovillage, hemming and hawing about whether or not to jump in. I felt the fear overtake my body. Finally, after many, many minutes, I jumped, despite the full body feeling telling me not to.

This was an emotional problem. It could only be solved by going through the emotion of fear.

It was not an intellectual problem. I could have written a logical essay about how the cold water would not have killed me. But that wouldn’t have helped. The only thing that solves emotional problems is feeling the emotions.

Studies find that people who are confident or who perform well under pressure still get
anxious. They still register similar signals in their body, their adrenaline still pumps.
What’s different is their perception of their ability to accomplish what they need to
accomplish.

Mark Manson

I love this clip:

“I’m not better at it [opening the milk carton]. I deal with the stress better than they do,” says Louis CK.

Dealing with the stress better requires exposure. All the intellectualization in the world won’t help. Open the milk carton. Jump in the water.