Adulting Decrypted

S-7 E-4 Fear Stuff

January 31, 2024 Roscoe Allen Season 7 Episode 4
Adulting Decrypted
S-7 E-4 Fear Stuff
Show Notes Transcript

We discuss running from Bears, Avoiding Rattle Snakes and the occasional heigh story.  We had a fun time discussing Fears and how to overcome them and to realize what we need to do to improve our chances of feeling Brave! Find this and many other episodes by category on our website! https://adultingdecrypted.com/episode-search/

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Dad:

This episode we're gonna talk about fear, a question has anything scared you in the last couple weeks? Nope.

Ashton:

I'm fearless.

Dad:

That's awesome.

Gid:

Yeah.

Ashton:

Yeah. You're fearless. Straight up. No unshakable. I'm also above fear unless there's a

Dad:

loud noise, in which case I get very, very

Gid:

spooked.

Welcome to Adulting Decrypted. We are your hosts. I'm Gene and I'm starting my first year of college. I'm Ashton. I'm a music performer, composer, and educator. I'm Gene a high school senior. I'm Roscoe the dad. Those are my three sons, and this is Adulting Decrypted where we discuss ways to become adults and the things we need to know to be successful at life.

Gid:

oh my gosh. I actually had something happen last night that freaked me out. Okay. Okay. Please hear. So yeah, I was Okay. Just for the listener's sake, we are not at our home right now. Not where normally hang out. We're in Cabo, Mexico, and I had to get up at like three A.M. to go to the bathroom and I get back out. I turn to go back to the bedroom that I'm sleeping in and I see a shadow of a person just staring right back at me. Unmoving. I was like, this is freaking terrifying. I was like, somebody's in this place, and I like, I slowly moved and I realized that it was a mirror on the wall that I forgot was there. That was awesome. Terrifying. You're really

Dad:

spooky. So, you know, that is, I've, I had a stuff bear one time at Paul's. House, Paul Allen's house scared me pretty good because I couldn't figure out why there was a monster in the room. Mm. That

would

Ashton:

be spooky.

Gene:

Yeah, I remember that. There's been a time where I've been at the cabin well, Paul's Cabin used to be, I think. But like down in their basement, they have a bunch of mounts of these different tears and like I'd fall asleep watching the tv, which

Dad:

is in the

Gene:

same room, and I don't know why, but my brain would always be like. These animals are gonna just turn and start talking to you. And I'm like, that's

Ashton:

creepy.

Dad:

Why is this happening? Yep.

Ashton:

That's, that's scary. I can

Dad:

confirm., Good intro there to fear. Now this came up with me as, we were getting ready to come to Cabo, you know, and the fear of the unknown and, and what was gonna happen. And then I was thinking about what you guys are trying to take this year. Gene, you're at school. For all intents and purposes, you're gonna have to start talking to girls. A little scary. Super scary. Yep. Ashton's off. launched a new program up at the school you're working at, and it comes with its elements. You're always a little bit nervous about what's going on with, other leadership at at the schools. little bit of fear around that, as well as starting to do a budget and some of those things you haven't done before on a district level or, Gideon, you're obviously senior in high school. You're gonna have some big changes coming up here. You're gonna start growing hair. No, I'm just kidding. Yep. No, it's true. There's, you're gonna have other changes, right? You're gonna get ready to take off potentially do a mission, get ready for college, you know, those different things. So I really wanted to take a few minutes and talk about fear. And the concepts of fear. I think the first one that we've already identified is that, is that protective fear, right? Gideon, when he got up outta bed last night, it's a survival mechanism, right? To almost stare down that animal or that person, or whatever it is that's right there in front of you. Right. And then you have to get in that, what's, what's that often called? Fight or flight. Or freeze. Yeah. Fight, flight or freeze. I, I'm glad they added that last one in there.'cause normally we used to just call it fight or f fight or flight. But as we watch different animals, some do freeze and hope that the, the situation, they don't, they don't see them take a deer in the headlights. Yep. I love that. Yep. Fight or flight or freeze. So, because it's, it's really a preparation for the body right. To, to react. What, what's are some of these real fears, right? Right. Besides being caught in the mirror. What are some other fears like that, that are real?

Gene:

Somebody like Suspiciously following you either from work or from school or anywhere. Okay. Just feel like you're in a sketchy part of town where you feel like it, like something suspicious is going on.

Dad:

Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. For another example I was thinking of is a fear for me is of heights. Mm-Hmm. Right. There's times that it, it really is there to protect me. It, its whole intent is to help me so that I don't fall off a building. Right. It keeps me from going up in an airplane and jumping without a parachute, you know, that's, that, that's really there to help protect you from real physical harm, and, and it's built there for a reason. I mean, it's helped us as, as a species evolve and become who we are. With that being said, you know that protective fear can, can be out of line, right? There's times that we have to check that fear of heights. Can that get outta control? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like you could just

Gene:

go up two flight, like go up a flight of stairs and look down the set of stairs and get petrified collapse onto the floor. Probably not

Dad:

a proper response to that. Yeah. And, and I think that's our, our second type of fear that we wanna talk about is false evidence appearing real. And that's, that's that where we're seeking for a bigger fear isn't gonna come to pass So the protective fear is something that, that we all have to realize is there. It protects us, it helps us, but then once, and that doesn't happen really that often, it shouldn't happen that often. How many times are you encountered by a, a wild animal? Not very often, I would say. Yeah, it's a little spooky when it happens. It is, but not very often. Yeah, but, and it per, per, perhaps you for that fight-or-flight. Right. There's an, an emotional response, but then me, the other day when we're walking through town here, a cat jumped out. My initial response was to jump back, didn't know if it was a dog coming out in the street, didn't know what it was. Then as soon as I realized what it was, I was able to calm my fear, get right back down to a rational level and say, okay, it's gonna be fine. Because we're not in that fight-or-flight scenario very often in, in our day to day. Now, if you're a first responder, you know, if you're a police officer, you might have more of that and there might be a reason for that. But a lot of times this fear that we have is just that false evidence appearing real. And that's around a lot of what I wanted to talk about today.

Gid:

Just a quick question. Can we add on maybe like. Emotional fears. So maybe like, I know just a, an example that I have is like a fear of not having enough money it's not necessarily a physical threat. It could be eventually, you know, don't have enough money to have a place to live or something to eat, but there's, there's that fear as well. More of a psychological

Dad:

fear. Yeah. I love it. That's what I really want to talk about on this fear section. Because this fear is something that we need to think about and that we need to process and understand why we're going through it. Gideon, I think you and I had a conversation a couple weeks ago, about that fear because of everything else that was going on, right? I'm going, look, I haven't worked for six months. I go to this cycle of where I'm going, oh, there's not gonna be enough money and I can get myself in this downward spiral. That fear is where you have to really start evaluating, where's it coming from? What's the root cause of that, right? An animal, you know, where the root cause you're like, Hey, I need to survive, but these other things you need to really start to dig into. So yeah, that's what I want to talk about today. And then a couple ways to, to combat that fear and to overcome that fear, because that's. That's a real obstacle. It's one thing to identify it, but it's another thing to say, how do I overcome that? So, did I know some of your fears correctly, or are there other fears that you have that are going into this year about what's coming up that, that we could use as an example for the listener? I,

Gene:

I know like with school, it's a lot of, making sure to get homework in on time. Scheduling out my time correctly getting to places I need to be without a car and just meeting a bunch of new people. At least those are some extra things for me.

Dad:

Thank you for being so candid. Jean, Ashton, getting anything on your guys's end.

Gid:

I think we've already hit most of my main fees.

Dad:

Perfect. Any concern about track this year?

Gid:

For the listener who might not know? Track and field? Not necessarily. Okay. Just mostly planning to have fun

Dad:

because you've done it. Been there, done that, I guess. Yeah. Ashley

Ashton:

No, I think you about covered

Dad:

it. Awesome. Okay, good. So, so I think the first thing is to really evaluate what it is that's, that's bothering you on that topic. So for me, the, the financial one is I have to monthly because of where I'm at, I write down the list of my assets. I take my assets, I take my liabilities, and I take a real look at where I'm at, right? So part of that is to be honest with yourself and honest with where you're at on that trajectory and on that plane, and then say, okay, this is where I'm at now. How do I improve upon it? Right? So to get into your point, you say, oh, not enough money to feed the family or to have a house, or, you know, all I have to do is look at that sheet and go, okay, that fear is not really that valid. The fear might have other root causes that then it's okay to go to therapy on some of those, right? Because I can, if I can't handle it, if I get so wrapped up or there's, there's you know, prescriptions that you can get to help you calm down and, and think through some of those safer because really the psychological and emotional fear. Is is real. Right? That's the bigger thing is that we, we wanna say appearing real, but it is real to us. Right. When we're getting ready for this trip, what are some of the fears I had? Well, some of the fears I had were, oh, what if the lady's not at the airport with the car? Do you think that'd be scary to show up and be like, Hey, family, here we are on vacation. I rented a car from somebody I've never met. I've already given them half the money and then they don't show up. Is that a real fear? Yeah. Yeah, it absolutely is real. But is it one that's a fight, flight or freeze? No, it's something I can plan for. I said, okay, if this happens, then we've got a backup. We can get a shuttle even on Christmas day, last minute.'cause I reached out to a couple other people that said, yeah, shuttle services will be running. This is how much they are. And you can book same day. Right. So, so that's, I, I came up with a, a secondary plan. So, Gene on yours, you know, getting your homework done. What, what are some ideas around that?

Gene:

Scheduling out the time making sure I know how much it's gonna take me or just being like, Hey, I have enough time right now. I'll just try to get it done early. And then that way if I need to do

Dad:

it later on, I can. Yeah, so you made a plan, right? So you look at it and you go, okay, logically how do I make a plan? Great. Gideon, what about you With everything you've got going on?

Gid:

I know especially with the new year just coming around when it comes out, it'll be a couple weeks. But the whole goal setting orientation of like New Year's resolutions and stuff, that's a really good way, at least for me personally, to deal with fears around stuff like that.'cause a lot of my fears. Come around with the idea of my goals not being achieved. So just regularly checking up on those goals can really help diminish that

Dad:

fear. I love it. Yeah. So you're taking a long term approach, so you're looking at it saying, okay, what's my long term approach? What, what actions do I need to put in place for the long term? Yep, exactly. Great. You know, there are, with us being on that topic, there are long-term consequences of our goals. If we don't put those in check, right? If we don't say, okay, that is a valid fear that I, that I'm feeling, but then we also have to put it into check. A lot of times I think those long-term consequences are ego talking. Have you guys thought much about your ego? A little bit, but I've normally,

Gene:

when I've heard of the word ego, it's always been in a negative connotation. But I don't think that's the

Dad:

way you're using it right now. No, it is. It is negative probably. Because your ego is your one that's trying to protect you from that fear. Doesn't want you to go in there and be like, oh no, if I go ask this girl out, I'm gonna be embarrassed. It's your ego. Mm-Hmm. Okay. Right. If it's saying, Hey, I'm, I can't set this goal because what if I don't do it? What if I fail? We're almost talk Psychologically, talking ourselves out of, of trying hard things because we get so worried about failure, rejection, embarrassment. Instead of saying, okay, look, that's okay if that happens. I will get over it. We talked about it last episode, that all these things will work together for my good, even if I'm embarrassed, even if this doesn't work out, even if I fall flat on my face. Yeah. I'm gonna learn something and it's gonna be better Gideon, I think today you're doing some back flips. I was on the beach. Yeah. What were they called?

Gid:

So there's the normal backflip and then I was doing. Round off backflips as well as j backflips is what I like to call

Dad:

them. Yeah. Very cool. And what's the risk on, on one of those going south?

Gid:

The ultimate risk, I guess would be like breaking your neck or

Dad:

your spine. Yeah. So there's real, there, there could be a risk in there, there's, there's really a risk that has kept me from trying Because I'm going, oh, the risk is too high. Because I'm afraid of not being able to come around. Correct. But then I watch you with this little kid and you're able to help him work through some of that risk aversion, you're like, okay, how do we take some of this risk out of it? Did he listen?

Gid:

Not particularly. No. No. He didn't quite

Dad:

listen. But because he was little, he's made a rubber. He's like, look, I got no risk. I'm not scared of nothing. Going back to Ashton's earlier statement that kid's not afraid of nothing.

Ashton:

He was more than happy to spin himself as many times as he wanted and land as poorly as he wanted.

Dad:

Yep. Hey. But he did

Ashton:

it. I credit, I can't. No, that's fine. I. That's

Dad:

true. He could do it. Yeah. But he was willing to throw himself out there, because his risk aversion was so low. Now at 50, I look at that and go, man, if I screw that up, I won't walk for months. You know? Now if I broke my spine or my neck, it'd be different. But if I landed like this little guy did, which was never really, he was never in danger, but the way he hit his knees and his back and his head, I would've been like, oh man, that would've jacked me up. The way he is sticking those landings or not sticking those landings.

Gid:

Yeah, that's fair.

Dad:

The way he was landing. There you go. I like it. So, so then we say, okay, well if I wanna avoid these risks how do we still I'm trying to think of how to ask this question. That doesn't sound condescending, but if we're trying to avoid. Risk aversion, right? And we're trying to, trying to not do that. How do we still step out and, and try new things if we know there's not a physical danger that's gonna happen

Ashton:

well something that I think about a lot, and I think I've talked about on this podcast before was how when I was younger I needed to walk the dog and I liked walking in the mountains, but I was really, really scared of snakes, specifically rattlesnakes, which we get near our home. And and I remember you mentioning once you're like, Hey it's okay to be scared of something, but you can't let that fear stop you from doing that thing. And something that you suggested then something that I approach a lot as a solution is planning on what to do when that thing is encountered. I mean so like. The Snakes are in the mountains, they're gonna be there. If you hear a rattlesnake, you just step back and you move the other way. Really quite simple. But as long as you know what to do versus freaking out, that's, I mean, that's enough. So like when it comes to common fears day-to-day fears. Something as simple as just, you know, a little plan of action when, when something occurs can give you enough of a backdrop and motivation to try a thing. So like when you're jumping bikes or you're jumping. Or like for me, like I like to play football and if you ever dive for a catch, you know, you know you shouldn't land with your hands flat or else you might bust a wrist or like skiing. You've gotta land a proper way. So just

Dad:

thinking about those sorts of things. Yeah. Which would really jeopardize your career, if you landed flat goofing around and and busted both your wrists, that would suck. Yeah, it would, it would, you spend quite a bit of time with your hands, I mean Yep. Pretty valuable to your profession? Yep. They're a

Ashton:

constant tool that I

Dad:

use, so Yep. Breaking them would not be great. You know, it's, it's interesting we have friends who are oral surgeons and dentists and they stopped playing pickup football'cause they're going, man, if I broke a hand, you know, would, it would jeopardize my business substantially. They look at the math on that and say, okay, that's not worth the risk because it's so great. But to your point, Ash is when you look at a risk and go, okay, now I know how to avoid that damage of that. Yep. And I'm, and I'm planning ahead. The risk is minimized, but it might not ever go away completely. Right. You could still jam a finger, you could still hurt a wrist, but you've done everything you can to make it less impactful. So now when our ego's involved, how do you do that? I mean, any thoughts on how we keep our ego in check? Well, it

Ashton:

depends on how you think about ego. Because if you think about it through like the Freud, the Freudian lens of the ego-ID and the super ego, like ego is just based in reality. Whereas the ID is all your instincts and then the superego is based on morality. So like you, just balancing those three characteristics

Dad:

entirely, but No, that's interesting. I, I hadn't thought about the superego and the ID and the ego. Mm-Hmm. Yeah, I hadn't thought about those. When I, when I was thinking of ego as I was thinking, I don't want to be embarrassed. I don't want people to look at me like I'm dumb or I'm silly. I guess that's what I'm asking is how do you, how do you prepare yourself for being willing to look silly? You know, or, or look, I don't know that silly's a bit embarrassed maybe. And, and can you, and should you, so more of the,

Gene:

the pride aspect. Of like, like this is how I wanna see myself and so I don't want others to see it differently. Hmm. I know for me, one thing that helps is starting on a smaller scale. So like, say you don't like heights. But you want to be able to stand on the glass box on the outside of Willis

Dad:

Tower. You could. I feel like that was a little personal there, dude. Hey, it scared me too. I,

Gene:

it freaked me out. But say that's just one of the things you want to do. One way to help overcome that fear would be to start maybe at the lower levels and looking down from that spot and so you get more comfortable and more sturdy with that glass and so you know that you won't feel. Embarrassed or when? When you do that or Hey, I want to ask someone else. You do like a roleplay of asking somebody out and roleplay the different situations. Well, what would happen? So it's not as detrimental'cause it's not in that situation, but it's in a situation like it, so you can see like, Hey look, I'm okay. I like that. More of like a

Dad:

model scale I guess. Yeah. And that's what you did on both those, right? On a height you did a model scale, and then on the, on the. Which is a real fear, not, not saying they're not real fears, but a, an imminent danger that it's trying to protect you from versus an emotional danger that you're trying to protect yourself from. And maybe that's a better word than ego is an emotional fear, because now you're saying, okay, in that emotional one, I can set there and go, okay, I'm gonna roleplay this and it can end, in a variety of ways, and I'm prepared for any of those outcomes. And realize it's not me, it's the situation. Or maybe it is me. They don't like me for who I am, but that's not the right person for me to be with anyways.

Gid:

I like that. And another thing just to add on, like with the Willis Tower example. So for people who don't know, it's a really tall building and this glass box sticks out the side, so the forest glass, so you can just see through. But. Not just think of every single possibility.'cause then your brain could go to, well, the glass is gonna break and I'm gonna fall. But also tie in the rationality of like, what could rationally happen? Like I could step in that box and rationally nothing is gonna happen. I'm just going to feel some butterflies in my stomach. And that sort of aspect. And I also. For the listeners information, I like to ride BMX bikes, which is a little bike at a skate park. So on concrete, whatever, doing tricks. And when learning a new trick, say the bar spin, which is where you jump and you spin your handlebars around, you catch'em again and you land all in the air. It is a really scary trick to try,'cause you're letting go of your handlebars in the air. And there's so many different outcomes if they land halfway or whatever. And there's a lot of ways that could turn out painful. You on concrete. But stepping back and thinking about that rationality of what rationally can happen.'cause if you think about what, like what could possibly happen, I mean, you could land on your handlebars and it's gonna puncture your stomach that. Technically it could happen if you land super wrong and you don't have like a bar end or something, like people get cut stabbed, but rationally it's gonna like poke your stomach and it's gonna hurt for like maybe a day. You're gonna be like, have a tummy ache. So it's like the rationality versus what could happen.

Dad:

Well, I like that Gideon, because you talked about there are some serious consequences, you know, but then you modeled it out and said, okay, well it's gonna gimme a little tummy ache. It could bruise me, could hurt me. But I've still prepared for emotionally for that to happen as well as physically. Yeah. To tell the listener. Gideon likes to do big air and big tricks, but what's very interesting to watch is when he's not comfortable with something, he pulls out. He's like, no, that's, that risk is too big for the reward or for that payout. So is that you, are you letting fear dominate you on that?

Gid:

I don't think so. I think the reason why I haven't. Broken a bone since my wrist in kindergarten is I determine what my confidence can allow me to, to do. So like that on the BMX bike, if I'm, there's like a huge air, I'm gonna do a backflip 360 and it's like I don't have this skill set to try that.

Dad:

Right? But, but you did start, and you finally did do the back flip. Right into a foam pit. Yeah. As a protection and to say, okay, at least I did it. So I didn't let my fear Conquer me. But I have, you have let your fear hold you back, like getting on a horse and going for a ride or, or something like that. But the, the, the question is, you hadn't modeled that you hadn't been able to have that chance to go, okay, how do I model that? How do I scale that? How do I prep for that?

Gid:

Yeah. And I look at like. What's worth it to me.'cause if I like wanted to learn a backflip three-sixty, so, so bad on a bike, I would look back and I'd take the different steps. Like I'm gonna land a backflip on concrete. I'm gonna land a backflip three-sixty into the foam pit. And all these different steps that I would take to eventually be able to with rational outcomes, like for Barspin, Hey, I'm gonna do an X Up, which is. A half a bar spin, but you keep your hands on the bar so you like just twist it and you take these steps instead of, Hey, I just got on a bike for the first time, I gotta try a bar spin. That is not rational. Like it's not happening without you getting hurt. So just the steps

Dad:

involved. Yep. I like that. And really, didn't we all do that when we were packing for this trip? I took and made copies of our passports and put'em in a safe. I took extra cash and I distributed out to the, to the kids so that we all had emergency and we could all take care of ourselves if. If we needed to right enough money to get somewhere, I went and added international calling on our phones in case if we got lost and we needed to use them, you know, so I took all the precautionary, I built all my, my rational steps out that I could, and then still the night before I had to lay in bed and say, I've done all that I can do now. Put that fear to bed and move on. Right. Still jump off that ledge, take that leap of faith. Try that new thing that you've been wanting to do, right? So even after you've done all the role, play all this, all the modeling, all the prep, all the planning, and then are things gonna go wrong? Yes, they could. And then what do you do? You improvise, right? You go to plan B. Or you? Or you change the plans all together Because we've talked about plan B plenty of times and we have a difference of opinion around this table. So we say, Hey, you improvise. Or you punt, I guess is what we'd call it in football. Yeah. All right. Any other thoughts on fear, physical or emotional fear? I think that's a better way to classify those two really not just that they're there, but then how to overcome them. Yeah, it all, it all comes down to actually doing the thing. You still gotta

Gene:

take that step.'cause even if you figure out everything there is to be about a ladder, you figure out the exact weight it can carry, you still need to take the step, step on the ladder to be able to, to do what you want to get out of it.

Dad:

That's good. Thank you. Sometimes you need to know what you want to get out of it. Right. So but on the sky deck at Will Willis Tower that we talked about, 1300 fifty-three feet above ground, and it's a four, four and a half foot ledges of glass that you're stepping out on. And I didn't. I cannot still see the logical reason why I need to be that high above the ground looking down at, at the city of Chicago. So I still have not probably overcome that fear. I'd go up there again with you, but no value for me on that. Conquering that fear completely because my bigger goals don't, don't coincide with it. But if you told me to bungee jump from there, I think that sounds like a fun try. Let's do it. I really would jump from that high. You'd have to push me.

Gid:

Yeah. So in all, I think like something to take away for the listener was to Rationalize those fears that you have grow from all your different opportunities. And with saying that, we would love to hear all your different growing and challenges. So if you would please post them somewhere, tag us in the comments. Post your story. Hey, this happened to me. You're like a fun picture. Like, I was scared, but I did this thing and tag us. We would love to see it. DM us on, you know, whatever social media Hashtag like an adult. We do that too. Love all of all of your feedback so much. So thank you guys. I,

thank you for listening to this week's episode of Adulting Decrypted. We really enjoyed having this week's conversation, and we hope you did as well. If you ever want to comment on a topic, you can send us a message to our website Adultingdecrypted.com, our email adultingdecrypted.gmail.com, or through our Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn accounts at Adultingdecrypted. If you have any topics for the show that you would like us to. Talk about, or if you are a parent and want us to talk about something your kid should know, send us a message on any of the accounts mentioned. If you'd like to be a guest or have an idea for someone you think we should have on our show, feel free to send us an email detailing your thoughts to adultingdecrypted.gmail.com. Adulting is teamwork. We have merch. If you wanna show off your Adulting Decrypted Pride, check out our website, adultingdecrypted.com, or our partner website. With shop.spreadshirt.com forward slash adulting dash decrypted. Lastly, if you enjoyed the show, please consider supporting us on our Patreon at Adulting decrypted, along with the benefits that come with our Patreon and trust us, there are some pretty good ones in there. You will not only be helping us continue in the effort to make great content, but you will be part of a community of individuals all trying their best to adults. We appreciate you listening. Enjoying and leaving your positive reviews. Now, the special song from Gene and Gideon.

Dad:

well, I loved it. Can you I think you're going to get grounded out by that motorcycle. What do you think, Ashton? So maybe.

Gid:

And while saying that, I want to challenge you guys, everybody listening to do something that scares you. Face those fears and post about it on social media. We would love to get tagged and be able to see all of the people that we can influence and make sure to share to help others around you learn as well. So tag us adults and encrypted Facebook, Instagram, whatever the MS. We would also love to hear and hashtag like an adult. Wanna make sure we see it. So thank you so much.

Dad:

Or that keeps us from another way to think of it is Inhibit a in, I can't say that big word. I want to say Inhibiting. Yeah. Another way to say that is fear that keeps you from doing something you know you should do or could do.