Fear is the number one factor that keeps people from ever choosing to take any sort of risk in life.
Oftentimes, it is the fear of the unknown that scares people the most.
Something new will always seem foreign, and as we know, trying something new also means having to start from the bottom of the barrel.
Having no prior knowledge or skills in something creates an immense amount of fear and anxiety.
Our minds begin to race and start thinking about all of the potential negative outcomes that come with starting something new.
As someone who gets kicked and thrown around by horses for a living, I can understand why most have this fear.
I have seen many people completely scared of horses because of their size and strength.
Many people who ride horses, especially for the first time, will often think of the common potential negative outcomes that comes along with riding: "what if this horse kicks me?", "what if this horse bucks me off and I get hurt?".
As someone who does it for a living, I understand that the risks involved is something that comes with the territory because yes, the day will come when you do get bucked off, and yes, you may get hurt, but this is when you need to ask yourself if what you are doing has any genuine meaning to you.
There will be risks involved in anything that you do in life, and it is a matter of assessing your own risk tolerance that will decide if you are meant to succeed or not.
Just because you might be fearful of something that hasn't even happened yet or could potentially happen in the future, doesn't mean what you are trying to accomplish isn't worth the risk.
Sure, there are necessary actions and steps to be taken that could help minimize your risk and this is all something that comes with experience.
When starting something new, we have no experience and we have absolutely no idea what we are doing, so assessing our risk tolerance in the beginning is a foreign language.
The way we get over the hurdle of fear is through courage.
Courage is a matter of having a willingness to do hard things.
Courage is understanding that there are risks involved and whatever you are trying to accomplish is worth the risk.
Our ability to develop a keen sense of courage is rooted in building confidence, and we build confidence the more we are able to overcome difficult challenges.
We know that life is always going to naturally throw us new challenges, some of which are outside of our control, but the more we can willingly challenge ourselves to face new obstacles is how we build confidence and courage.
We do this by forcefully putting ourselves in difficult situations with an open mind of learning new knowledge and skills.
If we attack each new difficult challenge with the mindset of "I am here to challenge myself and learn", the more we open ourselves up to the possibility of learning.
Most people will start something new, recognize the difficulty, and quit before learning anything useful.
The desire of getting comfortable with being uncomfortable is how one builds confidence and courage.
Just like with horses - as a horse trainer, it is our job to teach horses a life outside what is biologically programmed in their DNA.
Instead of being highly reactive flight animals, we need to teach them how to stay calm and collected in the face of every new obstacle we challenge them with.
The more a horse grows comfortable with being uncomfortable, the more confident and willing he will be to face new obstacles.
If a human can take one of the most reactive flight animals on the planet and train them to be calm and confident in new environments, we can all surely do the same for ourselves.