What If You Fly?

“There is freedom waiting for you, On the breezes of the sky, And you ask “What if I fall?”

Oh but my darling, What if you fly?” Erin Hanson

There is the age old battle between the mind and the heart. While poets and song-writers have sided with the heart, psychologists and behavioral economists have sided with the mind. What we need is a team of artists and scientists, a combination of the mind and the heart, so we can understand when to listen to the heart and when to listen to the mind.

There are times in our lives when our minds like to tell our hearts to fuck off, leaving us, a bit, fucked. 

The mind is more conservative, it has evolved to protect us from the threat of lions in the middle of the night, it will tell you to play safe, be scared, be aware, be ashamed, anything to protect you from a deadly threat. The heart is ambitious; it will tell you to fly, to jump, to love, to listen, to laugh, to try; it will encourage you to take risks. 

So how does one navigate between the mind and the heart. Here’s the trick. Whenever it comes to situations where mistakes will bring mostly bad consequences to you and to others, listen to the mind, because the mind will play it safe. However, a situation that is challenging, frightening, and out of your comfort zone, but the only consequence is your personal failure, you must listen to the heart, because the heart will encourage to fly, and if you fall instead of flying, it wouldn’t matter because you’ll be a whole different person by that time you. 

You will be a little bit wiser. And wiser is better.