The Final Frontier

Star Trek was a staple in my house. I used to watch every episode with my dad, I love each iteration of the show and most of the spinoffs. It was the catalyst for great conversations about race, potentiality, language & possibilities.

That opening line, ‘Space, the final frontier’, puts a smile on my face. One particular conversation I had with my dad around the notion of ‘frontiers’ has recently come back to me. Space, the Ocean floor, time and the space ‘in-between’ were all new uncharted frontiers that we dissected and pondered the possibilities.

What all ‘new frontiers’ have in common is the unknown. We can speculate and make assumptions, we can judge and expect certain things, but the unknown is just that, “not discovered, explored, identified or ascertained.”

The unknown sparks fear in us. We have survived as a race because of our ability to intuit what would happen next and prepare for it. We spend so much time in our minds thinking about the future, what is next, what’s to come, that there are whole movements, books, and classes on how to be ‘present’. Heck, Eckhart Tolle started a whole movement with his book “The Power of Now”.

Fear is such a great emotion. Hey, if you don’t know by now, here it is – I’m a big ‘ol nerd. I geek out on stuff like science fiction, new frontiers and the purpose and meaning of emotions. Like the name of my book, and the title of my podcast “Difficult Happens” and within difficult lies our greatest opportunity for growth and understanding. Fears job is to protect us. To heighten our senses and focus our mind, what an awesome gift.

So the next time that you are faced with the unknown, and fear sidles up to protect you, embrace the gifts it brings and geek out with me, stay in the now and explore all the possibilities. You just may find that it opens a door to a path, a job, an opportunity or a new adventure that you would have missed if you let fear of the unknown stop you.

Why do we act and react the way we do? Find out in my book Difficult Happens; How Triggers, Boundaries & Emotions Impact YOU Everyday

Photo by NASA on Unsplash