During spring break two of my girls, my wife and I went to San Diego to enjoy a few days of rest and relaxation. While we were at the beach, my daughter saw a tightrope walker and wanted to try. However, she mentioned that she was concerned about falling, and how it would look. This gave me an opportunity for a growth mindset conversation. I explained to her that if she allowed fear to stop her from trying to walk the tightrope, who knows how far that fear would take her, until ultimately she might not do anything. She took me up on the challenge, saying that she does have to overcome her fears. So, she went to the tightrope walker to ask him if she could get on. He said yes, helped her up and she fell. She got back up and she fell. This process continued for about 5 or 10 minutes until one time when she got back up she said to the tightrope walker, “hey you’re bleeding.” He examined himself and didn’t see any blood. That’s when we realized she was bleeding and that the rope cut her foot so deep that one of her toes looked like it was in danger of coming off completely. As a father this was no time to trust the process; I felt extremely bad! We ended up taking her to the hospital she got stitches the toe was saved. She would later go on to explain that she was able to overcome two fears that day. Her fear of falling, and her fear of getting stitches.
The Journey 