Can the same incident cause fear in one person and excitement in another? The answer is yes.

In the early 1990s, I took a course called Mastery of Learning. To illustrate a point he was making, the instructor, Chris Welsh used a story from his own life as an example.

“Imagine this”, he said. “You’re in a small plane, learning how to skydive. You’ve had lots of training in a classroom on the ground and now you’re in the plane and about to jump. Oh by the way, you’re over the water near one of the islands of Hawaii and need to jump so you land on the land.”

“You step out onto the wing, holding on to the strut. Physically you feel sick to your stomach. You get to choose whether that feeling is fear or excitement. The physical feeling is the same for each one. You choose your emotion.”

I’ve remembered that story many times in my life. Each time, I remind myself that I get to choose the emotion – fear or excitement.

The choice is yours. What do YOU choose?