In a previous blog spoke about perceptions and how it affected my life and prevented me from experiencing life or fairly assessing situations.

Last December I received a call from a company I do contracting work for. They asked me if I would like to travel to Milwaukee the following week. In a flash I envisioned myself getting into an accident because I would be driving in heavy snow. It was winter after all. My first reaction was to say no, but I asked the company what the weather was like out there. He told me that it was raining when I got in and snowing when I was leaving. I’ve never driven in snow so I was nervous, but I thought about impermanence. My fear was based on my perception. I was expecting ice on the day it rained and getting stuck in the snow on the day I left, but I also understood that my expectations were based on my fears and had no basis in reality. People drive in the snow all the time and survive. I put aside my fears and accepted the job.

I spent a week there and had fun. I met nice people. I drove on ice roads and didn’t get into a spin out or accident. I discovered Cousin Subs, a subway sandwich shop only in Wisconsin. It was great. Of course being unfamiliar with driving on icy roads I did exercise caution.   I knew I would have traction problems so I didn’t drive as aggressive as I would have on normal roads. I noticed that the traction light on the dashboard of the car came on a lot, but that just tells me that cars have technology in them that help control the car on icy roads.

If I let my fears control what I did, I would have missed out. Now that I’m armed with this evidence that my fears don’t always become reality, I am more willing to “take a chance.” Now given the choice of driving in the snow or not, I still wouldn’t want to, but if I had to, like in this work situation. I could do it and wouldn’t be so scared.