I was interviewed for nearly an hour on local radio yesterday and wanted to share this brief story with you too.
A few weeks ago, Leanne and I were lucky enough to win 2 tickets to The Goodwood Festival of Speed. If you’ve ever been, you’ll know that it’s a “petrol-heads paradise” and I was a very happy boy that day. The attraction I enjoyed most was the virtual reality roller coaster. As we queued up, I watched a row of people get strapped into their seats, put on virtual reality goggles and start screaming as they went on what seemed to be a very compelling experience.
While waiting in the queue, I decided to play a little game with myself. When the “roller coaster” started, I would see what it was like to flip-flop between being on a roller coaster for a little while and then knowing that I was safely strapped into a seat, firmly attached to the floor of a large tent as we hurtled down the scariest part of the roller coaster. What a fascinating ride it turned out to be! My experience changed in the moment as I moved between virtual reality and “knowing” I was totally safe and secure.
The point is, I realised that we’re all on some variant of the virtual reality roller coaster every single day of our lives! We experience our circumstances as if they’re real when they’re actually not real. The reality comes from our thinking about those circumstances and the only times we suffer are when we believe our feelings are coming from something other than our personal thinking in the moment.
This isn’t a play on words – it’s HUGE, especially when we face challenges in life. I should know and share some powerful insights about this in the short audio (after you click, just scroll to the bottom of the page to listen).