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Nick Ang

The flinch

We grow older and earn luxuries with our steadily increasing income. Instead of shrinking into comforts and doing less and less with each passing day, we ought to seek the flinch.

I’ve always kind of known this, but I’ve never tried to put it into words. The flinch. Those are the words.

To continue increasing our circle of experiences, of life, we should seek the things that, at the moment before we actually do it, make us flinch. Here’s a list of things I can think of:

  • Take a cold shower
  • Conduct a workshop on a new topic
  • Talk to yourself in front of a camera in public
  • Move to a new country
  • Release yourself from the top of a rock wall after climbing to the top (with a belay of course, you lunatic)

Seeking the flinch is a practical philosophy for strengthening our resiliency. If something that has been providing us with comfort is suddenly taken away from us, our resiliency means the difference between feeling miserable, betrayed, destroyed, and feeling not too bad.

The flinch should be another item in our toolbox for maximising our adulthood.

Now here’s the video that I stole these ideas directly from, which stole the ideas from the book The Flinch by Julien Smith.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsSBBPeNNDY