Courage is a relative thing.

What’s courageous to me may be a walk in the park for you.

What’s courageous to you may be a walk in the park for me.

To my daughter, who happens to be 8, facing her fear of “The Anaconda” during our recent “slaycation” was beyond brave.

Caption: Watching a raft spit out of an anaconda’s mouth was a hard “no” to my 7 year old daughter a year ago

The year before, we had ventured to Jungle Jim’s Waterpark where she was terrified to go down this two person coaster-like Waterslide.

A year later, and 12.5% older, she still had that “slide fright” feeling trapped in her mind.

“No way! I am NOT going on THAT. It’s scarrrry!”

The line to the Anaconda happened to be right next to the family-friendly slide called “Stampede”. This was the line we were presently waiting in; just about half way up the stairs. As I tried to honor my daughter’s process, I picked her up, turned her around and with very little emotion, I showed her what we could SEE from this viewpoint of the Anaconda route.

I calmly pointed out:

“See how it winds around there? It reminds me of that ride you love at Great Wolf Lodge.”

For the first time, she could see the bottom side of most of the twists and turns of the ride she was fearing. I could see she was processing the “2nd Act” of the ride. Before this, all she had seen with her own eyes was the “1st Act” of the raft rocketing out of the starters gate down the initial dip and, the “3rd Act” of all the riders dropping out of the Anaconda’s mouth at the very bottom.

The fear of the unknown is a real thing. And I wasn’t about to provide an ultimatum saying, “she had to go on”.

My job was not to convince her to go on the ride. She had to take in the information and convince herself.

Now that she had seen the rest of The Anaconda, she realized it didn’t look as bad as she had made up in her mind.

“Ok. I’ll go on but ONLY if you go on it with me, Dad.”

You can guess how the story goes from here.

My daughter wasn’t just laughing and screaming (the good kind) all the way down the ride, she belted out…

“Thissssss issssss amazzzziiiiiing!”

The minute we dropped out of the Anaconda’s mouth, she turned to me and said she had to go on it again with her brother!

10 “Slaying The Anaconda” lessons:

1. What’s courageous to you may not be courageous to someone on your team.

2. Most fear what they can’t see.

3. When uncertainty is present, we often fill in the blanks in the worst way which paralyzes us.

4. Situational awareness is real. Remember, we’re mirrors. We need to be mindful of when to be calm and when to show emotion.

5. We need to stop trying to convince people of anything.

6. We can give people enough information — through their ears and eyes — where they might convince themselves.

7. When we’re finally courageous we start to build up those courage muscles.

8. This makes it easier for us to be courageous again! Courage Breeds Courage.

9. Fear also breeds Fear.

10. While it’s no fun being in the fear zone, when we finally are courageous, we come out the other side happier.