THE GIFT OF FEAR.
By
The truth.
How many of you have read a particular book and then said to yourself, “That has truly changed my life.” The book The Gift of Fear has had the greatest impact on my life over any other that I’ve ever read. Immediately after finishing it, I grabbed a pen and paper and wrote the author Gavin de Becker a personal letter telling him how amazing the book was and that I had given copies to my sisters and to most of the other women in my life. This was the first, and so far the only, letter that I’ve ever written to an author. In response, Gavin answered me with a job application and the next 5 years of my life were spent working for him. This book should be required reading for every high school student, especially for women.
Gavin spends hundreds of pages dissecting violent situations, domestic assaults, sexual assaults, and attempted murder. Before you get turned off thinking that this is just another set of true crime stories, it is not. What he goes on to do which is of profound importance, is to then go back with the actual victim and breakdown exactly when they had a “feeling” that something wasn’t right with their particular situation – and why they ignored that feeling. Why was that nice man hanging out in the lobby of the victim’s apartment building at midnight and why does he offer to help with her groceries? More importantly, why did she let him?
We’ve all had those, “something just doesn’t feel right here” moments and I’m sure that we’ve all also ignored them, hopefully not to the level of peril of the victims in the book.
Please, please, please read the Gift of Fear (link) , it literally can save your life. Anyone else have a book that they’d recommend? Please post to comments.
Today’s Workout:
20 Sumo Deadlift High Pulls (95#/65#)
400 M Run
30 Burpees
400 M Run
40 Wall Balls
400 M Farmer Carry
7 Comments
April 22nd, 2010 at 9:46 am
Interesting post Trav, I’ll have to checkout Gift of Fear.
I found Ultramarathon Man by Dean Karnazes to be an profound read. The book is not so much about marathons but more about life, love, overcoming adversity and pushing the body to it’s limits to find your true self.
April 22nd, 2010 at 11:04 am
I second Traver’s vote on The Gift of Fear. Excellent reading.
April 22nd, 2010 at 12:32 pm
Traver- Thank you for the kind words. It’s cool that Gift of Fear is 11 years old and yet timeless in its impact and wisdom. Keep up your great work with CrossFit- it is changing lives too! Warm regards, Michael
April 22nd, 2010 at 1:24 pm
I have not read this book, but am excited to have new reading material. I read a book a few years back on pain both physical and mental, and it was awesome. Let me think about it a bit and I will jog my memory. Love that shirt in the picture!!
April 22nd, 2010 at 2:19 pm
Maybe I’m alone on this one but I found Everybody Poops to be a compelling commentary on human nature that really answered a lot of questions for me.
April 22nd, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Excellent recommendation Mr. Dahl. I think you’ll find “The Truth About Poop” and “Where’s The Poop” to be equally compelling reads.
April 22nd, 2010 at 4:05 pm
I found most of the “Choose You Own Adventure” books to be mentally stimulating and thought provoking.
Seriously though, TB’s been talking about this book for some time and I plan on reading it in the next few weeks. I think the first book that really struck me as “fun reading” was The Alchemist. I won’t tell you how long ago that was.