Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda cover image

Adam Gopnik: The Joy of Getting Good at Something Hard

Clear+Vivid with Alan Alda

CHAPTER

The Power of Perseverance

I didn't know that peeing in public, having a public restroom. It's got a fancy name. There's an international Parioresis Association. And I'm very privileged to say that my therapist is the president of the International Parioreses Association. You disassemble a phobia or an anxiety disorder exactly in the same way that you achieve mastery only in reverse. Instead of building it up, you disassemble it because you've been building it up your whole life until you're locked in, imprisoned in this phobia. That gives me confidence. When I was younger, I would be like everybody else full of inhibitions and uncertainties. Now I love writing.

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