Are You More Fearful of Death Than of Life?

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I've been more angstful at various times in life and not necessarily in a bad way. But I've often tried to sort of harness that angst or that general feeling of like, I should be doing more or achieving or whatever. So far, no changes in how I feel about risk and managing risk and all my climbing. You know, it's not as if I'm just rolling the dice and like hoping that it works out.

In 2017, Alex Honnold did what even the world’s best rock climbers thought was impossible. He climbed to the top of El Capitan– a granite rock mountain more than 3,000 feet high– without a rope, harness, or net. His audacious feat was the subject of the Oscar-winning documentary “Free Solo,” and it left Adam Grant with some burning questions about what we can learn from his unique approach to managing fear. In this episode of ReThinking, another podcast in the TED Audio Collective, Alex opens up about how he regulates his emotions when he’s hanging on by just a few fingers, what still scares him, and how he stays motivated to pursue ambitious goals. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/RWAG2. And for more conversations on how the world’s most interesting people think, follow ReThinking with Adam Grant wherever you're listening to this.