The Mouse Who Looked Up To The Hawk As If To Say, 'Bring It.'
First published on November 27, 2019
Last month I was lucky enough to spend an evening at an event featuring a talk by the consultant and author Jamie Wheal.
Wheal, whose book Stealing Fire focuses on how we get into flow states and reach high performance, is a striking and skilled speaker, as you would expect from someone who has spoken at and advised many of the most forward-thinking companies in the world. But there was one story he told which stood out to me in particular.
Wheal explained that some friends of his had recently published a paper in Nature around some experiments they had done with mice. They had found a part of the brain which, when they triggered it, the mice preferred to sugar and cocaine. That thing, which the mice preferred to sugar or cocaine, is courage.
He continued by explaining another part of the experiment. The scientists would send the shadow of a hawk across the container where the mice were. Normally mice would run and hide, but if the scientists had triggered the courage centre in the mouse's brain, its behaviour would be quite different. Instead of running, it would turn and face the shadow of the hawk, looking up at it as if to say, 'Bring it.'
As he told this story, Wheal had tears in his eyes, and I have to say I have felt them prick my eyes when telling this story since then. There is something majestic about courage, about people - or, it turns out, animals - acting in the face of almost overwhelming fear.
But the reason Wheal told the story was to give us hope. He is one of a group of thinkers I have become aware of who have been part of in-depth conversations with leaders in many disciplines. In Wheal's case, these conversations have led them to be very concerned about the tightrope the human race may be walking in the modern world. For those among us who are worried about the future of our race, the idea that mice prefer courage to sugar or cocaine should show us that change is possible. We are wired to do the brave things, to face our fears and act anyway, and so there is a possibility that we can pull together, and that each and all of us might use our courage to steady the ship we are all on together.
And here's the thing: those of us who have taken action in the world, who have broken through our Resistance, we already know that. We know that the feeling of facing down our fears and acting is one hell of a rush. I felt it this week when I put two things I have been working on for months (even years) out into the world, one to the public and one to a publisher.
When you have done that, you know that the feeling of that courage is almost incomparable. Launching a new project, stepping out onto a stage, having the conversation with someone who we are terrified to speak to. These are the experiences - however they end up - that we remember for the rest of our lives.
That's why Steven Pressfield's idea that the places we feel the most Resistance are also the places that are most important to our soul's evolution doesn't quite cover it all. Because it also feels great to face our fear, to face our Resistance and to share our work with the world.
The question then, is, for you: what is the hawk?
And where do you need to stop, look up at what you fear, and say, 'Bring it'?
That's where the magic happens. And the secret, revealed by the experiment that Wheal spoke about, is that it will feel great.