Transcript
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Patrick Sweeney has built an amazing
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life based on fear fear he loved the
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technology world behind after a
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life-changing event and is now a
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professional adventurer with a mission
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to help others find more fear fear is
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probably the least understood yet most
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powerful force we can tap into he is a
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rock star in a whole bunch of things
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from a second place finish in the
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Olympic rowing files to founding 3 tech
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companies Patrick is the first person to
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attempt cycling the Seven Summits the
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highest peak on each continent Patrick's
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done a lot of things that together don't
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exist usually in one person terms of
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experience and accomplishment that gives
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him unique perspectives and I think he's
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come up with an entry way to talk about
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sphere and turning it into something
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else please welcome the fear guru
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himself an expert in creating a culture
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of courage mr. Patrick Sweeney
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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so we're gonna find more fear we're
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gonna feed it you can use fear to make
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radically better decisions and I'll tell
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you the neuroscience behind it there's a
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small gland at the base of our brain
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called the amygdala and it handles the 3
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apps so you have the fight flight or
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freeze response as a little kid to save
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your life
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the amygdala has been there for
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thousands and thousands of years to keep
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us from getting eaten by a woolly
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mammoth or trampled over or getting torn
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apart by a saber-toothed tiger that's
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what the that's what the amygdala does
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that's a great thing about it but it was
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meant for a society in a world hundreds
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of thousands of years ago the good news
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is if we hack that amygdala we can use
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it for superhuman performance we get
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about 10% of our information from the
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conscious world 90% of it is going into
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the amygdala and we don't even see that
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it's going on and we don't even
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recognize it what just happened is
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something amazing that our body does our
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mind just did something incredible
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we created a change in our body nothing
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happened in the world there was no
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threat no fear up here the roof wasn't
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gonna collapse there weren't people
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coming in with guns and bombs but our
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mind is so powerful that created a
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change physically in our body that can
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be used for something very good an
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amazing performance or that can be used
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for something very bad and really hurt
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you from a health perspective so what I
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want everyone to think about in the
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audience is what physical sensations
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you're feeling in your body because this
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is gonna be really important what I was
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surprised that during the talk
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ultimately was
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hearing was one feeling things there's
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very few talks where you actually get to
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that the speaker makes you physically
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feel something and identify those
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feelings which is really cool I thought
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Patrick's talk was very inspirational
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the way he challenges us to face our
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fears and recognize our fears and sees
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our fears is not something that many
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people talk about so I don't think that
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most people know how to recognize those
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symptoms let alone rein them in embrace
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them and then use them to your advantage
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for thirty years I lived with this this
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terrible fear of flying every time I got
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them aboard or anywhere near an aircraft
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I got more and more scared and one thing
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that I found is this cowardice begets
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cowardice and I'm thinking well why am I
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sitting here I used to be afraid of
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everything I lived my entire life in
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shame and fearful and running from fear
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and I didn't know it at the time and I
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was trying to numb out my fear with
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drinking with money with material things
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and so I sat there in the hospital and
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all I could think about was my
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one-year-old daughter with the image she
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had of her dad be the guy who is too
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much of a coward to get on a plane and
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take her to Disney World
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that's when I decided that I was going
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to kick that disease and when I got out
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I take flying lessons everybody has a
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fear frontier
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maybe it's failure we all have a place
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where we come to where we've got a
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moment of fear how we deal with that
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determines our future in our success and
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what Patrick brought is so many of us
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talking about the fear frontier and so
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many of us just stop before we ever get
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there and you really talked about how do
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you know you're stopping so you kind of
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recognize those fear responses and then
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how do you turn it into performance
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break through that fear and use it as a
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source of energy for being successful
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and that's what we're going to talk
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about today I'm gonna help you find more
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fear in your life because fear is the
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fuel courage is the sparkplug but fear
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is the fuel that changes everything in
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your life every relationship and it's
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even the fuel for love and we'll talk
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about that and it's unusual to think
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about it it took me 30 years to discover
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this
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three years to figure out the science
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working with the best PhDs
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neuroscientists psychologists from
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Harvard MIT you name it and I realized
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fear is a fraud it's just a movie we
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play in our mind most of the time we
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play a horror movie we sell them play a
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movie in our mind that's a comedy that's
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a love story that's an adventure when
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something strange happens we immediately
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flip and start playing that horror movie
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and now I'm gonna try and distill it
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down into 45 minutes to help you guys
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figure out where in your life you're
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avoiding fear and then where you can use
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fear to find more strength and
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everybody's heard about this 120 pound
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woman who could pick up a car to save
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her son who's trapped under it right
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you've heard those stories how is that
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possible that's possible because your
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body your brain the amygdala creates a
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fear cocktail you get DHEA you get
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cortisol you get adrenalin you have all
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these these enzymes coursing through
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your body and it gives you superhuman
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strength and it gives you superhuman
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acuity and mental powers all of a sudden
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you've moved to anguish and panic and
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you're migdal is gonna make the
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decisions for you what you just
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witnessed was a fear tell every time
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your amygdala turns on and activates you
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get the same reaction in your body when
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we work with companies what we try and
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do is get them out and actually do
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something to create those changes in
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their bodies so they start to recognize
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it so then when you get an email from
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your boss or client or something like
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that and you feel those changes in your
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body you recognize that the amygdala has
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been activated the fear tells are what
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gives that away that's why it's
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important you start to understand those
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because we're going to use those fear
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tells to make radically better decisions
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so when the amygdala kicks in and you
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get one of those responses you have two
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choices
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you can either let it go to waste or you
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can use it for something good you guys
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understanding ear tells is going to
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release a whole new life for you I
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guarantee you what we're gonna talk
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about today is how finding more fear can
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make your life better that's the whole
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secret we spend so much time trying to
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avoid fear and that's just the opposite
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of what we want to do you can either
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tame fear or fear continue because there
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are only two ways in life to make
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decisions either out of fear well we
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might get fired and I might not get this
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promotion those are all fear-based
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decisions or out of opportunity
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you're the author of your life and that
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means every decision you're making is
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based on an opportunity so what we're
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gonna do today
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push that fear frontier out we're gonna
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move it over so that you can stay in
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control of making decision in a
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high-stress environment in a fearful
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environment and even better than that
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you can use that fear for superhuman
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powers
