Anyone Else Think They're Invincible?

On topic:

I think we all operate under any number of irrational beliefs about how safe/special/secure/invincible we are. In a sense we all assume that nothing really bad will ever really happen to us, until it does. In some ways I think this is a healthy quality that allows us to dare greatly without worrying too much about all the unknowable things that my or may not happen every second of every day. It may even be necessary for our mental health. Like anything else it’s a balancing act and it can get out of hand though.

I take intelligent, managed, physical risks all the time, both for work and recreation. I generally assume it’s going to turn out all right. Even when things start to go sideways, I continue making decisions and solving problems under the assumption that there is a way through and that I will find it. No point in assuming anything else. When my time’s up, it’s up and nothing will save me. However, I keep my insurance paid, my will current, my conscience clear and my questions about the afterlife as covered as they can be.

When that certainty grows into a blindness that makes you reckless, overconfident or prevents you from taking measures to mitigate those risks where possible, it becomes a problem.

Just an aside, you can honestly tell your wife you weren’t doing 42mph. Have a look at the plot, the max will more than likely show as a spike. Unless it’s got a reasonably flat top, it’s just GPS sampling noise.

I routinely do 56mph, according to Strava. It’s hilly around here.

Technically, since I have never died, you cannot PROVE that I can. The only way to prove I’m not invincible is to kill me, and since I am still alive, there is a chance that i am invincible.

Well in the purest form no one can actually die, death of the physical body and mind, as well as personality may go but thats clothing or a mask someone wears anyways… You cannot obliterate consciousness thats impossible…

With that being said there is no reason to fear death when it is just seen as the next experience… But having beliefs and distorted thinking is just kind of silly… if you do something dangerous acknowledge the inherent risk that comes along with it… Just be alert and present before you do things to make sure you don’t slip into dangerous patterns or conditionings that can destroy or incapacitate the physical body.

[quote]countingbeans wrote:
Anyone Else Think They’re Invincible?

Yes, until I started having 2 & 3 day hangovers. [/quote]

This man talks sense.

Now if I am going to have a proper drink it has to be planned with military precision so it fits in with everyone’s social calendar but is yet 2 clear days away from work.

I also have to do mucho sucking up to the wife who gets lumbered with the baby for 2 days whilst I walk around looking like Worzel Gummidge.

[quote]cstratton2 wrote:
Everyone thinks they are invincible until it happens to them, I am sure the people that had gotten killed or injured had the same attitude, of course others not so much… A belief doesn’t make you any less prone to anything… [/quote]

Absolutely true.

But as I said to my wife when she said you’re not invincible, “well up to now I have been!”

No-one is going to be more shocked when I die than me.

[quote]batman730 wrote:
On topic:

I think we all operate under any number of irrational beliefs about how safe/special/secure/invincible we are. In a sense we all assume that nothing really bad will ever really happen to us, until it does. In some ways I think this is a healthy quality that allows us to dare greatly without worrying too much about all the unknowable things that my or may not happen every second of every day. It may even be necessary for our mental health. Like anything else it’s a balancing act and it can get out of hand though.

I take intelligent, managed, physical risks all the time, both for work and recreation. I generally assume it’s going to turn out all right. Even when things start to go sideways, I continue making decisions and solving problems under the assumption that there is a way through and that I will find it. No point in assuming anything else. When my time’s up, it’s up and nothing will save me. However, I keep my insurance paid, my will current, my conscience clear and my questions about the afterlife as covered as they can be.

When that certainty grows into a blindness that makes you reckless, overconfident or prevents you from taking measures to mitigate those risks where possible, it becomes a problem.[/quote]

Really great post.

I think you summed up exactly how I feel much better than I managed to.

Maybe this misplaced confidence in my survival ability is just my way of coping with life’s dangers, by not accepting their likelihood of occurrence or possible severity.

[quote]DragnCarry wrote:
Just an aside, you can honestly tell your wife you weren’t doing 42mph. Have a look at the plot, the max will more than likely show as a spike. Unless it’s got a reasonably flat top, it’s just GPS sampling noise.

I routinely do 56mph, according to Strava. It’s hilly around here.[/quote]

I don’t actually use Strava as I don’t have GPS (although I’m currently looking at getting a Garmin Edge 200).

My 42mph was recorded off my bike computer which is accurate.

[quote]cstratton2 wrote:
Well in the purest form no one can actually die, death of the physical body and mind, as well as personality may go but thats clothing or a mask someone wears anyways… You cannot obliterate consciousness thats impossible…

With that being said there is no reason to fear death when it is just seen as the next experience… But having beliefs and distorted thinking is just kind of silly… [/quote]

I have the “spirituality” of a turnip. I am not at all religious. I believe that when I die that is it. Which is why I don’t take risks because I believe we only get one shot at this.

In fact I think being religious and believing in an afterlife could make you more reckless and less valuing of your life, BECAUSE you think it’s not the end.

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]cstratton2 wrote:
Well in the purest form no one can actually die, death of the physical body and mind, as well as personality may go but thats clothing or a mask someone wears anyways… You cannot obliterate consciousness thats impossible…

With that being said there is no reason to fear death when it is just seen as the next experience… But having beliefs and distorted thinking is just kind of silly… [/quote]

I have the “spirituality” of a turnip. I am not at all religious. I believe that when I die that is it. Which is why I don’t take risks because I believe we only get one shot at this.

In fact I think being religious and believing in an afterlife could make you more reckless and less valuing of your life, BECAUSE you think it’s not the end.[/quote]

Well I don’t know you wouldnt really feel the urge to do certain things when you just stop and become still before taking actions it can actually make a huge difference in terms of how you walk, talk, act, and move… Really hard to put into words… but It just means to contemplate before letting impulses or unconscious patterns run you, like a mouse constantly chasing cheese crumbs.

I don’t think I am invincible, I am just suck a cocky bastard that I don’t think I can fuck up anything I do. So, in my own hands, I have complete trust.

I’ve done my share of crazy shit over the years but have mellowed with age as most people do. I’ve always had this belief that I’ll live to be at least ninety. My grampa did, my Father is eighty-six, still has his own apartment and doing fantastic.

Working in a hospital for a couple years now has convinced me that it’s not fucking likely lol.

I was always very high risk taking/adrenaline junkie until my early thirties. Starting off my twenties getting near fatally injured then bouncing back within weeks didn’t help. That was just proof that I was virtually indestructible.

I’ve mellowed out a lot since then though and really can’t even do the stuff I used to without the realization of fear and knowledge of what will happen if things go wrong. Part of what I was doing this summer was docking and pulling barges, wherein you walk along the gunnels of one while dragging another beside it into position.

With a 12 foot drop on one side, a 10 foot drop on the other, and a 400 ton chunk of steel floating and bumping into/beside you, it didn’t escape me that there was no good way to fall, and if you fell into the river you will be ground to a pulp while drowning.

Needless to say, I was scarred of that.

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]harrypotter wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]harrypotter wrote:
So you think flesh and bone beats metal and concrete/tarmac?

Hop on over to the gore websites and see exactly what happens when these things collide at speed. You wont be having an open casket ceremony.
[/quote]

That’s the point, it’s an irrational belief and I know it. I’m not stupid, I know what would happen if I did have an accident, I’ve seen plenty of that stuff and I’m definitely aware of my own mortality. I guess I just think that it won’t happen in the first place.

I am a ‘the glass is half full kind of person’, so maybe it’s just optimism out of control.[/quote]

Are you kind of guy to ride motorcycles for the buzz with a disregard or ignorance for those who love you and rely on you?

My dad and my neighbour have known 5 guys who lived for bikes, 4 of them were killed in accidents and one quit due to motorcycles being dangerous and just not worth the risk.

I think you’re the kind of guy who thinks he lives on the edge but is just one turn from being hit by a car.[/quote]

Firstly it’s a bicycle not a motorbike and I’m exactly the opposite of the guy you’re describing, I don’t live my life on the edge at all and wouldn’t claim to or want to. If you read my first post you’d see I said I’m not an adrenaline junkie at all and I DON’T take risks. I ride my bike very carefully. I am not reckless in the slightest.

I just have this strange idea that I’ll be alright, it doesn’t mean I test it out.

No weirder I think than all the hundreds of thousands of talent less people who delude themselves in to believing that they could win the X factor or American Idol.[/quote]

I know its a bicycle you were using, the fact remains that you loved doing 40mph on it and were hesitant to tell your other half because she hates the fact you’d do such a thing.

You loved the glory it gave but didnt tell others because it would shit on your parade.

I did bikes for years as a kid and into my teens, yes its great fun getting speed but like everything, you push it in the wrong way and you’re not going to see it happen.

Watch youtube to see how quickly you can face plant at normal speeds, I’d be interested to see a 40mph face plant.

[quote]Rico Suave wrote:

[quote]harrypotter wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]harrypotter wrote:
So you think flesh and bone beats metal and concrete/tarmac?

Hop on over to the gore websites and see exactly what happens when these things collide at speed. You wont be having an open casket ceremony.
[/quote]

That’s the point, it’s an irrational belief and I know it. I’m not stupid, I know what would happen if I did have an accident, I’ve seen plenty of that stuff and I’m definitely aware of my own mortality. I guess I just think that it won’t happen in the first place.

I am a ‘the glass is half full kind of person’, so maybe it’s just optimism out of control.[/quote]

Are you kind of guy to ride motorcycles for the buzz with a disregard or ignorance for those who love you and rely on you?

My dad and my neighbour have known 5 guys who lived for bikes, 4 of them were killed in accidents and one quit due to motorcycles being dangerous and just not worth the risk.

I think you’re the kind of guy who thinks he lives on the edge but is just one turn from being hit by a car.[/quote]

Motorcycles aren’t dangerous. It is the drivers around the motorcycles that are.

Sureee, there are people who go 200kph on those things, wipe out and die, I get that. The same thing could be said about people doing that in cars. Cars are just safer than motorcycles but motorcycles themselves are not inherently dangerous.

I’m sure that’s what you meant (seriously).

Edit: on topic - OP I hear where you’re coming from. I have the same mentality (to a degree). It’s like believing you’ll win the lottery even though…well… you’ll never win the lottery. [/quote]

You dont have to be riding 200kph to die on a motorbike.

Other drivers are a big problem, even at low speeds but going round bends on normal roads kills a fair few people.

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

No-one is going to be more shocked when I die than me.[/quote]

noone is going to care that much either…

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

No-one is going to be more shocked when I die than me.[/quote]

noone is going to care that much either…[/quote]

Ouch, but you got him.

[quote]harrypotter wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]harrypotter wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

[quote]harrypotter wrote:
So you think flesh and bone beats metal and concrete/tarmac?

Hop on over to the gore websites and see exactly what happens when these things collide at speed. You wont be having an open casket ceremony.
[/quote]

That’s the point, it’s an irrational belief and I know it. I’m not stupid, I know what would happen if I did have an accident, I’ve seen plenty of that stuff and I’m definitely aware of my own mortality. I guess I just think that it won’t happen in the first place.

I am a ‘the glass is half full kind of person’, so maybe it’s just optimism out of control.[/quote]

Are you kind of guy to ride motorcycles for the buzz with a disregard or ignorance for those who love you and rely on you?

My dad and my neighbour have known 5 guys who lived for bikes, 4 of them were killed in accidents and one quit due to motorcycles being dangerous and just not worth the risk.

I think you’re the kind of guy who thinks he lives on the edge but is just one turn from being hit by a car.[/quote]

Firstly it’s a bicycle not a motorbike and I’m exactly the opposite of the guy you’re describing, I don’t live my life on the edge at all and wouldn’t claim to or want to. If you read my first post you’d see I said I’m not an adrenaline junkie at all and I DON’T take risks. I ride my bike very carefully. I am not reckless in the slightest.

I just have this strange idea that I’ll be alright, it doesn’t mean I test it out.

No weirder I think than all the hundreds of thousands of talent less people who delude themselves in to believing that they could win the X factor or American Idol.[/quote]

I know its a bicycle you were using, the fact remains that you loved doing 40mph on it and were hesitant to tell your other half because she hates the fact you’d do such a thing.

You loved the glory it gave but didnt tell others because it would shit on your parade.

I did bikes for years as a kid and into my teens, yes its great fun getting speed but like everything, you push it in the wrong way and you’re not going to see it happen.

Watch youtube to see how quickly you can face plant at normal speeds, I’d be interested to see a 40mph face plant.

[/quote]

LOL at “glory”.

Tour de france cyclists can hit 65mph on downhills apparently. I didn’t expect my 42 mph to raise any eyebrows.

You seem quite bitter. Have your parents taken your bike away until you can be trusted?

[quote]orion wrote:

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:

No-one is going to be more shocked when I die than me.[/quote]

noone is going to care that much either…[/quote]

Sniff…well why would you go and say something like that…that’s soooo mean!

Very true though. I’m old enough to have seen Grandparents and various relatives die and no-one, not even your family, does think of you much after 10 years or so. It’s sad.

Wow now you’ve bummed me out.

I’m off to sit and remember my passed relatives who I haven’t thought about in years.

PS Word is there’s a 13 year old girl on Myspace currently contemplating suicide if you’re quick you can help persuade her…MEANY!

[quote]FarmerBrett wrote:
PS Word is there’s a 13 year old girl on Myspace currently contemplating suicide if you’re quick you can help persuade her…MEANY![/quote]

If I was still on Myspace I’d probably consider it too.