Brave New World (3 Min Read) | Vol. 213

July 24, 2026

“One can choose to go back toward safety or forward toward growth. Growth must be chosen again and again; fear must be overcome again and again.” — Abraham Maslow

Brave New World

Last month I gave a keynote that scared me.

Not the normal kind of nervous. This one was “can’t sleep the night before” anxiety. I was delivering a deeply personal talk to a room full of people I respect. 

Backstage, I tried to stay calm. Cue the box breathing. Four seconds in. Hold. Four seconds out. I kept the inner dialogue positive. You’ve got this!

I was doing a lot of things right to calm my fears. But I was missing a key ingredient. 

If only I’d had this week’s podcast with Brad Stulberg. Brad’s a performance coach and the author of The Way of Excellence. We covered a lot of ground. But one idea stood out.

You can’t be scared and curious at the same time.

It’s how the brain works. Fear and curiosity fight over the same wiring, and only one wins. Picture a toddler learning to walk. Falling hurts. They should be terrified. But they’re too busy wondering what’s across the room to care. Curiosity wins, so they keep going.

We don’t lose that as adults. We just bury it under our egos and our fear of looking foolish.

Brad has a mantra for digging it back up. “Brave new world.”

He got it from his training partner before a huge deadlift. Brad was scared. His partner looked at him and said, “Brave new world. We don’t know what’s gonna happen. Let’s go find out.” A switch flipped. Worrying became wondering. He made the lift.

Now he uses it everywhere. A scary writing assignment. Brave new world. The birth of his second kid. Brave new world.

Here’s why it works. When you tell yourself “I’ve got this” before something you’ve never done, your nervous system calls your bluff. It knows you’re lying. But “I don’t know how this will go, and I want to find out” is honest. And honesty lets you relax enough to actually perform.

Curiosity can replace fear, but it won’t hand you confidence. That comes from evidence. You want both: Curiosity to quiet the fear and evidence to back it up.

That’s why I can walk on stage nervous but confident. For every hour I speak, I prep four. The butterflies don’t leave. But when the doubt creeps in, I have the receipts. I’ve done the reps. I belong here.

So do the work. Build the evidence. And when the fear shows up anyway – because it will – don’t fight it. Get curious instead.

Brave new world. Let’s go find out.

This week’s full conversation with Brad – on excellence, passion, and building a life that doesn’t collapse when one part of it does – is worth your time. Listen here. And pick up his book, The Way of Excellence.

One question to ponder in your thinking time: What am I avoiding right now that I could meet with curiosity instead of fear? 

Make an Impact!
Jay Papasan
Author | CEO | Coach