Alex Honnold’s take on fear will change how you see the world
He explains how repeated exposure to real danger alters his view of everyday problems.
Alex Honnold has accomplished the incredible feat of climbing Taipei 101 without any safety ropes, and watching the footage was breathtaking. He was seen gripping the building’s glass and steel hundreds of feet above the ground in Taiwan. But the most surprising part of the ascent was the absolute calm he maintained as he stared down a fatal drop. This climb brings to mind something important Honnold discussed in an interview.
The story
Alex Honnold is a professional rock climber best known for free-soloing El Capitan in Yosemite National Park in 2017, a feat documented in the Academy Award-winning film “Free Solo”. Free solo climbing means climbing without ropes or protective gear. Since then, Honnold has continued to push boundaries while also becoming a public figure who speaks thoughtfully about risk and fear.
His most recent accomplishment is climbing Taipei 101, a stunning 1,667-foot-tall skyscraper in Taiwan that once held the title of the world’s tallest building. This daring climb, which was live on Netflix, was carefully planned and executed with the same discipline and skill as many of his previous climbs.
The structure of Taipei 101 is designed to look like a bamboo stalk, and Honnold had to navigate through sections of steel, glass, and concrete. While viewers worldwide watched with holding back breath, Honnold successfully completed the ascent, reaching the top in about 1 hour and 31 minutes. He greeted his wife at the top and called the experience “sick.”
Taiwan’s Vice-President Hsiao Bi-khim also took to Twitter and commented, “Though I admit I would probably feel sick, too, barely able to watch.”
Alex Honnold’s take on fear
We cannot really understand free-soloing without looking at how Honnold processes fear. An earlier interview with him is going viral again, where he speaks about this in a way that makes us rethink our worries today.
“When was the last time most people were actually afraid?” Honnold asked. He challenges people to think about experiences with real danger. Moments when we might actually get hurt.
While we often refer to feelings of worry or anxiety in our daily lives, like dreading a Monday morning or panicking over a misplaced wallet, Honnold points out that these aren’t the same as true fear. He believes that if we never confront fear, our minds start to stress over trivial issues. For him, it is important to understand the difference. “I think that if you don’t experience real fear from time to time, you don’t experience real danger and other things, then your mind just creates fears out of nothing,” he says.
Honnold’s view is that our brains are built to tackle problems. If we don’t face real challenges, like escaping danger or finding our way on a dangerous climb, our minds will fixate on smaller annoyances and treat them like serious threats. To illustrate his point, he talks about the experience of traveling through airports. In moments of travel, many people are filled with anxiety over things like security lines or the worry of missing a flight, even though there’s actually no real danger involved.
For someone who regularly climbs massive cliffs, Honnold finds this anxiety almost amusing. “You’re in a comfortable, safe airport, with food and everything you need. If you arrive a few hours late, it’s not the end of the world,” he explained.
He highlights a common behavior in modern life where we create stress in situations where we should feel secure. Honnold’s calmness while hanging off a tall building comes from his ability to focus on what really matters.
He questions why we allow ourselves to become so stressed over things that aren’t important and let that affect our lives and moments we are currently living. “I think that the more real experiences you have with real fear, real danger, things like that, the less likely you are to make mountains out of mole hills, to worry about the stuff that doesn’t matter”, Honnold summed up his remarks.
Why this matters
His perspective is surprisingly helpful, even for those who don’t plan to climb cliffs. As humans, we’re wired to survive dangers like predators and harsh environments, but nowadays, the biggest stressors we face are often minor things like a dead phone battery, negative comments, or traffic jams. Our bodies, however, do not know the difference. When we face a minor inconvenience, our heart rate spikes and our adrenaline flows as if we are cornered. This constant state of “survival mode” exhausts us because we are fighting imaginary dangers all day.
Honnold’s approach to fear offers a fresh perspective. By distinguishing between “fear,” an immediate physical threat, and “worry,” a mental projection, we can stop wasting energy on the latter. We can learn not to react to every minor issue, and instead, save our emotional energy for situations that truly deserve it.
Next time you feel that surge of anxiety because plans have changed or something small goes wrong, remember Honnold’s insight. Ask yourself if you’re in any real danger. Are you safe? Do you have enough to eat? If the answer is yes, then what you’re feeling is just noise. Honnold climbs skyscrapers to keep that perspective. The rest of us can probably take a deep breath and realize that, compared to something as towering as Taipei 101, our challenges are absolutely manageable most of the time.
