A Gas Station Convo I Can't Stop Thinking About

League of Wildness,

Alex Honnold recently free soloed Taipei 101 — one of the tallest buildings in the world.

No ropes. No safety gear. Just Honnold being Honnold.

If you haven’t watched it, it’s worth a few minutes of your time.

Watching it brought me back to a mythical story about Yosemite climbing legend John Bachar:

A climber pulls into a gas station in Tuolumne in 1987. Across the lot is this cut, blond, surfer-looking guy filling up his 4x4. Running shorts. Track singlet. Knee-high socks with bold soccer stripes. The climber is thinking, Is this guy cool or a total goofball?

Then it hits him.

That’s John Bachar.

So he walks over, trying to play it cool, but when he opens his mouth all that comes out is the obvious question:

“How can you solo all that crazy stuff?”

Bachar looks at him, calm as ever, and says:

“You’re soloing right now.”

That line has echoed through the decades all the way to me sitting here in 2026.

“You’re soloing right now.”

I think what he meant is that a lot of the “safety” we cling to is more illusion than reality.

And sometimes that illusion pushes us into fear-based decisions that don’t actually serve us.

I’ve seen people give up on bigger hopes and dreams for the “safety” of a good job.

I’ve seen people stay in relationships that were just okay, even when it was clear they were not deeply fulfilled.

I’ve seen people choose the safety of omission — not taking the risk, not making the move, not speaking the truth — all because of what might happen.

Right after our entire neighborhood burned down in late 2021, I worked with a business coach who introduced me to the idea of Fear Setting.

Fear Setting is the practice of writing out the worst-case scenario in specific detail.

(There’s a Tim Ferriss video on it that’s worth watching if you’ve got a few minutes.)

I’ve done this exercise several times, and every single time the reality on paper was not nearly as bad as it felt inside my head.

I think part of the power is that it turns the abstract into something tangible.

It also feels like a real expression of the idea that action is the antidote to anxiety.

When you put pen to paper, you stop endlessly circling the fear and start confronting it.

You make the enemy specific.

You make it real.

And once it’s real, you can make a plan.

And honestly, even if the scenario is bad, you’re still in a better position because you’ve moved from reactive to proactive.

I think the anticipation of peering into the abyss is often worse than what you actually see once you look.

So if there’s an unknown in your life that’s creating anxiety right now, the Fear Setting exercise might help you find a little more clarity… and a little more peace.

(Along with more Rucking, of course)

Much love,

-Dan
Wild Gym Founder