The No Spot: How to Reframe Risk-taking & Create More Opportunity for Yourself

The Universe is malleable to the degree we're willing to dance with it.

Most of the perceived risk we experience in our day-to-day life revolves around asking; asking big questions, for big things, to big people. You can offset your fear by remembering you’re likely already in the No Spot.

The No Spot is the place where rejection has little to no consequence.

Want to ask that girl on a date? You already don’t have a date and so if she says no, nothing changes. Want to ask for time off? If your boss says no, you planned to be working anyway. 

Our life is drenched in opportunity. 

At all times the universe is testing us to see if we’ll bite. It’s seeing if we’re ready to take the plunge into a more magical life. These big life decisions could revolve around a new job, a new lover, or a new town. Maybe we’re in the habit of considering the leap, but keep staying put. We keep staying with what we know and denying what we could be - what we could become.

We’re afraid of rejection. We’re afraid of the unknown. We’re afraid of what would happen if it didn’t work out, if things don’t go as planned. So, we turn down these opportunities. We refrain from taking advantage of what’s presented to us. And thus, we sit in our own detention, staring out at the playground wondering when the bell will ring for recess.

Ah, but the bell is in our hands!

The truth is, if we take the time to imagine and think through the worst outcome of risky decisions, we will realize that there’s way more to gain than we might lose. 

Well, unless you’re skydiving.

Planes, Parachutes, and Perspective 🪂

We aren’t formally taught risk management. The best we get, if we’re lucky, is how our parents led by example. I grew up in a crabs-in-a-bucket town of 3,000 people with a destiny bound to involve beer, four-wheelers, & muddin’. That future scenario was completely scrapped when I got my first job at 16 packing parachutes for a bunch of crazy people at a local skydiving dropzone. #PlotTwist

Instantly, my worldview bubble popped and I was surrounded by a whole different breed of humans. These people were cultured, cussing, and coming Alive. 

They were wide awake head to Soul and I couldn’t get enough. 

It was an intense amount of responsibility to not fuck it up and the peer pressure to jump out of a plane myself was too much to bear too. On my first tandem jump, my friend and I were under the parachute canopy at 5,000 feet when he said, “Welcome to my office”-- I was hooked.

My eyes were opened to new ways of living & lifestyles beyond previous comprehension. I had been exposed to better ways. The secret was out.

I’ve been spoiled from the start.

Worst-Case First ⚠️

“If you’re not living on the edge, you’re taking up too much space.” - Jim Whittaker, First American to Summit Everest

The training to get certified to skydive solo focuses primarily on what to do in the worst-case scenarios. The goal is for the emergency procedures to become muscle memory. 

It’s How to Save Your Life 101.

Worse-case principles are liberating because they shed light on the unknown and give us the confidence to make things right if they lean wrong.

Once we’ve jumped out of a plane a few hundred times with your heart beating in your throat while your brainstem yells “This ain’t no game playa!” -- the typical day-to-day risks don’t seem so daunting.

Security and safety are largely an illusion that we white knuckle with all our might as we smile and nod our way across the mundane prologue of our lives. Early on, those skydivers snapped me right out of that dreadful place and now, like that creepy stoned guy on the beach with the metal detector, my soul and I are on the hunt for the next invisible door.

 Invisible doors are the moments when we find an opportunity, step through, and nothing’s ever the same.

When we remember that we’re already in the No Spot, we’re willing to take more shots on goal. We’re not afraid to ask for what you want. 

"Only those who ask for more will get more. Only those who know there is more, ask."

Magic of The No Spot 🪄

This has opened up so many invisible doors in my life, that it’s now a rule I live by and use frequently. 

Here are a few examples to highlight what’s possible:

• My partner and I packed up all our belongings in a U-haul and moved 2,000 miles across the country to a state we’d never been to with a newborn baby. Worst-case scenario, we’d end up back in her mom’s house. We were already living in her mom’s house, i.e., the No Spot. The benefit though is that we’d come back with more experience and know-how. Luckily, this invisible door worked out and led to the most life-changing 5 years of my life to date!
  

• Soon after arriving in Washington jobless, I had been turned down for a position at a weed shop after 3 amazing interviews due to my lack of cash register experience. I sent the owner a letter about why it was actually a good thing I lacked cash handling experience. I didn’t have to unlearn any bad habits and they could train me on exactly what to do. Worst case, she’d say no. (She’d already said no!). When you realize you’re asking from the No Spot, there’s nothing to lose and all to gain. The owner ended up giving me the job and I’m now 5 years deep into the cannabis industry. 
  

Another invisible door opened.

• After a few years of adventures in the Pacific Northwest, we wanted to move back to Tennessee. The default backup plan was to live in a camper and get a job in real estate, but not before I knocked on an invisible door. I was already in the No Spot, so I asked my boss at the time if I could create a remote position out of thin air and work from Tennessee. He said yes and it allowed us not only immense relief but because there was no break in employment, even the ability to buy our first home!
  

The serendipity doesn’t even stop there. 

• A few months ago, I asked Rick Doblin from MAPS directly if he’d sponsor my side project, Psychedelic Grad. He was already not sponsoring it (No Spot). He agreed and now the community is taking off!
  

AND, to really drive this point home if it’s not already…

This article exists is because of a writing course I’m in called Write of Passage. The whole reason I’m in this cohort to begin with is that I won a scholarship from Home Depot’s Frank Blake. He sent out the application link for a full scholarship and...well, I was already in the No Spot.

You never know until you ask.