Views are Spectacular Off the Beaten Path
The views off the beaten path are spectacular.
We're not talking about taking a long, twisting mountain road to get to the view—although you may want to think about that. We're speaking of thoughts and ideas, or perhaps feelings and emotions, which need time and space in order to flourish. In other words, these are special kinds of roads which have extraordinary vistas that don't come with a sign at the end saying "Climb on over here for a breathtaking view." If there were such signs in life, then everyone would seek out these particular paths more often than not. However, fear of others is still our biggest obstacle when it comes to exploring those less traveled routes because people naturally want what they know best.
For instance, if you're a classical musician then you probably don't spend much time exposing yourself to any genre of music that's not classical. We don't necessarily know why this is the case, but we do know that it's more common than not. And these impulses are often founded on how our parents raised us. Our culture must also play an important role in this as well because most people are too shy to explore different dimensions of art and music simply because they're afraid of judgment from others. With these three factors combined (parents, culture, fear of judgment), it would be impossible for classical musicians to enjoy every kind of musical expression in existence—unless they're willing to take a chance. And that's probably not the most common thing for them to do.
In music, there are people who only listen to classical and people who only listen to a certain genre of popular music. There are also people who can listen to anything, while there are others that stick mostly to listening to classical and popular music. To be completely frank, I've found that most of these distinctions can be made based on how they were raised.
While all this may seem a bit detached from the topic at hand (generalizing across genres), it's actually quite relevant because it relates directly to how we feel when we're in a certain place—which I'll explain later on.
Finally, when it comes to potential views of the world, there are people who see the world in only a certain way and those who see the world in a different way altogether.
The reason why these generalizations exist is that we all have our own personal views that we're brought up with. Whether or not we stick to them and how long we hold onto them for can vary greatly between individuals. Unlike most people's views on music, I've found that people's views on life are more likely to change as they mature and grow older. As they do so, they're able to see things differently at times and since this has better results overall than holding onto a fixed position forever (i.e. the most common example is people's views on politics), they gradually evolve over time. This means that their personal views and styles of thinking are more likely to change over time, which means that we should be happy when they do as long as it's for the best.
When you live life in this way, you're always happy with yourself no matter where you are because your view of the world is constantly being altered. In other words, there's nothing to be afraid of. You're not forever stuck in one way of thinking and that's a good thing. This is why people who are always changing their views are able to look at the world in a wider variety of ways and see things for what they really are.
There's only one catch, however. You must be willing to do this at all times. Otherwise, you'll be afraid to change your position, no matter how many times you've been wrong about things in the past.
Of course, there are people who've been wrong about things in the past, but that doesn't mean that they'll always be wrong about them. More often than not, the thing you're afraid of is just your uncertainty. For example, what most people are afraid of when it comes to politics is that they might change their minds again and then have to admit they were wrong. And while this has happened to some degree in the past (it's impossible to avoid all mistakes in life), people aren't necessarily afraid of having an opinion which isn't precisely correct 100% of the time. What they're afraid of is changing their mind over something that's either very important or very sensitive. We're not talking about changing your mind from one political party to another, but we're talking about changing your view on something like prejudice or even second chances.
In this case, people don't know exactly how they feel and then they end up ignoring the issue altogether. This means that they put their current emotions aside in the hopes of finding a point of view which will provide them with answers. In other words, there are some dilemmas in life which prompt us to think quite deeply about them and we do so because we can't fool ourselves into thinking that everything is okay—at least not for long periods of time.
For example, I once knew a girl who was bullied quite heavily in high school. She had to fight for every inch of progress she made in life and it's incredibly difficult to do so when you're constantly being made fun of. In the past, I've asked myself whether or not this was an unfair thing to have happen as she'd grown up in America where all children are raised with an appreciation for racial harmony. Either way, after five years at the university down the street from me, she was still struggling with her depression and sometimes considered suicide because people tormented her so much that day after day. She told me that she didn't know what it'd take for her to be free of this psychological pain. However, she did tell me that she knew that something would have to change in order for her to feel better.
Of course, someone like that is going to want some sort of change in their life because they can't continue living the way they're currently living—no matter how hard they try. Even if you overlook the bullying issue and simply look at the fact that people generally are struggling with these sorts of dilemmas on a daily basis, you'll find that there are still people who are able to live their lives without questioning what does and doesn't work for them.
The key point here is intent.
Conclusion
What I've concluded is that everyone's afraid of something and the reason why they're afraid of it is because they don't know how to deal with those fears. They don't feel brave enough to face the situations that make them uncomfortable. This can be anything from uncomfortable social situations or even public speaking. Ultimately, it's about people not being able to recognize their fear and then deal with it in a manner which allows them to improve upon their situation in life. In other words, you must be able to see yourself for who you are if you want to grow as a person.