There’s a critical somatic distinction between grounded and ungrounded excitement. Grounded excitement feels like the body is metabolically prepared, in flow, welcoming any red flags while remaining open. Ungrounded excitement is enthusiasm that covers up unacknowledged anxiety—you’re “a little bit bouncy,” excited but not fully honest about what you’re feeling.
Joe identifies this as the key signal for whether to jump—literally in base jumping, and metaphorically in business. When he notices himself grasping for exciting opportunities while the numbers are scary, that’s ungrounded excitement: “Looking at the opportunity is a wonderful thing to do and clinging to the opportunity, grasping for it—there’s a difference, there’s a different feeling in that.”
The distinction also extends to anxiety funneling through anger—people getting irritable at an exit point because they’re scared, or obsessively checking others’ gear to manage their own fear. All of these are forms of “not being grounded in yourself.”
“If I’m feeling a grounded level of excitement and anticipation and I feel like my body is amped in such a way that is metabolically prepared for what I’m about to do and I feel that I’m in flow… and I’m also not just reaching that state because I’m putting on the blinders.”
Related Concepts
- Fear is excitement without the breath
- Fear constricts, excitement expands
- Anxiety is constricted life force