What is your appetite for risk?

Risk or safety? Heart or mind? Ego or inner truth? Blue or red pill…

I’m taking you back twenty years ago. To the classic movie The Matrix (yes, that’s twenty years ago!). I’m not necessarily a fan of science fiction and usually flick past anything alien, futuristic or fantasy.

[Note: This blog is a guest blog for DG, David Galbraith, www.habitofgreatness.co.nz)

But I sat through this one. Because DG kept bringing up the famous red/blue pill scene where the main character Neo gets to choose between the red pill – which represents truth, knowledge and reality, or the blue pill – which represents ignorance, illusion, comfort and security. In short: courage or coward – all the things DG talks about.

And yes, it did resonate for me. I got a little excited by certain lines in that scene, such as “that feeling that something was wrong with the world. You don’t know what it is but it’s there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.” And “This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back.” And to top it off: “You take the red pill and you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes. All I’m offering is the truth. Nothing more.”

The truth. Nothing more. What an obvious choice.

It’s interesting to think of life with this concept in mind, and that’s probably why this scene is so iconic. Every time there is a decision to make, we could either go for red or blue.

And of course we all like to think of ourselves as red-pill-people, right? Who doesn’t want truth, reality and knowledge? But… I’m afraid it’s not as straightforward as this sounds in life.

Red pill. The coolest and most adventurous decision? Nope.

What I sometimes see around me, is that the red pill decision is associated with the craziest, most adventurous, coolest or scariest thing to do. Which then makes a good story for Monday morning or on social media (‘look at me, how cool am I’). From the above, the part that gets closest to the meaning of red pill moments -in my view- is ‘scariest’. As there is something scary and uncomfortable about the red pill option, which may drive us to blue instead.

In Neo’s situation the options are quite clear, and likely the majority of us would make the same choice as Neo. However, in real life our options are not always so clearcut and well presented by someone else. Most of the time we first need to figure out for ourselves what option is the blue pill and what option is the red one.

And that can be a bit tricky.

Let’s leave science fiction behind us for a moment and look at an everyday situation.

Everyday red/blue pill situation

Eg you get the chance to lead a challenging project at work. If you are interested in stepping up, but feel scared of all the responsibility it will bring, then stepping into that role is obviously a red pill decision.

If you were taking on the role because you can’t stand someone else being ‘above’ you, and you want it because you can’t bear telling your friends you’re not the main guy, then stepping back and being led by someone else is more of a red pill decision.

You can also feel very up for the challenge, believe you are the perfect man for the job, will do great and can’t wait to take it on. And when you do get accepted you look forward to telling your friends as you are just so excited (note: not because you want to show off!). Again red pill, because it’s so pure and from within.

Feel the difference? What I believe it comes down to is this: the motivation behind your actions. That’s why the same decision (in this case taking on a leader’s role), can be red pill for one and blue pill for someone else.

And to understand your true motivations behind every decision and action in life you gotta really tune in to yourself and have an honest conversation with just you really.

Red pill. A decision based on genuine motivations

When figuring out what is red pill for you, you need to ask yourself what the true motivations are for going for one or the other? A choice can be crazy and adventurous and red pill. Or a choice can seem very minor from the outside, but feel like a rollercoaster from the inside when stepping outside your comfort zone.

Any decision can be red pill, as long as it comes from a place of integrity, inner truth, respect for both yourself and the people involved, from a willingness to stretch yourself and see what life has in store for you. From chasing your dreams with all you’ve got, not settling for second best but a commitment to live life to the fullest. Get a feel?

When you let anything else control your decisions then you’re chewing blue; choosing for safety and the known, even although you know it is not working for you; fearful of what others will say and think; feeling better than others; a need to be liked, wanted or to impress; pleasing others or doing what you think is expected, and so on.

As DG describes it, red pill is taking ‘Pathway 1’, the pathway of courage, the hard road.

Clueless on what option is red, and which one is blue?

No pill, is better than the blue one.

As mentioned earlier, in The Matrix the options were very clear. And when you are clear headed on what you want in life, then the red pill option is pretty obvious too – the challenge then is taking it and letting go of all associated fears and anything that is holding you back.

Sometimes there are no obvious choices.
What I want to talk about now, is those situations where the lines are blurred. Sometimes there are no obvious choices. All you know something’s gotta change. Like the ‘splinter in your mind that drives you mad’. For many this is a sense of unhappiness. Something is not quite right in life that stops it from flowing. But no pills to be seen. Instead, some sense of cluelessness. I’ve been there. And I have even chewed on blue pills thinking they were red ones. I tricked myself big time!

If you like to think of yourself as a red-pill-person, then I suggest you sit back and wait for your pills to appear…

And while sitting on it and feeling into stuff, anchor into the following – from that place you will receive a clean white plate with two brightly coloured pills on it.

Five appetizers for finding your red pill

By sitting back I don’t mean anything lazy. It’s more of a ‘wait and see’. Waiting as in ‘be patient’, don’t rush into decisions. And see as in ‘be aware’.

Below are some concepts to feel into while ‘sitting back’. Make them your own. How? Just observing yourself. Take notice of what triggers you, ensure you take enough quiet time, so you can be with yourself for a bit. Here we go, you might want to have a red pill ready, just for doing this ;-)

Honesty with yourself.
Are you being led by true motivations and the heart? Or is the mind and ego in charge? Are you committed to your own realness? Don’t turn a blind eye to your inconvenient or unpleasant responses, feelings and thoughts – instead, ask yourself what these really mean and where they come from.
Patience.
Just because something is not quite right, doesn’t mean you have to make a change right now. Just listen, see, observe yourself. And trust that when you are tuning in to yourself, the next thing will be revealed.
Trust.
And that’s where trust comes in. Trusting the process. Of honesty with yourself combined with patience, it will take you places.
Courage.
All of these above require courage. You have arrived at the point between realising something is not quite right and not knowing what to do. It’s a crucial moment. This is where you can either go for ‘safety’, which means ‘I can’t handle this not-knowing, I’m going to fix it, so this is what I do (back to what you know, or do something silly/destructive, just for the sake of change). Or… you go for courage. You surrender to not-knowing and trust that your process will reveal the next thing there is to know until the moment you can act. This is where courage comes in, as you kind of have to be open to anything the process will reveal, whether these are things you like or not.
Being comfortable with not knowing.
This ties in with the above. As one inspirational person for me once said: “When you let go of the need to know, you develop something called faith.” That speaks to me so much (hence I wrote about this one here). It’s not that you don’t want to know, it is that you don’t need to know. Feel the difference?

Good things take time. And you want to get it right. So please don’t rush into anything for the sake of change. Like DG described this to me once: “Sometimes our mind can try to persuade us that one action is courage when in fact it is coward. All we can do in those times is sitting peacefully and listen to our heart. The sitting seems to be the biggest challenge.”

While I want and encourage everyone to go for red in every situation in life, I also have compassion for blue pill takers. It’s the hard road and not easy. I get it. I’ve been chewing a few blue ones over the years, and I now figure it’s a very unhealthy diet.

Red ones don’t only taste better, the after taste is delicious.

And… once you have taken one, it’s your forever diet change. It can be a painful road, but the reward is massive. Personally I feel more real and alive. I feel more ready to bounce back from challenging situations. Blue makes me go back and forth. Red makes me go forward only. Never blue again.

Or, like Morphues says: “After this, there is no going back.”

Unlike Neo, you will get another chance. Dreadfully endless chances. As inner truth has enormous stamina, it will pop up until you are willing to open your eyes and face yourself head on.