The most terrifying thing for Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers was the idea that you'd get stuck somewhere in a pit of quicksand and die a miserable death. Essentially you'd buried alive without a fighting chance.

We were told that there was no way to stop it. Movies and TV shows often used quicksand as a crutch to advance the plot or the conflict in the story. Return of the Jedi even had a real monster inside the sandpit. An even worse death than mere sand.

According to Slate, Hollywood's reign of quicksand terror was at its peak in the 1960s, when, nearly 3% of all films included characters sinking in quicksand or something similar. It hadn't waned a bunch by the 1980s.

Believe it or not, quicksand was big business for some people.

The scariest thing imaginable for a young child. Terrifying. Most people of a certain age are still traumatized by the mere mention of quicksand.

At one point, for a couple decades at least, I never heard about or thought about quicksand. It just never came up.

Well, today's children have found out about it again. My two youngest children know about it, but also think it is so preposterous that there is even such thing as quicksand. They are not entirely dismissive, however.

See, when we went to the beach a few weeks ago, they were concerned that any given patch of sand could be quicksand and that they could have gotten sucked up by the beach, never to be seen or heard from again. This, I found, is not a healthy relationship with the coast. Another reason to disdain Hollywood, perhaps?

I just told them that the beach is not where you find quicksand.

Once we got our feet in the ocean and the tide pulled the sand back over their feet, they were convinced I had lied to them. This had to be quicksand! They were really sinking.

I told them, no, it is just the ocean doing its thing.

"Papa, what even is quicksand?"

"I really don't know," I said. Quite honestly, I'd never bothered to look it up in all these years. Probably trauma from TV and the movies.

"I'd imagine you can find out about it on Wikipedia nowadays," I continued. "But all I know is that when I was a boy, quicksand terrified me, too. Everyone was scared of quicksand. But I don't know anyone who's ever seen it in real life. One thing I do know is that the beach is not quicksand."

I did go and check the internet when I got home. Wikipedia proved to be helpful.

You might get stuck in a certain position, but it is physically impossible for humans to "drown" in quicksand. You only even "sink" to a certain point. It's not that dangerous, after all.

So why am I telling you all of this?

It turns out that even the most terrifying thing of all-time is not that bad.

But still, we hear all the time from people that the road ahead is terrifying for most Americans. They don't know how or what to do.

How about lie on your back and raise your legs? Quick fix.

Most people don't even think to do that. The "masses" react to challenges quite hastily and are perpetually in survival mode. Constant panic.

Without any principles, life will always be more complex than they can handle. It's the reality.

For these people, it’s the starting that stops most of them. It is terrifying for them to start.

What is stopping you? It better not be the starting.

There is no time like the present to take action. Swift action. Like my friend Carl says, "Lightning Speed!"

We're here to build winners and champions and believe, as Walt Disney did, that "It's kinda fun to do the impossible."

Are you up for a challenge?

If so, tell your brain to tell your first finger to click this link below with your mouse button…

(If you're reading on mobile, forget the mouse part.)

As always,

Brian