- That footage is gonna be so demasculinitizing,
if that's the right word.
- [Cameraman] It's not the right word,
I could tell you right now.
(laughing)
- What kind of a sick game is this?
- No I'm not--
- No, don't do it.
- Go ahead, open it up. - No, don't do it, no, no!
Guys, there's gonna be so much footage like this
through the entire video.
So don't get squeamish on me
and just enjoy watching me suffer.
You'll oftentimes hear me recommend to people
that they should step outside of their comfort zone,
they should face their fears.
I only say that because I see tremendous spiritual
and mental benefits in doing so.
Now you know that I talk the talk,
but you've never really seen me walk the walk.
So I partnered with Kissimmee, Florida,
who I've worked with in the past,
and they were happy to let me visit them one more time
and face my biggest fears.
Let's go for a ride.
(hip hop music)
Sorry, I have to interrupt.
Throughout this video, I'm gonna be conquering
all sorts of fears, but I did develop one fear
in the middle of this trip and that's goats.
Goats!
(goat bleats) (shrieks)
(electronic music)
(grunts)
What!?
Oh my god!
(hip hop music)
Let's start off with one of my biggest fears,
and that's my fear of heights.
I think this has something partially to do
with the fear of the unexpected,
maybe even the fear of losing control.
So if I'm at the edge of a building
or I'm on the tip of a bridge
and even though it's unlikely that I'm gonna fall off,
I still have this horrible vertigo and sense of doom.
When Kissimmee told me that one of the things
that's available for me to do out there
is to fly a World War II plane,
I was not so excited to do that.
To say it lightly, I was very scared.
- All right, come on up.
Right foot on the step.
Step in the middle of the seat.
The first thing we're gonna do is put your parachute on.
Have you ever skydived?
- I have not and--
- Well, today might be your lucky day, here it is.
This lever right here will release you.
At that point, if you're not thrown clear,
dive out the right side, if you have a choice,
and two rides for the price of one.
The parachute is automatic, it'll open by itself.
If for any reason the parachute doesn't work,
just bring it back, we got a few more in the shed,
so you just pick a different color.
And one last thing, the little white plastic bag
that you're not gonna use,
unless one of these characters bribed me,
is right over here.
Any questions?
- So this way, just this way. - Exactly.
And then you just swan dive out to the right.
(Mike laughs)
- I'm ready to not do that. - Good!
- And then the guns?
- [Pilot] Yeah, right here.
- How do we start shooting those?
All right, so I was initially really excited about this
and now I'm not so excited about this
'cause there's a feeling in the pit of my stomach
that I will describe as a butterfly
because I don't wanna say anything inappropriate on camera.
- [Pilot] There we go, welcome aboard.
Just bring the microphone real close to your mouth
so you hear yourself just like you hear me, okay?
- [Mike] Yes sir.
- [Pilot] So you say you've never been
behind the controls before, huh?
- [Mike] I have not, sir.
- [Pilot] Okay, well I have, hope that helps.
- I'm all about putting myself outside of my comfort zone.
- [Pilot] Well, I think you're doin' it.
We are airborne.
Landing gear is comin' up. - Woo!
- [Pilot] And I'm comin' back on the power.
All right, so we're gonna proceed on course
and teach you how to fly.
- Not only do you go up with the pilot,
the pilot teaches you how to fly.
- [Pilot] All right, you have an airplane.
(laughs)
All you.
I'm not touching a thing back here.
(dreamy music)
- That was amazing.
Just 'cause you're anxious doesn't mean
that it should stop you from doing anything.
- [Pilot] I've flown people who are so afraid to fly
that they're literally shaking when I strap them in, right?
Never seen anyone that was afraid to fly
that was still afraid to fly when they came back.
- The way that you get over your fears is through exposure.
I am officially a pilot.
- But not really.
You slowly expose yourself to whatever it is
that you're scared of so that you become knowledgeable
about it, you experience it,
and then you realize all of these unrealistic fears
that you've attached to this whatever it is,
an animal, a fear of flying, heights, is not realistic.
And the fear doesn't need to be there.
If I conquered that fear, anyone can conquer that fear,
oh my god, what an amazing experience.
- Next up is something you wouldn't expect.
♪ Oh lord, way to go, agents on my phone ♪
♪ Leave me on the road like we're on a boat ♪
- Being someone that's an athlete
and someone that's pretty good at sports,
I don't like feeling incompetent
when doing something physical.
I've never played golf in my life.
I had to show you that I too can feel uncomfortable
and that can be a really good thing.
Ready to do a little something something.
Come on.
(hip hop music)
- [Instructor] Notice that your hand--
(laughs)
- Yeah!
So I'm inside the bunker, but that's part of my plan.
I don't wanna make this easy.
Ah!
(triumphant horns)
Oh, that was sad for my first hole.
Thank you, sir.
Yeah, that's right!
In society we're always trying to move away
from feeling uncomfortable.
And while that's sometimes a good thing,
sometimes it's not a good thing.
Because being comfortable for too long
can carry its own consequences.
When you feel comfortable for too long
you don't take risks, you don't feel empowered
to reach your goals.
So by learning a new sport, by experiencing something new,
that's actually a good thing.
Short-term stress is amazing for your mind.
I've said before that knowing yourself
is one of the keys to living a good life.
The only way you can truly know yourself
is through exposure.
How would you ever know if you're passionate
about a game like golf unless you've played it?
Now what I want you to take away from this
is that you sometimes need to feel uncomfortable
in order to succeed.
(pounding)
- [Trainer] Come on, Pearl!
Come on, come here.
- Pearl, we're sorry we bothered you.
(man laughs)
(laughs)
Come on.
- I don't know, she looks rather agile for her size.
(laughs)
- And one of the major attractions
in Kissimmee, Florida is Gatorland.
It's a fun place where they have 1,000,
maybe even 2,000 gators and you can do zip-lining there,
which I've done and had an incredible time,
you can feed the gators, you can touch some of the gators,
I actually ended up touching an albino gator
which is one of the rarest types of gators in the world.
After hanging out with all the gators, feeding the gators,
they said, Mike, come back to this little area that we have,
it's a special area, and they walked me to this little shed.
I was thinking, he's gonna give me a little baby gator
to hold, not a big deal, I'm not so afraid of gators,
especially when they're babies.
I hold my hand open.
- Go ahead, open it up. - No, don't do it, no, no!
- It's not that bad.
- [Mike] Is it poisonous?
- They're venomous but their venom's like an ant bite.
- Oh... - It's very soft,
you can barely him on ya.
- [Mike] Yeah, I could barely feel him on--
Oh my god. - Yes, there we go!
And they only bite when you like poke around.
- Don't do that!
- [Trainer] I'm kidding, I'm kidding.
This is a Chilean rosy-haired tarantula.
- Aw, Chilean, is he from Chile?
- [Trainer] Yes.
- [Cameraman] Aw, Chilean, is he from Chile?
Is that what you said?
- [Mike] Yeah.
(Mike laughs) - Just making sure.
- You wanna play games?
You wanna play games?
I'm trying to wonder, is he from Chile,
should I speak Spanish to help calm his nerves,
or should I just stay silent and frozen?
And it really gave me the heebie-jeebies.
I'm not even a guy that's really scared of spiders.
I'm not an arachnephobe.
Then my lovely videographer, Dan Owens,
decides to whisper in our animal expert's ear
that I'm definitely afraid of scorpions.
Oh my god!
Why is he doing that?
- [Trainer] He's afraid of heights, he saw the ground.
- [Mike] Is he, is he, should I turn my hand?
- [Trainer] Yeah, you can turn with him.
- Oh my god, oh my god.
- [Trainer] When they crawl up the arm they see your veins
so that's when they wanna--
I'm just kidding. - Why do you have to do that?
I'm already facing a very large fear of mine.
My biggest fear was sitting on the palm of my hand
looking directly at me.
The trainer told me what I should be worried about
was the claws and not so much the--
What is this, the tail?
Since they were kind enough to show me
that they had a Chilean tarantula
and that they had this amazing scorpion
and I overcame those fears,
they said, we have a little bit
of a special surprise for you.
Okay.
- [Trainer] You ready?
Here we go, put it right on your shoulders.
- Give me some explanation.
- This is an albino Burmese python.
I figure the less you know, the better.
They won't do anything at all.
- Okay, they won't do anything, you promise?
- Nope, I promise.
- Why is he moving?
Is it a he or she, or do they not have sexes?
Why's she contracting around my neck?
- [Trainer] She's holding on
like you're a big tree right now.
- I'm glad he's single,
'cause I'm gonna climb that like a tree.
- Dr. Mike's adventures in the wild.
Look at that.
A cheeky little snake.
I just met you and you're already.
Say hi to all the YouTubers.
We in society love to just shower people
with fake self-esteem, artificial self-esteem.
The only way you get self-esteem that actually matters
and that has an impact on you is if you earn that.
And the way you earn self-esteem
is by going through challenges.
Short-term stress is good for you,
and the more times you can go through short-term stress
and come out on the other end successful,
or maybe even come out the other end failing
but learning something in the process,
that's how you boost your self-esteem
and that's the kind of self-esteem that counts.
The most important point that I want you to take
from this video
is that when you're creating your to-do list,
instead of thinking about what you wanna do,
I want you to think about what you're afraid to do
and do that.
As always, stay happy and healthy.
(static) Oh my god,
it's so close to my face.
- [Woman] This is kinda like this skin moving.
- Plane, thank you for getting me home safely, I love you.
You know what they say, go big or go home.
(hip hop music)
Say what's up to YouTube, Pacs.
(alpaca calls)
Say what's up to YouTube.
Say follow Dr. Mike.
(alpaca calls)
You got it, yeah, good job.
Good job, say, follow Dr. Mike.
(static)