Fear...

So a question lingers in my mind from a discussion at work: What would you do if you weren't afraid?

 

Fear.

 

I hate that word - I hate how crippling it is, I hate how it can strike even the most assured person and leave them cowering in the corner. And as horrible as fear is, how we react to it is worse.

 

Whether it is fear in our lives, in our careers, or in relationships, fear has this uncanny ability to bring us to a halt and make us unrecognizable to ourselves.

 

What would I do if I wasn't afraid? To answer that question one has to be willing to say what they are afraid of. I am afraid of failure. I am afraid of not succeeding. I fear that I will give my all to something and we will have to close the doors. I fear disappointing other people, I fear disappointing you. In that fear, parts of me remain hidden.

 

I hide behind the lie that I don't know how to get there. If I wanted something bad enough I would figure out how to get it. So then that leads to another lie - maybe I don't really want it.

Facing fear meaning facing what we are afraid of and the lies we use to mask them. Only then can we realize how small and trivial and self-perpetuating fear is and move beyond it what we really want to do.



So... What would you do if you weren't afraid?