Good Morning Team -
FEAR may be the worst enemy of the human species or our BEST Friend. And it’s been with us since the beginning of time. Every ancient major religious text writes about it and the damage it causes. It is fear that will turn your dream of success into an ugly nightmare that haunts you into the paralysis of anal-ysis OR Fuels your imagination, Desires and goals. I had the privilege of being present at the post gold medal celebration when Olympic Gold Medalist Natalie Cook said this;
“It’s the same fear that lost me the gold medal at the 96′ Atlanta Olympics, that won me the Gold medal at the Sydney Olympics. I found a way to manage my fear to drive me forward instead of hold me back“.
Most children are pretty fearless creatures – we watch as our 5YO jumps off things, dives head first after a ball or climbs up a stack of shelves or other things we would never consider. Teenagers and even young adults continue to display mostly fearless attitudes. Remember how invincible you were as a young person?
In a bizarre cruel twist, many people grow more fearful, as they age. I say bizarre because wisdom (which usually comes with age) should make us more apt to see the Truth in a situation. Unfortunately many people attach incorrect meanings to events.
Becasue the Truth is – fear can be defeated and converted to fuel because ALL fear is just a learned response. We are born with only 3 fears; fear of abandonment, fear of loud noises, and fear of falling. And the last two we learned from mom’s reaction to outside stimuli. Every other fear you have today was/is learned! And if you’re still above ground you can learn a new response, you can un-learn your fears in one of two ways;
The antidotes to fear are Gratitude and Action. Grateful that you have the fear because it in some way it served you. And from a place of gratitude you can transform the fear into fuel.
And the very best way to defeat fear is through Action. DO the thing you fear and attach a new meaning to it. Very often we find; “Gee that wasn’t so bad afterall“. Re-member, you’ve done it before.
And finally from the movie Lion King; Raficki the wise one said this in response to the future king of all expressing his fear of leadership:
“You can either run from it or Learn from it.”
Live With Intention,
Dr Bill
