What is Fear?
I am sure you have felt fear at some stage in your life, it is one of the most primal human emotions that is believed to be generated by the ‘limbic brain’. This emotion would have been of great assistance to our ancestors who had to survive in a world much harsher than ours. The ability to fear the elemental forces, and savage beasts helped create the prospering human race we have on Earth today.
You and I however live in a much different world than primal man, the only savage beasts we have to worry about are spiders, which are easily defeated by repellents. No more walking to the nearest river for water, risking the possibility of becoming crocodile lunch. The only risk we face is having too much fluoride in our tap water! Food is also in great abundance, our version of the great famine is waiting a few months for KFC to release their infamous ‘Double Down’ burger. Clearly this is a hyperbole of the facts, however we cannot possibly say that the standard of the average humans life hasn’t improved drastically over the past few hundred years, can we?
So why do we still Fear?
You would assume that since our living standards have improved, and many dangers have been removed that our fear would have also dissipated with them, however this is obviously not the case. It’s 2015 and people are still scared shitless, we must come to understand that the base emotion will never go away, it will just adapt to the new circumstances, and take up new forms. Instead of fearing Saber toothed cats we fear asking for a pay rise, or any form of confrontation in general. In some cases some neurotic individuals get immobilised by such trivial matters, who would have known that social media posts could be like Medusa to some?
Fear is the test
One of the greatest fears is fear of the unknown, it is this fear that we must overcome if we are to have lasting success in our lives. This is the fear you feel when you are about to approach that girl, and are not sure about the outcome, you think to yourself ‘will she blow me out?, will people laugh?’, and all kinds of other discouraging mental talk. It is the fear your feel when you are about to quit your job and spend 10 years worth of savings on a new startup company you believe in. This fear is the fear we must embrace and become comfortable with, because it is the fear that reminds you that you are moving in the right direction, kicking some ass man!, pushing it to new levels. Grant Cardone Author of one of my favourite books ‘The 10X rule’, says that; “Sooner or later, you will experience fear when you start taking new actions at new levels. In fact, if you aren’t, then you’re probably not doing enough of the right things“.
Are you scared? Good
If you are taking action and improving everyday in every aspect of your life there will be no time for comfort zones, period!. Forget the dogma of ‘slow and steady’, it’s time for top speed. Feel the fear completely embrace that shit and push forward because you will know you are moving in the right direction. Obviously I am not telling you to charge at a gunman or go toe to toe with a Grizzly the next time you go hiking,( you might end up worse of than half of the characters on GOT). I am simply telling you to push through the fear that arises when progression in imminent.
A case study:
Think of anyone who has made it, and try imagine the amount of fear they would have had to overcome to get to where they are at. Imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger leaving his small Village of Thal to:
- Enrol into the Austrian army
- Escape training to compete in the Mr Universe bodybuilding competition
- Move to the US at age 21 with limited English
- Compete with world class athletes at the Olympia
- Embark on an acting career
- Embark on a political career
Terminate your fear like Arnie 🙂
