Zig Ziglar once said, “F.E.A.R. has two meanings. Forget everything and run or face everything and rise, the choice is yours.” When thinking about fear, people often associate it with being paralyzed and unable to complete, but that’s not the only thing fear can do.
Yes, fear can hurt you, but it can also help you. Most people are afraid of heights, clowns, or spiders. What many people do not consider is the uncommon fears that they have. These uncommon fears are more often than not the reason we are able to push ourselves.
One fear that people face every day is the fear of letting people in. The true fear in this is not letting them in or who they are but the reality that they might leave and hurt us. What scares people most about getting close to someone is the fact that that person has the freedom to leave whenever they want. The thought of being left is what can cause people to build walls.
If you keep them away, you can’t get hurt. But really pushing people away is not going to keep the pain away because you are just creating your own pain. Being left is a scary thing, but never having anyone and always being alone, relying only on yourself, is scarier.
Another thing people avoid is taking risks. The unknown is scary and potentially results in something you did not want. But the results could also be everything you have ever dreamed of. If you do not take risks, you will never know what you are capable of.
Your comfort zone is safe. You know what to expect, who there is, and have plans for what to do if something was to happen. Outside of your comfort zone is scary. Sometimes it is so scary that you play it safe by sticking to what you know. Taking risks, doing something you never thought yourself capable of, can lead you to chances you would not have otherwise had. By stepping outside of yourself you are rewarded by learning that there is so much more to experience.
Today everyone has multiple passions, multiple hobbies. I am not saying that that is a bad thing, but what if you refuse to focus solely on one because you are afraid you will not be good enough or missing a chance with the other? We want to know everything and do anything and if we believe, we are missing something we feel unfulfilled.
What if that is the reason you spread yourself so thin? The fear of not being good enough holds many people back from many things. You can’t get good at something without time, attention, and practice. Giving your attention to too many things can take away from the one thing you could be great at.
Yes, fear can hold us back, but it can push us forward too. That is the funny thing about fear, we see it as keeping us from something. But sometimes, if you are lucky, fear is the reason you face the scary things in life. You might be wondering how, if we are scared to do something, fear can cause us to do it. Well, the answer is simple.
We might be afraid of the task, but we are more afraid of what we will miss if we do not take the plunge. As humans, our fear of missing out is usually far greater than any other fear we hold.
PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth University
