Fear is your friend!

There’s no shortage of fear. If you don’t have any in your life right now, just wait a bit and some will show up when you least expect it.

We need fear. I know that’s hard to believe.  We need the discomfort that comes from it, and ranges from a  slight edge to gut wrenching anxiety and panic.

Have you ever been frozen in fear? In order for that to happen, you would have been severely tested, perhaps even in a perceived life threatening way. Fear is the natural protective mechanism that has withstood the test of time to keep us safe from the saber tooth tigers of life. It also keeps us small.

Fear limits us, it holds us back. It tells us that we are not enough. It lies to us. It says; “what will people say or think”.  It says. who are you to think that’s possible.” It says,”you will fail and that you aren’t good enough, not smart enough, financially abundant enough,not lovable enough, fit enough, confident enough, not beautiful enough,talented enough, etc…so don’t even bother.”

Fear is also the birthplace of courage. In the moment that fear exists, simultaneously, an offsetting amount of courage becomes available. This is worth remembering. Without fear courage can’t exist. This is worth repeating. You must have fear in order to do something courageous. If there is no fear, then courage cannot exist.

Years ago at an event, I climbed a telephone pole and stood at the top and then helped a woman who was afraid of heights do the same thing. She had far more courage than I did. I wasn’t afraid so it was easy for me. No courage was required.  She was petrified, crying and frozen in fear briefly… and then… she did it. I felt honored  to have participated in that amazing transformation, and I was blown away by her courage.

Can you remember a time when you did something while you were afraid? Do you also remember how good it felt to have faced that fear?

You access courage by stepping into your fear and doing something anyway. The greater the fear, the greater the courage that becomes available in that moment. Mostly we never see it. It’s there to enable us to do the thing that needs to be done. We can choose to feel the fear and still rise up… grabbing our courage, or we can choose to soak ourselves in our fear.

Waiting for the fear to go away is an exercise in futility. The longer you wait, the more the fear will build up around that thing you need to do.

Courage is acting while afraid. Courage is going right at your fear and saying Thank You! or F*ck You!, and then doing whatever needs to be done.

Is fear running your life in some way? That thing you are most afraid of is unknowingly operating unchecked  in your life, and it’s keeping you from feeling the freedom that you deserve.

Imagine what might happen if you were to choose to be courageous.  One more courageous act every day and who knows…How unstoppable  might you become?

Free yourself by remembering your courage.  Your life will never be the same.