Fear
Fear
It’s with out a doubt one of the main reasons we find ourselves stuck. Many people just roll along happy with their lot, never having the need or desire to challenge the outer edge of life. This email is not for you people. This email is for the person that has a desire, need, or is motivated by truth. Fear is constantly there, we just design our life around feeling it as little as possible, avoiding it, avoiding pain, for most fear = pain.
Learning to live and accept fear
Learning to live and accept fear as an innate part of our physical makeup takes practice and work. The first step is to take small bite sized chunks, learn, recover and then face the next one. As Eleanor Roosevelt quotes “you gain strength, courage, and confidence in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
You must do the thing which you think you cannot do
You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. This can be as simple as saying “no” to your boss. The fear of losing your job may disempower you to act resulting in you being treated in a way that is not congruent with your values. Dorothy Thompson writes “only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live”…I don’t agree with this. Only when we accept that fear is part of the process, feel it, see it, observe it then quickly move on, not allowing the fear to knee jerk us backward towards habitual patterns of fear, once you strengthen the courage around fear, you will slowly ‘power up’ your life as boundaries that have restricted you crumble.
Fear is a powerful emotion and great motivator
Fear is a powerful emotion and great motivator. On Saturday afternoons several Australian Champions in various martial arts would attend my sparring session. This session was very popular and well attended, sometimes having as many as 30+ black belts. Top fighters such as Adam Watt (4 times world kickboxing champ) Colin Handley (9 times Aust heavy weight Taekwondo Champion), Tom Lilovac, (Australian Karate Champion) and many top local fighters used this session as preparation for major competitions.
My entire training program would be designed around surviving the Saturday session. This was the beginning of MMA (mixed martial arts). So many different martial arts all under one roof….if you had not done your preparation, you would not last long. The workout would start on the Thursday as I felt the fear begin to rise. The battle between not going and going would rage inside my head until I actually put on the gloves and commenced sparring. I now know that this win over fear, laid ground work (and a formula) for moving beyond my comfort zone in many other areas of my life.
See it, feel it, observe it
Fear will always be there, it will justify itself in so many ways. Some times it is good, it will protect you, other times, it will stop you from living a vital and fulfilling life. As my teacher says. See it, feel it observe it, then work back and try to see the cause, when you have that, then work back again and again, its interesting when we finally understand what the real reason for the fear is.