To fear or not to fear

Is it just ME, or do you, too, know wonderful people who live with a fear that seems to control their lives to a detrimental degree?

Am I hitting too close to home on this one?

It is not unrealistic to live with fear – of something!  The unknown?  Failure? Let’s call that lack of success!  Death!  (Believe it or not, fear of public speaking is more feared than death, itself!  Imagine choosing to die rather than having to speak in public?)

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), 32^nd President of The United States assumed the office at the depth of the Great Depression.  Those were fearful times for the vast majority of Americans and FDR is well-known for helping Americans regain faith in themselves and in overcoming the fear of this most trying time.  In his Inaugural Address, he said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. With that, an entire nation began to heal; they overcame fear and took action.

Fear paralyzes, costs time, edits success, forestalls potential brilliance and under-develops what might have been.

I dare say the jury is still out on whether the greater fear is that of failure or success!  Are they really all that opposite?  I see them as quite related.

In both cases it is about making a commitment to something and seeing it through with no guarantee as to what the outcome may be.  That takes courage, which many may perceive as the opposite of one who is fearful.

Putting it on the line, exposing your inner thoughts, dreams and hopes to the world comes with responsibility, which is too much for some to be willing to live with.   What a shame!

Success is never guaranteed; it always comes with risk.

Not trying comes with as much risk; risk of a different type, albeit, but risk, nonetheless.  It is the risk of not rising to your greatest potential, of never tasting the sweetness of success, the risk of disappointing the one who has the right to expect the most of and from you; YOU.

We live in a world of ‘I told you sos’, or ‘I knew you couldn’t do it’ and ‘I knew you didn’t have it in you’ critics; typically those who have risked little, themselves.  Well, we’ve all heard the expression that miser loves company!

Just today, I heard ‘women are like tea; they only become all they can be when they are in hot water’.  WOW; I love this metaphor!

 

It made me further think that tea is often flavored with lemon and/or sugar.

Double WOW!!

The result, therefore, could be bitter or sweet and in both cases, the hot water is required; think of that as the effort, the risk, the energy, the period of wondering, waiting, working the plan….

Every woman is capable of so much; she just has to want it badly enough to ‘make it happen’; it rarely happens any other way.

Consider your fears.  Consider what they may be holding you back from.

Now think of what would happen if you threw that fear away.  What would unloading that burden make possible in your life, in your career?

Weigh the pluses and the minuses…you decide!

So, IS it just me, or do you, too suddenly feel like throwing a tea party?

Pass the sugar, please!