The only thing we
have to fear is fear itself—Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Fear is a very strong
emotion; man has been able to conquer the earth but he is yet unable to conquer
this emotion which is the cause of all of his discomforts. Fear is the reason why
men sojourn through life accomplishing nothing worthwhile.
I encountered an incidence that gave me an
insight to how fear works and I will like to share this incidence to bring ‘the
fear factor’ into better perspective.
A few weeks ago, I
was heading home from my morning jog when I saw two young boys walking to school,
the older one was about 7 years while the younger was between 3 to 4 years old, I
was behind them and didn’t take interest in them until we got to a path where a
goat was grazing, the older one walked past the goat, while the younger one
stopped and started crying.
I got interested so I stopped walking and
stood to watch the scene. The little boy wouldn’t move past the goat that was obviously
harmless, his elder brother after waiting for a minute had to come back and
pull him to continue their walk to school. As I watched this
incidence I asked myself 'what exactly made this little kid scared?' For sure, it wasn’t the goat because the goat didn’t attack him or his elder
brother.
It dawned on me that it was
the image this kid had in his mind that was causing his fear; it wasn’t reality
that made him afraid because the goat did not attack his elder brother that
walked past it and it won’t attack him either. This is exactly how fear works, we paint the
picture of an event in our mind and we become scared of this image- Think back
to times when you felt fear - what were you really scared of? Was it the main
event or just the graphics you had in mind?
Our fear of these
graphics we paint in our mind becomes so great that they either makes us
stagnant or we move backwards; just like the little kid in the story I shared,
this fear circle repeats itself every time you try something new whether it’s
in your relationships, fit life, career or whatever.
The best way to
overcome your fears isn’t to fight them; you can’t win the battle - because what
you fear are mere imaginations. Your aim
is to go out and do the exact thing you are afraid of and then do it over and
over again until the fear disappears completely; that’s how you win your fears.
To better illustrate
this, let’s relate it to your first driving experience; before you sit behind the wheel ready to move the
car, your mind starts drawing all
possible negative outcome of driving a car; It even reminds you of people you know who
have encountered accidents while driving, so you get scared and
nervous. After driving the first time,
the experience gets less scary. The fear continues to decline with everyday you
practice, until it gets to the point when you do not even have to think about
it anymore, you just pick up your car key and drive. Another amazing thing you notice is that your
driving skill improves as your fear decreases. -Fear can only be conquered by
doing what you are afraid of.
Relating this to fitness, Everybody wants a
good body; everybody wants to stay fit and in shape, but when it comes to doing
what is required; fear sets in and most people would rather remain out of shape
and unhealthy than face their fears.
For you to be a
champion, make a firm resolve to always go out and do those things you are
scared of. When you do it, you recognize that your fear was baseless in the
first place. As you challenge yourself in this regard, you start seeing life
through the lens of the fearless, you begin to see challenges as opportunities
to grow and be better.
You are no longer
held down by fear, you feel them but you don’t live them.
Start facing your
fears and start living your life.
Cheers to the fit
life.
