Fear the controller

Fear; False Evidences Appearing Real, whoever defined it in those terms was right. Famous fear, thriving in the mind and exploring the senses; its name sending chills down the bodies of millions maybe billions; a jailer with trophies to its name.

As a child I was afraid of the dark, somehow, I was made to believe that there was a nameless monster waiting in the dark to grab me. It was so bad that once it was dark, even with the lights on I wouldn’t go for an errand alone and guess who I carried along? My kid brother. It’s funny right? Yes, it was that bad. Even though over time, I have been able to conquer fear of the dark I have come to realize with time that it wasn’t just that particular fear that had me in its control. Oh! I discovered that there were other aspects of my life that were in its control. For instance, the fear of heights but I think the worst for me was the fear of failure.

Seems like a good kind of fear, right? Hmm! I can’t tell the extent to which it affected me. At first it was like a wall of protection that kept me in check however, I later found out that it was a ‘venomous snake’ subtly keeping me bound from exploring all that I can be.

You see whilst failure is painful and I have had my fair share in life, I’ve realized it made me better. Your ability to see it as a stepping stone to a better tomorrow gives you an edge over the experience. Fear on the other hand says you are okay where you are and need not find out what’s on the other side of the wall; your tomorrow. There’s no telling its limitation.

If a chick was afraid of what would become of it and remained in its shell, it would never get the opportunity of growing to its adult form because it would eventually die. Life is designed such that as we grow the places that were once a comfort zone become too small for us and there is a need to “enlarge our territory” but with fear, it says there’s no need to grow, there might be nothing to grow into. So, like one with disuse atrophy, there’s a loss of hope, faith and the desire for something better sometimes even of living.

I don’t know how long you may have allowed this controller keep you in your shell just like it did to me but it’s time to launch out that boat on the ocean, it’s time to break down those firewalls, it’s time to start that business, it’s time to go for that course, it’s time to take a look at that innovation again, it’s time to give love a second chance. Champions never win by sitting and licking old wounds. Permit those wounds to heal and pick up those trainers again.

Does your stepping out guarantee that you will not fail at it again? Absolutely not but you are going at it with an advantage; your experience, the lessons learnt, a new strategy. However, you look at it, it is worth the shot. Living in the now is truly far more important than merely existing like Joyce Meyer would say, “Do it afraid”.