Fear

Fear is an emotional response or a feeling or rather categorised as a primal instinct which protects us from what is dangerous. But as with most things, a benefit always has a cost.

Danger isn't always bad. Sometimes, what is dangerous is also a call to an adventure. So sometimes fear doesn't necessarily protect, but shelter. And if a person is sheltered for too long, he remains premature. In which case, fear does the opposite of what it's intended to do. Instead of helping, it destroys the person.

It doesn't burn the person but burns what the person could be. Because what is outside the realm of comfort is chaos and unpredictability, which is the realm of the unknown. That is exactly what makes it uncomfortable. Being uncomfortable means having to suffer, which is why people love their comfort zones, to the extent that they never come out of it.

A bed is nice for a sound sleep or sex (hehe), but laying on a bed all day is hardly a triumphant call to being. It's like that old saying - "A ship is safest at the harbour, but that's not what it's made for."

There is only one thing that comes in between the safe harbour and the dangerous but also adventurous sea. It's fear! Fear of the unknown, to be precise. We fear what we don’t understand. Fear of dying as soon as you embark on a journey.

Not realising that what you want is also on the other side of fear.

There was a story that I read when I was a little kid, I forgot the name but I got the message at least. There was a man that was terrified of dying, so much so that he never got out of his house. Because of this, he never made any friends, never played outside or go out to see what the world was like. He was so paralysed by the fear of something going wrong in every step that he takes, that he removed anything that could cause him harm except for the things that are comforting. One day, while he was sleeping, a fan on top of him got loose from the circuit and fell on him, causing him to die from it. A premature death for a premature man, when I first read that, I laughed so hard (maybe even you're laughing as you read this). But what I realised later on was that a fan, which is a source of comfort, ended up being the very thing that killed him, that what is comforting can also be deadly.

It is this realisation that allowed me to see the two sides of the coin known as fear. Which brings me to my own definition of fear.

“Fear is the resistance barrier that holds you off from getting to the place that you want to be at.”

To partake in any sort of important activity or that which you regard as necessary, you have to cross the threshold barrier known as fear. First of all, you don't fear doing something, you fear what would happen if you fail at that particular activity.

You don't fear approaching a girl that you like because you fear the girl (what do you know about her to be terrified of her), you fear being rejected, and people don't like being rejected by anything, let alone a girl they like. You don't fear going on stage because you fear the stage or the audience, you fear that in case you mess up on stage, the harsh judgement of the audience would strike you down and you'd never be allowed to set a foot on stage ever again.

All of these fears are rational but look, if you're terrified of what might happen after every important step you take, you might as well never walk again because you'll always find a reason to be scared.

Take a leap of faith for once, because you can't march into the unknown without faith. Have some faith in yourself and some faith in what could be if you tried to participate in the act of bravery.

For bravery isn't the absence of fear, it is action in the face of fear.

It isn't the ignorance of the millions of negative possibilities but faith in yourself to achieve a positive outcome even if all the odds are stacked against you.

If you can march forward into the unknown with a strong heart, if you can face your fears with foxy eyes then perhaps you can evolve into a being that you're intended to be.

Don't be a coward. Be better.

P.S. :- I made a Twitter account for short format content. Check it out if you’re interested in short quotes. I post them every day.

@MadhavsJournal on twitter