What Is Your Relationship with Fear?

What is your relationship with fear? Some people are paralyzed by fear, while others are motivated by it. Lately, I have been thinking about how fear can be fuel if you have the right relationship with it. When you allow fear to stop you from taking action, it prevents you from growing, and it will ultimately prevent you from living fully.

As the Egyptian existentialist Naguib Mahfouz bluntly stated, "Fear does not prevent death. It prevents life." Fear is responsible for holding most people back from the life they truly want to live.

Fear is like any other emotion; it is a signal. Fear causes us to either fight (move forward), flee (move back), or freeze (do nothing). We are programmed to feel fear, it is part of our evolutionary makeup, and it has allowed our species to survive for as long as it has. Think back to the last time you did something you were afraid of. How did you initially respond? More than likely, you acknowledged the fear and took action despite the fear. Once you took action, the fear started to diminish, and momentum started to build.

One of the best solutions for overcoming fear is to cultivate a powerful vision that transcends it. Fear can either be your worst enemy or your best friend, and that is for us to decide when it comes to how we approach it.