It’s Time To Stop Letting Fear Dictate Your Life
By Jenna Hushka
We all feel it, and we all experience it, and we all wish it didn’t exist. We all lose ourselves to the enemy of fear. The irony of this kind of villain is that it lives inside and we also create it. Yet, defeating it has become the true challenge, perhaps one of the hardest ones we face in this lifetime.
Myself, along with millions of other humans, have grown up with hundreds of goals and dreams and desires for our futures and I am not happy to say that I have not accomplished all of them. Now, I don’t believe accomplishing every goal in your captive mind is the only means of success, but why is it that we don’t go for some of these goals that live inside us?
The culprit, in fact, is just a small four-letter word: fear. What is it about this feeling that gives complete control on our actions and thoughts? It’s the correlation with the unknown. It’s the unknown and the ‘what if’s’ that immediately fill our brains. It’s the comfort of doing the same thing with the known outcomes we are used to.
But if we were to map this all out to ourselves on a piece of paper, it would sound silly, correct?
It is almost like a mathematical equation. Let’s say today I am at 0. If I do nothing new, I will remain at 0. Lets say I go for a goal; I have two outcomes, one being -1 or one being 1. If I get to -1, I can always work my way back to 0, where I started. So if the worst that could happen to me is this metaphorical -1, what is so fearful about that?
Yet life is not an easy mathematical equation. The problem with this perfect equation is that it’s missing all of the variables. Maybe the variables in your life are your career, money, your friendships, your residence, and many other factors that are important to you.
Well I like to argue that these variables also resemble excuses.
You could sit in a room and come up with a million reasons not to do something. Yet all it takes is one optimistic thought to create magic.
Instead of bombarding your head of all of the possibilities of failure or obstacles that may b pop up in your future, why not start thinking of all of the possibilities and outcomes if you succeed?
Now I challenge you, to start. Start with a thought, start with a simple idea, but make sure you damn well start. Start to do something that scares the crap out of you. Start saying yes to doors that open up paths to your goals. Start saying yes to networking and learning from ones who have gone down this path. Start being ok with not knowing everything and every outcome but trusting your hard work and determination.
And after that, stop letting fear define your life.