On Conquering Fear and Living

Life has a habit of complicating things.

In the end, nothing is really neat and tidy unless you refuse to live your life. If you put yourself out there, and take risks, and be vulnerable – complications are going to arise. You might fail. You might be rejected. You might also succeed beyond your wildest dreams. I think that as humans, we have this sort of optimism that keeps us going in spite of the complications – some sort of belief that things will work out this time around, and that obstacles can be overcome, and maybe if we just keep trying, we’ll get it right this time.

That’s the wonder of the human species; our capacity to try.

I think that as a society, though, we’re becoming increasingly paralyzed. We’re increasingly taught not to try, that failure is to be avoided and that to be vulnerable is painful and difficult. I think that we coddle our kids too much to let them succeed, and we’re facing a future filled with mediocre adults; afraid to try the important things, because failure is too huge to contemplate; willing only to succeed at small things, for the taste of success being infinitely sweeter than the bitter tang of failure – even if we’re not achieving our potential.

Fear is anathema to life, and so many people turn away from fear instead of confronting it and pushing through it. Victory, the success that matters, lies on the other side of fear. Building a lifetime of mediocrity IS failure, even if you succeed at your petty ventures – because you’re not achieving the greatness that is in each and every one of us. You’re turning away because of fear. And that is contrary to life. Not trying to realize one’s potential is perhaps the only true failure.

Don’t be afraid of fear. Embrace it, and walk through it. Keep moving even when you want to fall down and die; when you want nothing more than to build a small, quiet life and live in safety.

Safety isn’t where human beings thrive. It’s where we stifle and become increasingly more miserable. It’s where we lose our ambition and learn to be content with disappointment. Safety is where our soul dies.

Chance, and taking risks – living life – that is where we thrive. Doing what we’re meant to do – even when it’s hard, and we fail, and it seems like the entire world is stacked against us and our dream is futile – that’s life. That is living.

Everything else is existing in a pitiful half-asleep state where we never truly realize our potential.

Stop trying to avoid discomfort. Embrace it, and push yourself through it, to where life waits on the other side. Even when you’re in the midst of it, you’re living. You’re alive.

Learn to be alive.

Face the New Year with a resolve to be afraid. Because it’s only when you open yourself to being afraid that you’re doing something truly important, something that matters. If you don’t fear anything, then you’re not pushing yourself outside your comfort zone, and you’re not growing as a person. If you don’t fear anything, then you’re not alive; you’re hiding behind an illusion of safety, while life passes you by.