Fear. It’s a word we hear frequently in the media, daily conversations, and literature. Heck, it’s such a common word that the English language literally has its own suffix for it, -phobia. If you have ever spent any amount of time online looking for motivational quotes or listening to motivational speakers, they will all at some point refer to fear. 

In almost every context, fear is viewed as a negative emotion – something that needs to be overcome; it is always viewed as the biggest mountain to clime. I’m not here to contradict that idea, that fear limits progress, or that it is something that needs to be overcome, rather I am here to say that fear needs to be a consistent part of daily life. Before I jump into that let me share a recent experience.

A couple weekends ago while playing soccer with some buddies, I hurt my foot pretty bad. The result of a cowboy and my bare foot left me with some pretty bad bruising and a broken toe. Not exactly an ideal situation for a young guy who is constantly active and works a physical labor job. I had to dial back on a lot of things that I enjoyed because of my injury, and even stopped working for a couple weeks. Ultimately this meant lots of time sitting still, studying for finals, and sitting with my thoughts. 

Now, this isn’t my first injury, and I’m sure that anyone who has ever experienced something similar understands that certain ailments require you to slow down. And slowing down can sometimes be rather frustrating. There is a quick realization that normal, daily life can be impeded by slight inconveniences, and for me that was my toe. Now I’m sure everyone deals with some sort of inconvenience that life has thrown there way, but something that I learned as I had to slow down was that our minds can be the source of the problem. Now how does this connect to fear?

When living life on auto-pilot, our brains create problems. Why do you think we are living in a generation where mental health struggles are so present? I think it comes down to the idea that most human problems have been solved. Life generally is good. We don’t face constant life threatening problems like people did hundreds of years ago. The fear of those problems that existed years ago is what kept humans moving and improving. So what happens when there isn’t that drive anymore?

Fear is crippling only when we are not constantly facing it. If you don’t have a fear present in your life, your mind will create one. An artificially created fear is a lot harder to overcome than something external. Sometimes your mind doesn’t even do it by itself. I’m sure you know someone who is chronically online. Consuming that much information constantly can train the mind to spot or create problems in one’s life, problems they would have never even noticed or thought they had unless some influencer online convinced them others. These artificially produced brain problems create fear. Now, ask yourself, do you want to live a life creating fear, or fighting against it?

If you stay stagnant, fear comes from you rather than at you. It’s hard to face yourself when the mirror is behind you. Keeping fear in front allows you to keep it in perspective. When you get out into the world and face real challenges your mind is forced to adapt and improve. The fear that you face signing up for an athletic event you have never competed in or starting a business in which you have very little experience can be nerve wracking, but it is what allows you to live and grow. 

Simply put, fear is only limiting when you allow it to be. It’s all a perspective. Are you keeping it front of you or allowing it to creep up on you from behind? Get out there and face your fear. Trust me, you’ll feel so much better and realize just how much you are actually capable of.