Fear

Snakes, spiders, public speaking and death all tend to illicit the same feelings. The fluttering heart beat, hair on the back of your neck flight/fight/freeze. Why does this occur? Besides the fact genetics and evolutionary growth have ingrained certain responses to life threatening or dangerous items, you tend to realize that most of these reactions are overblown. The situations are typically harmless or ineveitable outcome (sorry I have no solution to death, so you might as well start to embrace it).

Snakes and spiders really want to avoid you and public speaking rarely is so bad that someone will not have a cup of coffee with you if you ask. So this inate reaction can be recognized, and worked through (talk to Dr. Godfrey about this as he is more of an expert than I https://discoveryourtruecourse.com/ ) to logically and effectively react to those stimuli to live a more fearless life.

As obvious a practice that this will serve you if you are leading a guerrilla operation in the rainforest of Brazil, these examples actually are just examples versus actual practical fears that I observe in lives around me (including myself). Choosing to date, get married, have kids, pursue a job, invest in a stock, buy a home, start a company or reconcile with past hurts to just name a few. Fear of making the wrong decision, or not making the best decision, can lead to paralysis by analysis and many times the rigidity in the subjects decision making actual causes the decision to fail, not because it was wrong, but because you snapped during pressure. You became frozen, you fled or you just fight all the time….because you are scared.

Have you ever observed a tree. Small to giant alike, pushing down to establish their roots while reaching towards the sky to fulfill their destiny. They must continue their pursuit no matter what comes their way, and those obstacles bring advancements, flexiblities, outer shell protections, which allow them to literally bob and weave through the chaos. They have a plan, understand they are not in complete control, and literally live with the results. There are a lot of different trees, and each one serves a very important role in their neighbor trees as well as the ecosystem around it. The flat out need for our trees to continue to do what they have done since the beginning of time is sometime the most overlooked issue of our day. But enough of the climate soapbox. Let’s just observe how trees handle fear and what we can gleam from it.

Those trees should inform us that fear of failure should never stop you from planting roots, spread your seed and grow. Sure a lot of trees fail to grow, but they are not ever wasted. The seeds still feed animals, still enrich soil and still give hope to their brothers on the same journey. The middle aged tree that just could make it past the lightning, did not waste their life, but actually became a bed and furtile ground to allow the next generation to get a heads up in life. And of course the famous granddaddy of them all. They get the accolodades, the protections and the glory but their role isn’t any different in the balance of the ecosystem than any other tree. Imagine the tragedy of all the trees of the world not sharing their seed or reaching for the stars because they don’t think they can last like General Grant

Fear responses are inherently not a bad thing. They do serve to protect us when we need protection, but too oftern the fear of failure is developing a deficit of human potential that creates an apathy and depression that is harmful. The individual as well as the community around them suffers when we lose the joy of pursuit of planting, nurturing and growing.

Dig a little hole. Plant a seed. Water it. Nourish it. Don’t worry what you will look like, but give yourself to something and see what actually grows.