Fear Is the Only Thing We Should Fear
What is fear? Well, according to Wikipedia, “fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It’s a basic survival mechanism…In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it…” That last part is our fight or flight response, which deals with the sympathetic nervous system, and isn’t what this article will be about. My knowledge on the physiology of this topic is limited. What I’m more interested in exploring is fear from a mental perspective.
Our Fears
Ask anybody—most of us have fears whether we want to admit it or not. Fear of failure, fear of being hurt, fear of being alone, fear of heights, fear of snakes, fear of water, fear of spiders—the list is endless. I’ll focus more on the fear of failure and being hurt or being alone. Fear to me seems more like a big what if. What if I fail? What if I get hurt? What if I’m alone? These appear more like chains that are holding you back from living the life you were meant to live. But these are “what ifs.” Life isn’t meant to be lived in such a manner. Living in fear is almost like a safety net or an excuse for not doing something. So what if you fail? So what if you get hurt? It’s life. It happens to all of us.
Don’t burden yourself with fears. These fears aren’t valid nor pertinent to your life. What is there to fear? Answer me that question. If you get hurt, you get hurt. Take everything you can from that situation, learn from it, and move forward. Life isn’t that easy, but we, as human beings, seem to over complicate it with our minds. I think we just answered our question. Fear is a part of our minds. Well, then your mind is a coward because a coward has no substance just like your fear. Something without any substance is empty and hollow. You need to become aware of your fear, but your fear is preventing you from becoming aware of it. Stay with me. Your fear is preventing you from increased awareness of your own self-being. Your mind and your fear are your prison. Your mind is the mountain before you. Awareness will allow you to break free from this prison and allow you to climb that mountain. The greatest discovery in your life will be your own self-awareness. If you aren’t aware of yourself, you will live in constant fear of life, creating new fears for yourself. Fear is distracting you. It’ creating confusion in that head of yours. Trust yourself, and trust your gut. Don’t live in fear. Fear is negativity in oneself. When you have fear, face it and overcome it.
Be Honest With Yourself
In some people’s lives, fear controls their life. It takes their energy away from what’s essential and moves it toward the nonessential. So in order to take a deeper look at the fear we live with, we need to have a better understanding of our self and do a self-evaluation. Go ahead—look in the mirror and ask yourself, “What do I see?” You can fool everybody around you, but you can’t fool yourself. Be honest with yourself. Being honest with yourself is a big step in growing up and in finding out who you really are.
It’s simple. It really is. Don’t waste your time and energy worrying about what ifs and the fears. Instead, concentrate on yourself and what you can do. By doing so, you gain such a huge advantage in life. No one is perfect; we all have faults. The only losers in life are those who refuse to admit those faults. But before you can face your fear, you must recognize it. Fear is a weakness, so before you can correct your weakness, you need to recognize it. Find out what’s causing that fear. If you aren’t open-minded enough and lie to yourself, you’ll never face it. Don’t let your fears and what you can’t do stop you from doing something you can do.
Challenges
No matter how hard life gets or how dark things get, everything in your life happens for a reason. Life is either challenging you or testing you. Dig deep inside and find an answer. Face your challenge, and face your fear. Find an answer. By doing so, you will prevail every time. Don’t hide. Don’t hide from life. That’s cowardly. Believe in you, believe in yourself, and don’t quit on yourself. We have all gone through good times and bad times, but look back at these experiences and really look hard at them. How you handled those experiences is what shaped you into the person you are today. Without those bad times and good times, you wouldn’t be who you are.
It comes down to this—if you believe in your fears, if you believe in your weaknesses, and if you expect the worst, that is what you will get. If you’re afraid of being hurt, you will get hurt. If you’re afraid of failing, you will fail. If you expect the worst, you will get the worst. So expect the best and you’ll get it. Believe in yourself and your choices 100 percent. If you expect to lose in life, you already have.
In every situation in life, there are two possible ways to look at things—in a negative way or in a positive way. Losers are negative and cowards are negative. You will hear these kinds of people say that others got lucky. But a winner, a positive person, refuses to look at life’s trials and tribulations as problems. They are just temporary setbacks. Don’t be influenced by negative people. Over your entire life, you will have doubters saying that you can’t do things. It’s easy to be negative. It’s a cop out for living life. Look for the best in everybody and everything. I promise that it’s there no matter how bad it is.
Just like the old saying “like attracts like,” if you’re positive and don’t live in fear, you will attract other like minded people. Now it won’t happen overnight, but if you stay the course, it will happen. Positive energy attracts positive energy. Your fears are negative energy. When you become afraid and live in fear, you fail to reach your full potential. You fail to reach who you are truly meant to be. You play it safe. Look at everything as a valuable learning experience, a chance to face your fear, a chance to discover your weaknesses and make them your strengths.
Don’t Live In Fear
I know I have veered off topic, but it really upsets me to see people living in fear, not being able to have fun and enjoy life to its fullest. I understand that everyone’s circumstances are different, but, on a day to day basis, I encounter so many people with so much potential, so many gifts, so many talents waiting to be shared and they just hide, hide behind their fears like a coward. Wake up! This is life. Have fun. It’s meant to be shared. So stop wasting your energy on the nonessential and focus on what is essential instead.
“Falling into the deepest valley is nothing to fear. It just means that you are in the perfect position to climb the world’s highest mountain.” — Carl F. Hughes
I want to give a special thanks to my friend, Smalls, who helped inspire this article and provided the name for it. And a thank you to you, the reader.
 |
EFS Stronger T-Shirt Regular $14.95 |
 |
Metal Ace Pro Briefs Regular $195 Take you squat to the next level. |
PDF 
Nicholas Bronkall is a strength coach and positional coach for a successful high school in Ohio. He is also an amateur meathead, writer, and aspiring fitness entrepreneur. Visit his blog at http://www.bronkostrength.blogspot.com. 
Great article on FEAR man. Can’t be afraid.
I have been through a lot since 2005. This year especially was a hard one. I had to face betrayal from a mentor, friend, and business partner. In short, I came out on top because I believed in myself. There were days I wanted to quit living. The content of this article is why I am still here. I overcame fear and adversity. Thank you for the great article.
Not a bad article, except for the part about everything in life happening for a “reason” to challenge or test you. I call BS on this line of thinking. “Life” is not some sentient entity that cares about you as an individual. That’s what cowards tell parents who’ve lost their children in a fire or natural disaster.
I believe that fear is really the only thing anyone does fear, but we should stop doing this. In fact if we didn’t fear fear, we would have no fear whatsoever.
This is an unbelievable article. Thank you so much; I really needed this.
Those who say everything happens for a reason haven’t faced real adversity yet. This is actually the worst thing you can or should say to anyone who is dealing with or have delt with major shit. I’m sure everyone who has been through real hell will agree.
I firmly believe that everything does happen for a reason. Having faced horribly life altering things did infact change the course of life dramatically at first in a real negative way, however it did put me in the perfect position to climb that mountain and be awesome. These new changes led to being married, powerlifting, new family and many other wonderous things. Awesome article!
I don’t think you can say that “things happen for a reason” is bad for everyone in a serious situation. For many people, that’s a real comfort and fits with their philosophy. Just because you have decided you are too smart for religion doesn’t mean you should jump on other people for what works for them in tough times.
However, when people said that kind of thing to me about my cancer or my toddler in the ICU, I wanted to kick them in the teeth.
“Everything happens for a reason.”
So has anyone figured out what that reason is? It shouldnt take your babies dying in a burning house to be the “reason” you were able to find happiness.
“So expect the best and you’ll get it. Believe in yourself and your choices 100 percent. If you expect to lose in life, you already have.” I feel like many people don’t think highly of themselves. Life is awesome, and everyone should believe they can do anything. Culture makes many people think that they can’t do certain things. However, I think that is totally false.
Wow Great Article.
As I reflect on your words of wisdom, I appreciate the fact that all my greatest achivements have been when I have shrugged off fear and had courage. All of my greatest failures and regrets were when I listened to fear and lacked courage.
Vision, Courage, Determination
I really hope your students and athletes get this message.
Awsome article. I will be sharing it with my girls.
Thanks
This shit is bookmarked. Motivating. Thank you.
First off thank you for taking the time to read my article I sincerely appreciate even the criticism. I sincerely enjoy reading the struggles some of you have faced and how you have overcome them. This is merely my view point on life. These are thoughts and things I have used to help get me where I am today. I have had my fair share of situations that I wouldn’t wish upon anybody. So to say to someone, that they haven’t faced adversity, isn’t really fair to do. Especially if you don’t know them. I’ve been through my hell. There were times I wanted to give up. Didn’t understand how things like this could happen. It just wasn’t right. But it wasn’t till years later that I finally realized why they happened and the reason they happened. Maybe its me trying to justify things to feel better about my situation. But had these things not happened I wouldn’t be where I am today. Think about it. If situations didn’t occur in your life would you be where you are today? I know I wouldn’t because if the things in my life didn’t occur I’d probably be dead at this point or in prison. Thanks again for reading and inspiring me to continue you writing.
Great advice for those who unintentionally stand in their own way. While we are often told of the power the mind has upon the body (and through this, the mind’s power upon the world), too often we can fall short of putting it into action.
For those who think “everything happens for a reason” is a load of bull, causality aside (cause=effect, reason=result, etc), what alternative do you suggest? Nihilism, the rejection of any value or meaning in one’s life, is a negative and pessimistic view, a waste of energy in trying times. We can choose to wallow in our suffering, or to do something about it. No, losing a loved one should not be perceived as the first step on our road to greatness, but the alternative to rising above our suffering is wasting our own lives.
“If you find yourself going through hell, keep going.”
Great article! Perfect timing in a lot of ways!
Right on, Craig. What the hell is this “reason” that people tell you things are happening because of, and what does it want from me?
Good thought provoking article, Nicholas.
I don’t mean to come across as all philosophical, but I do think about this stuff a lot… I’m yet to overcome many of my fears, so don’t claim to be “enlightened”, however these are my thoughts:
The Dodo bird evolved in an environment completely isolated from humans, when humans arrived at its habitat it was quickly wiped out because of its lack of fear to its new predators.
Fear is the very foundation of a lifeforms evoloution – to evade, prolong and avoid death as best as possible. Cause and effect. Adaptation.
“Everything happens for a reason” may not be completely true in the absoloute literal sense – but you are here now, and where you are now, because of everything that has happened so far.
For most situations in your life, you have a choice as to HOW you choose to react. Think about the next difficult situation your life finds you in, then ask yourself: Is mine or someone elses survival directly related to the choice I’m about to make? Could the decision directly cause harm to myself or someone else? If not, then why let fear drown your mind? …what have you got to lose? If you can get over your pride, you can probably get over yourself.
Needed to hear that! Great article!
Great job Nick.