From our early days of childhood, most of us have developed a sort of fear about people, events, animals and above all their own self. Can I do it? Am I good at it? I can’t do better than him.
Is it a good attribute for our personality development ?
Psychologists say fear is an underlying phenomenon that had developed in our mind over the years and is the one that holds us back from giving our best. We feared so many things in our early life – school, mathematics, darkness, Sea, mountain top etc but as we grew older they disappeared. During our teenage days, we feared the stage but the more we stepped on it, the more comfortable we became. We don’t get tested if we remain in our comfort zone for long.
We have seen people in TV game shows attempting some impossible feats and only those who had overcome fear succeed in them. It gets you a sort mental attitude that is tough to break in any adverse situation.
How do we master fear by understanding it better and turning it to get us success ?
Fear can be a challenger when we don’t get bogged down and confront it with a definite purpose and focus.
Fear acts as a motivator that lets us stay with our objective and succeed. Without fear, complacency sets in and we let our guards down to fail.
Fear kindles the curiosity in things that we dare to do or probe. A curious mind looks for the next steps to reach our goal of knowing something new and exciting. We must be curious to learn what we are afraid of and work towards negating that state of mind.
Fear is a guide too, because our purpose is over shadowed by the absence of efforts and ways to work towards a solution. Fear alerts us to be cautious and bold in our decision making whenever they are needed.
Fear lets us discover our wisdom that propels us to do successful actions. It dispels the emotional feelings attached to a proposed action and objectively evaluate the consequences of that action. Our mind thinks rationally once our wisdom takes over.
Fear lets us to discover the greatness in us other than weak spots and it is a catalyst to infuse a positive mind set to use our greatness to achieve success.
Our personality is what we consciously define because nobody else has that personality and to define it for us. It is unique to us that we shape it well. Fear, and not overconfidence, helps to define our personality to take risks, be authentic, be competitive, be rational and successful.
Remember, some of us raised our hands in our class to answer a question, however stupid the answer was. That questioning mind helped to shed our inhibitions and seek answers in our lives.
THE PULSE by Sivakumar Gopal 