“What's on the other side of fear? Nothing.” - Jamie Foxx
Yes, fear is nothing but your imagination's child to procrastinate on things. And no, I am not talking about fear like height, dogs, or water. Actual psychological fears. Fears which do not let you unlock your potential. Essentially fear is the friction in your life, to polish you. To make you shine, against the surface of life. The only thing in between your current self and desired self is avoidance of that fear. When you avoid fear, knowingly or unknowingly, you kill your dreams. Every dream ever is killed by fear. Your dream of traveling to another country is killed by fear of crime in that country. Your dream of starting a business is killed by fear of being broke. Your dream of talking to a girl is killed by your fear of facing your insecurities.
Your brain gives your fear the exact shape of your deepest insecurity. All fears are essentially made out of personal insecurities. Let's say, you have a fear of authority. Now, when you see an authoritative figure. You will become aware of all those insecurities via those situations and people. The reason behind this is you have not defined it yourself, yet. You have the fear of public speaking. But you still have not assessed that whether you are bad or good at it. Because if you are self-aware that you are bad at it, then why fear? You'll go up confidently and perform at your own level, right. And if you know you are good, you won't need any external feedback to define your worth.
But you haven't yet defined yourself, right? You don't have past evidence to give assurance to yourself. You haven't talked in public before so how will you know that you are good or bad at it? You are fearing right now that you will make fool of yourself nonetheless. Now everyone is there listening to you but you are busy talking with your fear.
Your fear only shows you where is the truth. It works like a mirror. Every fear of yours will show you personal insecurity. Now, it’s up to you whether you want to embrace the insecurity, work upon it, bear the pain, change and improve. Or become ignorant and sit down on your couch. Waiting for something similar thing to happen to you, ignore it and repeat till death. For working upon it, one thing that helped myself was writing. Writing is ultimate clarity. You have no one to talk to, nobody can talk to you out of fear. Let the pen and paper be the medium to communicate to yourself. Understand your fears and insecurities and kill them. Otherwise fear is a very seductive emotion.
We have to admit that it is an interesting feeling. In a way that you are rewarded by your brain when you avoid it. Skipping gym or running gives you the reward of not putting your muscles through pain. Now, who the hell would choose Running at 6 AM over Netflix and Chill or Instagram Reels. Everyone wants to be a wanderlust. Travel the world, do adventures, go to mountains and whatnot. But they are too afraid to come out of their comfort zone, forget about their couch. That's also basically fear.
Fear makes you less adventurous. Basically, you stop embracing change in your life. The funny thing is most of the fear is given to you by society. Society binding you in those beliefs, in their own insecurities, which are reflected onto you. Their fears have become yours knowingly or unknowingly. You don't have a fear that you will die from skydiving, but your mom does. You don't have fear of taking a risk and starting a business, your father and relative do. But only and only because of their fears, you don't do many things, you could have done, in your life. When you will ultimately die after years and years of fear from change. The death won't be yours. You were born fearless.
Good will hunting movie is a great example to be taken here, the protagonist Will has contradictory fears, of never unlocking his potential and at the same time fear of unlocking his potential and failing. He has already built his life with his friends where he doesn't want more now. He is happy with his daily fights, beer, and a cigarette. But now he had the opportunity to turn it into a life where he is praised for his talent. BUT it's contradictory to his current values and life. He is too afraid to change. The absence of fear is freedom.
People are too afraid to assert their own freedom. Why? Because they haven't even comprehended what is their freedom? Because boundaries of everything in their lives are set by society, right? You can't go there. You cannot wear this. You cannot do this and that. Then how the hell can a human set their own boundaries and assess their freedom. Those who find it, do this through either being a rebel or cooperation. Also, know that it comes with being vulnerable with yourself. By showing freedom to others you are showing and becoming aware of your fears and insecurities yourself. But we are too afraid to know about ourselves only.
You are afraid of something or the other. You are afraid that you will know the truth. And the truth is bitter. Truth is harsh. It is the ultimate reality understanding mechanism. To understand your reality in the purest and best way possible tell yourself truths. But who wants to know reality when you can avoid being in pain and fantasize about an ideal future, no?
Ciao.
> But who wants to know reality when you can avoid being in pain and fantasize about an ideal future, no?
ouch!
DUDE what's ur insta handle
@neervj? i can't find u