Ideologies

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.” This was quoted by Elbert Hubbard which I find much fitted to John Maxwell’s Blog about Fear. Fear cannot really be eliminated. It can be covered up but what’s the point? It’s still there. It’s like trying to hide the sky by closing your eyes, it will never be gone.

All of us encounter fear; the only difference here is the manner in which we face it. Fear can both become an asset or a liability for a person. Fear’s an asset; I remember a line stated by Joker to Batman in the movie Dark Knight, “What does not kill you will only make you stronger.” Fear should be a source of encouragement to do things towards greater heights. Fear is already there, it’s a fact, cannot we just intercept our attention and make our fears the reason for our success? After overcoming our fears, we can be who we really want to be, we can achieve anything by taking fear out of the picture or better, making fear our strength and source of inspiration.

It’s a liability when we let fear get the best of us. Some people, well actually most people, perceive fear as a reason to stop. It’s exactly the opposite. Because fear is there, we should just keep moving forward because fear will never be gone, will we just stop everything we do just because we fear that we’ll make a mistake? Humans were created fallible, that’s what makes our kind so beautiful, we make mistakes so that we learn from it. So don’t be afraid, don’t fear. By forgetting fear, we can now focus on things that really matter, our success and for our own future.

Let me give you guys an example, Let’s say I’m afraid of expanding my company because of the fear that I’ll just pull my company down. “Pano kung mahulog ang kompanyang ito kung gagawin ko ‘to…” It is the failure of success that I fear. Because of this, it’ll hinder me from creating a good company that could probably help a lot of people but I wouldn’t know that because I’m afraid right? This is the concept in which people don’t become their fullest selves and the reason behind people becoming unsuccessful, Fear of the probable outcomes in the future.

Do you think that Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Henry Sy were not afraid? Actually they were. The difference between them and us is that they took the chance. They weren’t afraid to jump. They were able to overcome fear itself. Look at them now; they are now successful in their lives. They knew what the consequences were but they weren’t afraid, they believed in their selves that no matter the outcome will be, those were their decisions, “This is me, overcoming fear.” “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?” This was quoted by Vincent van Gogh. Take a leap forward and be courageous…

There are multiple ways on how to overcome fear, stated by John Maxwell, here are some of my reactions and additional ideas on his concepts…

All of the products of continuous efforts to really understand Fear and most importantly how to overcome them are already shown to us by John Maxwell. To really overcome fear, we have to dissect fear and examine its core. Fear is there, it cannot be gone, and we can only overcome it and believe that all is going to be well. Admit that you are afraid, enclose all your fears in a box and all at once, leave them.

Accept fear as the price of progress, with every step that we take towards our dreams, fear will always be there to stop us from continuing, we have to continue and take risks and with that, we can now know if it was all worth the risks and sacrifices.

Develop a burning desire that overcomes fear. Create a very inspiring concept on your mind that would be able to overcome fear, for me, it would be the idea of me being able to reach my full potential as a student and a person. By being courageous enough to risk, I would have no regrets and no rumors in the future, “Paano kaya kung ginawa ko ito…”

Focus on what you can control. Nobody can control fear, it’s self-sustaining. It cannot be destroyed. Control what you can, your attitude, the way you perceive things or the way you think. In this way, you can now say to yourself, I did what I can and what happened to me were just inevitable events.

Lastly, we have to do it now. We have to believe that fear cannot really be destroyed and it’s a part of life. With this, we can now move on with our daily lives, taking chances and risks that would change our well being. “One who fears failure limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity to more intelligently begin again.” Henry Ford.