Читать книгу Three Simple Things - Thom Shea - Страница 18

The second trial I recommend to honoring your word is to deal openly with fear. Fear is a crippling emotion. Fear is designed to prevent the weak, inexperienced you from engaging the thing that makes you afraid. When fear is present, its effect works 100 percent of the time. Fear stops you.

Ironically, fear can always be overcome by experience and action. But you must act in the face of fear by doing what you are afraid of doing. You must cast off what you think about fear and face it. There is no other way.

Take for instance the most common fears: fear of public speaking, fear of rejection, fear of getting hurt, fear of failure. The fear of public speaking prevents a great many people from succeeding in business. Fear of rejection prevents many of us from asking the question or trying something new. Fear of getting hurt prevents pretty much everyone from venturing off the normal paths we are on in health or in business or in relationships. Fear of failure stops people from even trying something new or hard.

Fear keeps us where we are: doing the same thing over and over and over again.

The method to overcome and openly deal with fear is practical and important to learn. I have taken hundreds of people through this simple lesson in fear and have seen the same result. The result of dealing with fear is action. Through action, all things become available.

I have noticed that once you learn the lesson of dealing with one fear, you can easily apply that same method to dealing with any fear you might have. The most visceral fear to overcome is the fear of falling. I ask you to overcome your fear of heights by rappelling and climbing a 100-foot cliff.

Obviously get a professional climber who is certified to teach and safely take you through the climbing experience. We insist on the safety mechanisms you must have to climb. Still, you must still face your fear and do the climb. Mitigating risk doesn’t alleviate fear prior to taking action and doing the thing you are afraid of doing. I can tell you a thousand times how to rappel and climb and even show you, but in that last moment before you actually get to it, you have to overcome your personal fears. You have to hook up and step off. You have to take the action. You have to look down and overcome your fear. You have to climb back up and feel your hands about to slip off. You have to face the possible experience of slipping and falling a short distance and then trying again.

In that moment, or all moments of being gripped by fear but taking action anyway, what happens to fear? Fear disappears once you take action. It literally stops.

What would your life be like if you learned to take action in all the things you are afraid of doing?