Fear. The one thing that, more than anything else, prevents us from living our life to the full. Fear of what others might think, fear of failure, fear of uncertainty, fear of the unknown. And mostly we spend a lot of time fearing things that will never happen.

We need to accept that fear is a part of life. I have spoken to CEO’s of large organisations who say they experience fear regularly and sometimes even have a sense of being out of their depth, but they are successful because they keep marching forward, refusing to let fear hold them back from their goals.

If you never experience fear you are probably cocooned in a life of safety, comfort and let’s face it, mediocrity. Mediocrity has never changed the world and it has never helped anyone to advance their lives – not even an inch.

We would all prefer to remain in a comfortable, safe place rather than step out and face fear. But if we all stayed in that comfortable, safe place, the gains that our society and even civilization has made would never have occurred. Architecture, engineering, technology, art, aeronautics, social justice, politics. You name it, every area of our lives is by far and away better than it could have been due to the pushing forward of individuals who refused to let fear keep them rooted to the ground.

Psychologist Albert Wiggam said that fear defeats more people than poverty, ignorance, superstition, ill health or lack of mental ability. When you examine your life do you find that you, too, have been defeated?

So what is the opposite of fear? Is it courage? Courage and fear are not opposites in the same way that light and darkness or hot and cold are opposites. Darkness cannot exist in the presence of light just as cold cannot survive alongside heat. But fear can – in fact must – live in the same space as courage because courage cannot exist of its own accord.

Courage is the ability to move forward while experiencing fear. It’s having the resolve not to let fear control your decisions or direct your actions. It’s understanding that fear will disappear once you step up and face it and, looking back, you’ll wonder why you hesitated.

Living life with courage is not living without fear, but rather managing that fear so it doesn’t overwhelm you and it doesn’t prevent you from moving forward and living your life with purpose and passion.

And the more you practice the art of managing fear, the less fear will have a hold over you and the less often you will notice it getting in the way of your goals.

Good fear management starts with understanding that fear is usually unfounded and the probability of your fears becoming reality are extremely small. Fear is merely a fog designed to obscure your goals and stop you moving forward and reaching your full potential. If you have the courage to reach out through that fog and grasp whatever it is you are seeking, you will find the fog will lift and the fear will be driven away.

Vincent Van Gogh asked the question: “What would life be if we had no courage to attempt anything?”

Simply, we would never know how full our life could be. We would never know what we are capable of achieving. We would never know the satisfaction of persevering and the sense of accomplishment that comes with achieving goals that, in the early stages, often seemed out of reach.

Don’t be dissuaded by fear but instead use it to develop within you a spirit of courage. Courage will help you to discover that the sum of your fears is far outweighed by the joy and excitement of finding and pursuing your passion.

“Fear not” (Jesus – on many occasions)

© Wendy Rush 2007