“The fear of failure
is often worse than failure itself.” -- Shiv
Khera
Every human being is gifted with the power to control his or
her own mind mostly through his or her thought process. Whatsoever affects this
process affects human performance, effectiveness and efficiency. Fear is
basically “False Evidence Appearing Real.” It
could be positive or negative; it could be real or imagined. “Fear never
pleases and never attracts anything except its counterpart.” Of all human
emotions, fear is the most destructive. “It is the only force powerful enough
to stop you from acting on your dreams.”
Though basically a state of the mind, it is very destructive to human
psyche. A state of fear paralyzes human reasoning, reduces enthusiasm,
imprisons person-ness, promotes doubt and uncertainty, inhibits ambition,
beclouds memory and generally dehumanizes. There are very few diseases known to
man that are as debilitating as fear.
'The late John Wayne, a popular cow-boy film star once
defined courage as “being scared but moving forward all the same.” This shows
that courage is not the absence of fear but it is in spite of it. Courage is
using fear positively instead of negatively. By taking control of your mind,
you can make fear a motivator instead of an inhibitor. Sir Edmund Hillary
became the first man to reach the top of Mt. Everest. After the feat, he was
asked, what was the biggest obstacle he faced in his quest to get to the top of
the mountain? He replied that his biggest obstacle was to overcome the
psychological barrier which nearly forced him to talk himself out of trying. He
nearly gave up trying because of the fear generated in his mind. Once he
overcame this barrier, climbing the mountain became an easy thing to do. His
feat removed the fear from the minds of many others who have since climbed the
mountain themselves. Those who earlier thought it was impossible to climb the
mountain found it easier to do after one attempt succeeded.
In his best-selling book “100 ways to motivate yourself”, Mr. Steve Chandler tells the story
of one Anthony Burgess who at 40 in January 1960 was told he had cancer and
could die within a year. He knew he had a battle in his hands as surviving
cancer then was near miraculous. Being broke at the time, he had nothing to
leave behind for his wife Lynne who was soon going to be a widow. Burgess had
never been a Professional Writer but he knew he had a latent-talent as a
writer. Because his time was running-out and he needed to leave something
behind as royalties for his wife to live on after his passing, he put paper
into his typewriter and began to write. He wrote so furiously and energetically
that within a year, he had written five novels. This feat alone surpassed what
even acclaimed Professional Writers like E.M. Forster and J.D. Salinger could
do within the same period and time frame. As it turned out, his cancer went
into remission and Burgess did not die as predicted. In his life-time, he ended
up writing more than 70 books.
If not the fear of death that Mr. Burgess faced, he may
never have exploited his latent-talent of writing talk less of writing over 70
books in his life time. Many people are like Anthony Burgess. They have
enormous talent and potential deep within them which could come out if they
allow fear to motivate them instead of paralyzing them.
