Eliminating Fear vs. Not Letting it Stop You

It’s a pretty human desire to eliminate our fear. If only we weren’t so afraid, we’d do all of the things that fear is currently keeping us from doing.

It makes a nice item for our fairy-godmother wish-list.

If we could have someone drop down from the sky and grant this wish, then we’d get out of our way and do all this stuff. Or maybe it’s not even in the form of a fairy-godmother that you’re hoping this wish will be fulfilled. Maybe it’s a technique (NLP, etc.), a way of thinking, or even some device that flashes a sequence of lights in your eyes while playing binaural beats in your ears.

Always the hope that if we just get rid of this pesky fear, we’ll finally do what really matters to us.

I’ve noticed I’m not inspired or drawn to people busy eliminating their fear (or claiming to have done so). They make promises about what’s possible, but I don’t find their lives particularly compelling. The possibility they tout doesn’t seem particularly inspiring to me. Who they be in the world doesn’t light me up.

The people that inspire me are the ones that have the human experience of fear, and don’t let it stop them living the lives they’re committed to.

These are the people I can see myself in. These are the people living lives out there, on the edge of what’s possible.

It’s okay if you’re drawn to those eliminating their fear. Spend time with them and see if it creates the experience of life you want.

I’ll be over here, practising space for all of my humanity, doing my best not to let fear stop me.