Contrary to popular belief– I do have fears.
Every day I ride my bike to work, I’m fearful of getting hit by a car.
When I’m out bodyboarding, I’m fearful of getting killed by a shark.
When my kids are late coming out of school, I’m fearful that something happened to them.
I have the same fears as everyone else. I recognize that there are things with which it is healthy to have fear.
But I refuse to be defined by my fears
Fears are often irrational. I’ve got a pretty slim chance of getting hit by a car, or killed by a shark, or that my kids will be kidnapped from their school.
That’s the rational reality.
So, I chose to not have my life defined by paralyzing fear of those things.
I have no fear of opportunity
The lens of fear is the wrong lens to judge an opportunity. You can’t worry about failure. You can’t worry about getting emotionally hurt. You can’t worry if people will like you. And you can’t worry about what people will think if you say yes or say no.
You need a better lens than that. You need a level head to determine whether an opportunity is good for you or not.
I often say no to ideas presented to me. But I never allow fear to be a part of the equation.
Why?
Deep down I know that I shouldn’t fear what could happen if something goes wrong. Instead, I fear what could happen if I don’t try.
As Franklin D. Roosevelt said, standing before the world on his inauguration day. With everything to fear– from wars on two continents looming, a depression lasting nearly a decade, and even his private battle with paralysis:
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. listen
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