I am so impressed by the concept of fear that I would like to devote
an entire topic over it.
Fear was and is always seen as an negative substance in our body.
We are always taught that we should grow into a fearless person if
we wish to be successful. We have been told that fear is something
which stops us from reaching our full potential. We have been told
that people who are not afraid of anything are the superior ones. But
should we agree to this concept?
It has been many years that we have lived with this conception. Its
time we review the feelings inside us and assign them the place that
they deserve. It is time that we start seeing positivity in something as
negative as fear.
To start with, let us go the very beginning. Our society has evolved to
great extents and fear has played a very important role. When
civilization started, people had very less needs and hence did not
require complexity. But things changed. Maybe for good. The first
thing that scared the hell out of people was forest fire. As we all
know that earlier there was a great amount of forest and people
lived in between the woods. So, when they first saw forest fire, they
got a conception that someone was there to control all these
phenomena. And this, my friend, was the beginning of God. We will
discuss about this later, but we saw that fear can create something as
great and massive as God. This makes us go into deeper level of
thought on fear. Fear is thus a very powerful agent.
Let us first talk about negative aspects of fear. Fear stops us from
trying something new. Fear stops us from doing something
dangerous. Fear stops us from changing our lives. seeing all these
points, we feel that we should avoid fear without a second thought.
But wait. All of this is not what fear does. We are taught that the
antonym of fear is brave. But thats not the truth. There is only a
slight difference between brave and foolish. A movie named
'Singham' had a very interesting dialouge," To think of walking on
fire is brave, but to actually walk on it is foolish." It is the reason
which makes the difference. For example, if walking on fire saves
someones life, then it is brave, but to walk on fire to impress a girl is
foolishness. And it is fear which stops us from being foolish. So, one of
the greatest positive points on fear is that it stops us from doing
things without reason. It stops us from torturing ourselves without a
valid reason.
I understand that it is still not clear why is fear important. Okay, let
us visualise a situation. A normal person can run to about 30kmph
without practice. But when that same person is being chased by a
dog, his/her speed goes up to 40kmph. A normal person can jump
5-6ft unaided, but when that person is about to crash with a vehicle,
he/she jumps 8ft. So, we see what fear gives us. Fear can give us an
extra 10kmph, fear can give us extra 2 ft. So, by now you would have
changed your thought about fear. But its not that simple. Nothing in
life is ever simple. Fear is like a nuclear bomb. If you can control it
and harness its power, then it gives you too much, but if it goes
wrong, there will nothing be left in your life to celebrate.
What are we really afraid of? The answer to this question is as simple
as it is complex. We are only afraid of one thing and that is "Myself",
and the ironic situation is that, we can control "Myself". This makes us
control fear. Everyone has different types of fears. And I am
excluding Phobias here. A student is afraid to fail. A farmer is afraid
of not being able to grow enough of crops. A Judge is afraid of not
being able to give justice. A theif is afraid of being caught, etc. Even
though these people have very different field of work, one thing is
completely common in all 0f them. They are all afraid of something
which is in their control. A student can work hard and smart to
ensure that he/she never fails. A farmer can work hard in the fields so
as to ensure a good crop. A judge can give a lot of thought on the
case so as to ensure true justice. A theif can do serious and flawless
planning so as to not get caught. So, what is it that we are afraid of?
We are afraid of not being able to satisfy ourselves with our
decisions.
So, the the next question is that how to harness the power of fear?
When we use fear as an instrument of our help, one thing should be
taken care of. Never let fear take over your inner self. If you do, you
will cease to exist and you won't be ever happy. What does this
mean? Let us consider an example. Why does a ship ever sink into
water? Yes according to science, when water enters the ship, the
average density of the ship increases and this results in the sinking of
ship. What is to be observed is that "A ship never sinks due to water
around it, it sinks due to water inside it." Moreover, the ship uses the
external water to move. Life works in a similar way. When you are
surrounded by fears and you can keep yourself free from it, you will
find that you can actually cross the ocean with ease. But never allow
even a drop of fear to enter your body. We can walk on a very rough
road with ease if we have a good pair of boots, but we cannot walk
even the smoothest road if there is even one pebble inside the boot.
What is the true purpose of fear? It makes you think before doing. It
then lets you take the correct decision. Everytime brave is not
correct. If you can't fight something, make sure that you can outrun
it. Be afraid of it and examine what you have to lose in order to
defeat that thing. In this way, you make the right decision. For
example, If a student buys a new mobile phone, he/she does it to get
knowledge. But there is a risk of wasting time on it. So is that person
ready to lose time in exchange for knowledge? Fear allows you to
understand the scenario. With the right amount of fear, even
Batman can defeat Superman. What if Batman was not afraid of
Superman? What would have happened if he got into direct fight
with Superman? Its obvious that he would lose. But he was afraid. He
knew that it could cost him his life. He was ready to sacrifice. So,
instead of going hand to hand on Superman, he planned and
defeated him. On the other hand, Superman was not afraid of
Batman. This resulted in his defeat. So, this proves that brave is not
always correct.
So, I ask everyone who is reading this. Whenever you are ready to
fight something, first make sure what you need to sacrifice in order
to win. And fear will help you. Whenever you think that not being
afraid makes you storng, Give it a second thought. Fear, in right
amounts, is the best thing that can make you win. With fear,
Batman can defeat Superman and Arrow can defeat Flash. I hope
that this article would have helped you in seeing things differently.