Fear: a scary tool

Several years ago, I went to some Sales and Business Opportunity Seminars. For the most part, they were free, except for time, parking and an expensive lunch in or near the hotel. I heard many things at these seminars, but one of the few things I heard several times that stuck with me was the use of the word FEAR as an acronym for False Education Appearing Real.

I was reading an article awhile back that really brought this to mind. The article claimed that human children are born with only two natural fears, falling and sudden loud noises.

January was a very tough month for me as I spent it becoming intimately acquainted with my fears on several levels. As difficult as it was, I really learned a lot from it.

The specifics of the situation are not really that important, but I will tell you that there are very few things that can put me into a state of near panic and paralysis like where this was centered. I had been put in a place where not only was this hot-button issue directly affected, but I also ended up with so many options and no clue as to which my best choice was. After nearly two weeks of floating from choice to choice, getting nowhere and driving myself nearly crazy, I had what Oprah would call an “ah-ha” moment.

My problem was not the choice, the plethora of available options, or even the assorted financial considerations, but simply that I needed to make a choice, just that.

Often we avoid making decisions for ourselves because what if we are wrong? If we can get a friend or friends to make the choice for us, they are the ones that may be wrong and “I” now have someone “I” can hold responsible.

Have you noticed the number of times
that I have used the word choice yet?

The “False Education” in this particular situation was that there was a “right” or “wrong” choice to be made. It was just a choice, nothing more and once I became aware of this and resolved to make “a choice” I began to have a space to have peace in.

Simply put, the choice was mine to make, did I make the “right” choice? That remains to be seen and judged later by someone else. After taking another look at my options I made my choice, would you make the same choice? Maybe, maybe not, does it matter?

If we take the time to look at fear, we will almost always find that the source is some misconception of the situation we want to avoid addressing and the rest of the time we are just attempting to avoid the responsibility that will come from our, or often our friends and family, judgment of our choice in comparison to what they would have done in the situation.

If we look at fear in this way, then fear becomes yet another tool in our arsenal of growth and personal advancement no matter how scary it may seem at the time.

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Calendar & Announcements

Meetup Group Closing	Feb 18, 2011
The Meetup Group “Where Life and Spirit become One” is being discontinued as of February 18, 2011. It was an interesting idea that never really got off the ground so I have decided to terminate it. To all the friends and family of the group, please keep in touch at either the Spiritgeek website, Facebook or Twitter. I hope to see and hear from you all soon.