One of the most prevalent themes I come across as a coach is that of fear! Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of being visible, fear of being invisible. Fear is a common thread in all our lives. Sometimes it is so strong it paralysis one. Sometimes it is hardly notice’able but it is always there! Lurking! Waiting for an opportunity to pounce! I find my client’s (and myself) in an almost perpetual battle with fear! A battle that takes all our energy and effectively stops us from getting to where we want to be. The fear becomes almost physical – an entity that lives and breathes! We fight it! We hate it! We wish it were no longer there! We wish that we were fearless!!! And as a result we devote enormous amounts of energy into finding the root cause of our fear so that we can eradicate it forever.
Here is what I learnt diving in caves, far, far away from help! Fear can never be eradicated! It can however be overcome …and that is courage.
I learnt this lesson on my 186 meter dive where I spent the 6 months before the dive almost paralysed by a fear that would not lessen. But I wanted that dive more than I wanted to be scared! So I took my fear with me, ignored it, and did the dive! I only realized when I came back that what I had gained was courage!
Somehow I always thought courage was something more miraculous, more elusive! Instead I learnt that courage is not the absence of fear! It is the knowing that there is something more important than the fear. Courage is ‘doing’ in spite of the terror! We all have this capacity! We are all borne with courage!So my question to you is: Do you want to be fearless or courageous ? Because courage is easy, you just have to take the first step and start doing!