My chief task has been to conquer fear.
The public sees only the thrill of the accomplished trick;
they have no conception of the tortuous preliminary self-training
that was necessary to conquer fear.
Houdini
Your chief task is to face and conquer your fear.
No, you don’t have to be Harry Houdini. You don’t have to risk your life by submerging yourself in freezing temperatures or by toying with death while shackled and suspended high above ground, but you do have to conquer your fear.
You have to face what you don’t want to face. Make decisions you don’t want to make. You have to do things that will be most uncomfortable. Say yes to things that you would rather not. Like Houdini, you have to dare to go where you have never been, so you can marvel and see what you have never seen.
This is not an invitation to be reckless.
Conquering fear must be a calculated risk. Your fears must be worthy of conquering and some fears are probably best left undisturbed, but others, others need to be stared downs they can bring you where you can only imagine.
You should face your fears with great confidence. Our anticipation of things going horribly wrong is usually far worse than the experience we are too timid to undertake in the first place
Many people are frozen in fear at the prospect of speaking up, of offending someone or of standing up for something they really, truly believe in. There are far too many classrooms and corporate environments which are riddled with meek, silent capitulation. But conquering fear can bring forth a new voice. A voice which can bring about needed change. Usher in a better way to think or do something.
You have to face your fear of being wrong because the fear of failure is extremely powerful. It’s very formidable and hard to untangle yourself from the vision that the whole world will laugh at you or take pleasure in your inevitable misfortune.
Or maybe you need to face the fear of not being good enough, because you are most certainly good enough. Playing a second class human being is something that has become common place. It is nothing more than false humility. Pride, discussing itself as a virtue. How terrible to think that you always stall for a little more time. That you feel you don’t have the right credentials, that others are more qualified, or that you need a bit more education.
There is much fear to conquer in our lives, but start with the little ones. Maybe you have fear of spiders, or it’s a phone call that you dread making.
Make the call. Seek out spider. Maybe not at 3 am, and you might want to say away from the poisonous ones at first.
Remember to be brave not reckless.
Tackle your small fears and work on the big ones next.
It’s not going to be easy.
It may feel torturous.
But the thrill of victory will be unimaginable.