How often do you find yourself caught in a dilemma?
You want to take action but you don't.
And you say, “I am not able to take action because…”
NOT ABLE TO? Why? Who is holding you back? Has someone shut you in a room or tied your hands with a rope?
I guess not.
Then what is it?
For me, it is my age-old buddy - FEAR.
I call it buddy because I have realized that fear is always going to be by my side. It ain't leaving me. It has changed faces with time but it is there. Then the questions that I ask myself are
Why resist fear?
Why beat myself for experiencing fear?
Isn’t it part of being human?
Why label fear as bad or disempowering?
Disempowering because that is the meaning I have assigned to it. That is what we’ve been taught to do. Isn’t it?
If you don't do this or behave like this, then this will happen. FEAR!
Gradually we started to use the same language with ourselves. If I don't do this or behave like this, then this will happen. MORE FEAR!
This is bound to be disempowering because we’re associating fear with pain.
So then does fear not hold pain inherently?
Well, it is we who attach meaning and inflict pain upon ourselves.
Then, that means if we attach a different meaning, we can change our whole experience of fear.
What different meaning?
Something that is empowering and forwards us in the direction of our goal.
“Fear is my buddy, it is here to help me move forward in the most effective manner,” I say to myself. As I say this over and over again, this becomes stronger and the feeling I get as a result doesn't hold me back, rather pushes me to take action.
Yet, you may keep going back to the learnt, default version of fear. That is normal. It just needs you to bring awareness (build muscle) and then make a conscious choice to embrace the fear with the new language that you have created for the buddy.