Have you ever thoughtwhy courage is such a difficult quality to master? There are hundreds of not so courageous people around us who imagine that some day they will be able to make the changes miraculously, i.e. without being scared. In fact, you will also feel scared to move out of comfort zone, especially when you don’t know what lies ahead.

Perhaps it is a career change that makes you feel uncomfortable. Maybe you don’t want to leave your job and search for a new opportunity even if you are not pleased. You will also come up with possible excuses for such behavior. I cannot risk my job because I have a family to support. Switching careers is meaningless in my case since I am too old for change.

At this point, your fears seem real to you.  You think of ways to insulate yourself and don’t even want to stand up and make a change. This is because all of us feel cozy and relaxed in a zone we know. You are always told to be courageous and start an inner revolution but does this put you in an uncertain situation?

Being Courageous Will Win You Every Game

You will only learn when you try different things without trembling with fear. Being courageous does not mean you don’t feel scared. You actually act or make a decision after knowing your fears really well. You choose to overcome uncertainty and intimidation like any military leader who leads his troops in a battle.

When you are strong at heart, you definitely understand what courage is all about. You may not be the strongest person around, but you will be able to figure out things that need to be done. There will be a faint voice in your mind that asks you to go back but you should continue moving forward to make a meaningful difference.

Mastering courage reinforces your ideas and motivation to a point that you stand up to your fears. You no longer remain a timid person that does not react or goes after the set goals. This is a point where you convince yourself that your goals are not impractical or impossible. You do what really needs to be done in life without any regrets that you were scared.

One day you will finally realize that you are not bad after all. As you continue to build momentum, you need to drive the negative feelings out of your head. This surely works to energize your thoughts and body and pays you well. Courage is all about searching for your passion and learning to leave your limitations behind.

Take this thought and design your own “courageous revolution”. Remember you need to take actions and move forward even if you are scared – because this will only make you courageous. The more you step up, the better you will get.

Typographic quotation marks (top) versus straight quotation marks, or "dumb quotes" (bottom). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Quotes often leave room for reflection. Look for the answer to your fear by understanding those that knew it too.

The only thing we have to fear is fear itself–nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

FRANKLIN DELANO ROOSEVELT

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

EDMUND BURKE

Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.

YODA

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

H.P. LOVECRAFT

If you turned the fabric of our lives over, I imagined the design on the backside would be woven in the bleak grays of doubt and fear.

STEPHENIE MEYER

Fear is contagious. You can catch it.

NEIL GAIMAN

Fear is never an actuality; it is either before or after the active present. When there is fear in the active present, is it fear? It is there and there is no escape from it, no evasion possible. There, at that actual moment, there is total attention at the moment of danger, physical or psychological. When there is complete attention there is no fear. But the actual fact of inattention breeds fear; fear arises when there is an avoidance of the fact, a flight; then the very escape itself is fear.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI

Fear sells. Fear makes money. The countless companies and consultants in the business of protecting the fearful from whatever they may fear know it only too well. The more fear, the better the sales.

DANIEL GARDNER

The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out … and do it.

SUSAN J. JEFFERS

Fear is a message–sometimes helpful, sometimes not–but often conveying critical information about our beliefs, our needs, and our relationship to the world around us.

HARRIET LERNER

Fear of the unknown translates to fear of losing control. In order to feel safe, we feel we must control every variable–human, environmental, technical. And yet, as life, this just isn’t realistic. Controlling everything that’s around the corner simply isn’t possible.

IVY NAISTADT

Fear is a destructive emotion that can deal a fatal blow to any attempt on your part to build total self-confidence. If you allow your fears to run your life, it will be impossible to create the life you truly desire.

ROBERT ANTHONY

Fear is a quicksand that slows and grips and strangles, leaving its victims unable to act, too timid to do what life requires.

BOB LONSBERRY

We often suffer more from our fears, than from the dangers of our situation.

NORMAN MACDONALD

Face your fears or they will climb over your back.

FRANK HERBERT

Once you have explored a fear, it becomes less terrifying. Part of courage comes from extending our knowledge.

BRIAN HERBERT & KEVEN J. ANDERSON

Want to know the secret to Overcoming Fear?

What is the Definition of Fear?

Actress demonstrating initial reactions of fear and panic. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Learn how a fear is experienced in our body and why you need to distinguish from the real and the imaginary.

Fear is an emotion that we all must deal with on a daily basis. The proper response to legitimate threats is critical for our physical well being. Unfortunately, a large percentage of our fear is based on situations that are not life or death, but only perceived as dangerous. This can cause limitations, bad experiences and trauma that hurt you emotionally and  can produce physical symptoms as well.

Fear is one of the most powerful emotions that we have. A real or perceived fear causes our bodies to react exactly the same. This physical response is called “fight or flight” which is the bodies way of getting ready to confront a situation or run away from it.

The Body Reacts Exactly the Same To Every Fear Both Real and Imaginary

Physical reactions to fear include an elevated heart rate, increased adrenaline levels and sweating. This is a biochemical response that we experience every time we start to have a real threat to fear.

For most of us, we’re constantly experiencing this powerful emotion on a daily basis for things that simply are harmless, but we perceive as dangerous or harmful. This causes reactions of stress and anxiety in our bodies because of this fear.

Physical Symptoms Can Result From The Constant Effects Of Fear

The feeling of anxiety for most people can range from a mild uneasiness to extreme fear. For those that are constantly reacting to fear without a way to check it, can clearly suffer  emotional, mental and physical symptoms.

Many physical effects of fear producing abnormal stress and anxious feelings include:

•    Headaches
•    Migraines
•    Stomach pains
•    Insomnia
•    Panic attacks
•    Depression

This is only a small list of symptoms that occur from ongoing stress and anxiety brought on by perceived fears in our daily lives.

The key to managing fear is to learn how to distinguish between real and perceived threats. Of course, you never want to ignore when you’re truly in a dangerous situation, because this powerful emotion can alert you to take the appropriate action that could save your life or the life of a loved one.

As you can see this is a very broad topic that is difficult to cover in one article. Therefore, we will expand on the topic of fear and discuss how our culture breeds fear as well as various strategies that you can implement to manage stress and anxiety on a daily basis.

Next up: How has our society contributed to creating a Culture of Fear?

Fear (1946 film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

F.E.A.R. – False Evidence Appearing Real – Author Unknown

Recently, I have found myself dissecting the subject of fear. What is fear? How does it so casually grab hold of us with it’s over-powering death grip? Who is most susceptible to fear? How do we overcome fear once it has rooted itself in the deepest darkest corners of our soul, paralyzing us from ever reaching our full potential?

What is fear?

Fear, according to wikipedia.com, is defined as:

Fear is a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived threat. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize fear and flee from it or confront it, also known as the fight or flight response.

My Fear

Fear is something I have struggled with for my entire adult life – I’m sure many of you can relate to this statement. Some of the things that I have feared are:

• The law (following my drunk driving conviction)
• Relationships with my family
• The struggle within my professional life (after not graduating from high school)
• The loss of those I care about

Fear Vs. Faith

In order to accomplish all of our ambitions and dreams in this life; faith in our abilities, talents and in ourselves needs to be a paramount focus. Fear has a very sneaky tenancy to paralyze us by directing our thoughts towards the dark places far away from where our faith and belief hold the power to deliver us to our dreams.

Mary Manin Morrissey once said:

You block your dreams when you allow your fear to grow larger than your faith
How do we overcome fear? By understanding what causes our fears!

Next up:

Step 1 for Overcoming Fears – Understanding Fear

Do you have any great quotes about fear? Please share them with us on my Facebook Page.