What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?

In a school, students of 3rd standard were busy with their current class. It was raining outside. The class was engrossed into leaning with the teacher; all of a sudden, a tiny frog broke into the class with its small but powerful jumps. Frog entered from the door approaching girls’ section and announced the present by its signature tune.  

Girls welcomed the frog with loud screams. Frog started its journey towards the first bench. Jenny, the girl on the first bench looked at it and climbed over the bench. With panicked face and trembling voice, she started jumping and gesturing the frog to go away. It resulted into the chain reaction; few boys and half of the girls were on benches. The noise level of the class was at the Everest and the situation was going out of control. 

Peter, a warrior from boy’s section rose to rescue. With calm face, he bravely walked towards the frog. As if he is picking a stone, he culled frog with his hand and threw it out of the class. Teacher and the class felt the sigh of relief. Class clapped and cheered to appreciate his breviary. That day onward, Peter became the undisputed hero of the class and Jenny declared as a yellow-bellied girl.  

*** 

After a few months Jenny’s parents hosted her birthday party. The class was invited at her place to be a part of the celebration. 10-15 students in a group were early birds to reach Jenny’s home. Peter, as a proven leader, was ahead of his friends and first to enter the compound. Just after moving 2 steps towards the main door, he saw a dog approaching him. He started hollering and making the hardest efforts to find a safe place. Rests of the friends were still out of the compound, so they fled.  

“Beware of dogs!!” Peter read the sign board only after climbing over the compound wall. For the moment, he was safe but still shivering with fear. He yelled for help. After spending a year lasting one minute over the wall, he finally saw Jenny approaching the dog. With her commanding voice, Jenny called her dog. Calmly and comfortably she lifted the dog in her arms and started pampering. After kissing and babying the dog for a while, she chained and kenneled it. 

Finally with the pale face, Peter got off the wall; still catching his breath. As the risk ceased, other friends started gathering into the compound. They witnessed this unbelievable scene. After the second incident of facing fear, mindset had changed drastically. Peter and Jenny both lost their respective titles, Brave boy and Yellow-bellied girl! 

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What is scarier? A frog or a dog or something else? How could Jenny handle a dog, but a small frog made her uncomfortable. What made a brave Peter stumbled to a dog?

For Peter, he must had felt fear on the first encounter with the frogs. He sustained during that period and over the time learned how to deal with it. Jenny, on the other hand had experience to be with the dog from its puppy days. The dog had always been lovely to her and she didn't find a reason to fear.

Fear is a state of mind. It comes from the unawareness of handling the person or situation. First presentation, first time driving, first time cooking, first time swimming and many other firsts gave us perspiration.  Can I do it? How to do it? How to do it better? What if I fail? There is a very thin line between anxiety and fear. If we sustain through the anxiety and fearful times with keeping eye on learning; the fear is gone! After practicing any of those situation multiple times, the way of looking at it changed.The most difficult things in the past are now a cakewalk!

I am enjoying comfort zone; I don’t know what is out there for me? In the effort of getting that new thing, what if I loose my current comfort? The fear of failure is the biggest barricade. Fear is the most potent weapon. It keeps our mind busy in imagination of some never happening scenarios. If we allow fear to live in our mind, it will pull us back and will always show the situation worse than actual. Fear can nurture stress and at times it can convert into anger. 

That point, far from our comfort zone, is a success point. It holds lot of potential. To achieve it we have to extend our comfort zone to it. Basic human nature is to infix self to comfort zone as soon as possible. Very quickly we put away our running shoes and put on the slippers.

The best way to hit the fear is, confront it. It may push us to the limits, but that’s the opportunity to learn. New set of challenges provide the new way of looking at things. If we fear of something, we should find the opportunity to practice it. Rehearsing something in controlled or actual environment helps a lot. That’s the specific reason we see soldiers spend most of their time in practicing war. 

List the fear we want to curb, analyze the real reason behind it. Is it a fear of going to unexplored path? Is it a failure from the past? Ask a question to self, what am I afraid of? What would I do, if I am not afraid? When we surpass our fear, we feel free. There is practically no limit to what we can achieve.

Title credit: Who Moved My Cheese (Dr. Spencer Johnson)