FEAR
Let’s talk a little bit about what a sneaky little so and so Fear can be. The ultimate narcissist,
Fear uses Ego to manipulate and control us for its own selfish purposes. Fear speaks through
your Ego, telling you whatever it needs to in order to keep you safe, keep you from succeeding
in that thing that will change your life. Change is the unknown and the unknown is not safe. Fear
is the killer of dreams, Ego is the executioner.
Say you have a moment of inspiration or a long standing dream. Your spirit whispers, “Do this
thing” and you get all excited. Yes! Maybe I could do that and you imagine doing the thing or
living your dream. You’re an astronaut, a train engineer, a fashion designer. You make delicious
homemade jams and live on the cutest berry farm this side of the Okanagan Valley. You meet
the love of your life and ride off into the sunset. Right away Fear freaks out. “Wait! What? You’re
going to change EVERYTHING! I don’t know what’s going to happen!” Danger! Danger!
Warning alarms go off throughout your ecosystem. You know this feeling. You are prepared for
it. You say to your fear, “Not today, Buster! I’m going to go ahead and do this anyway. It will be
amazing.” Fear goes, “Okay, okay. I see” and levels up. Fear sees your courage and raises you
one Ego. Like a meddling mother-in-law, Fear tries another angle. I mean, it’s for your own
good anyway. Who knows what will happen if you go out and buy yourself a berry farm. You
could end up homeless and on the street. A wayward apple could fall on your head and put you
in a coma. The horrifying possibilities are endless. Fear just wants to protect you. So, he brings
out the big guns. If you won’t listen to reason, you will listen to self doubt. Fear tags Ego who all
too eagerly jumps the rope into the ring with a chair to the face screaming “You aren’t good
enough!” “People won’t like you!”, “You will fail”, “You’re too fat/ugly/dumb/insert adjective of
choice” and so on. Ego knows exactly what to say to bring you to your knees and keep you in
your place. Fear wins.
Maybe you’re on to Ego. You say your affirmations, positive self talk and all that jazz. You look
yourself dead in the eyes every morning and tell yourself how awesome you are to the tune of
Eye of the Tiger. You’ve got Ego on the ropes, or so you thought. Of course, Fear has a few
more tricks up its sleeves. Namely; distraction, procrastination and excuses. You dream about
your adorable berry farm and then you sigh because of the myriad of excuses for why you can’t
have it. No money, no time, too busy, kids sports, dishes, Netflix. And you tell your soul, One
Day and sit back down and binge watch Game of Thrones. One Day is where dreams go to die.
If you ever get to One Day you will just see a garbage heap of broken promises and shattered
hopes.
My point is don’t let Ego drive the bus. His GPS is out and he only knows the way to One Day.
He will drive your dreams into a ditch and leave them there to die. When you find yourself
avoiding, dragging your feet, or listening to the garbage Ego drums up just ask yourself one
question, “Are you okay to look back on your life and wonder what it could have been like?”
Don’t be manipulated by Fear and his bully.
Do it anyway. Awesomeness awaits.
