Why It’s a Good Thing to Hold a Fear Of Loss
And how to make it work for us.
If we’ve all been a part of this world, it also means that we have all lost some things as we kept going — some voluntarily and some without really being given any other choice.
It is mostly when such a loss comes to us by surprise, that we find our entire worldview shaking;
We find ourselves questioning our choices;
We might even find it hard to justify the outcomes that transpire.
It is in moments like those that we can make a choice out of the following:
1. We can be crippled by our fear of the next loss to an extent that we let it take control over everything we do — making us risk averse in ways that keeps us from outgrowing versions that we no longer need to embody.
2. We can become nihilistic such that we lose the fear of a possible loss completely, and let recklessness guide our actions — because, who cares when you have already lost what once mattered?
3. We can find a sweet spot between the two scenarios above, to respect everything we have in ways that we do not take them for granted — and that means holding fear from a healthy place, while not succumbing to it.
Loss is natural, and more often than not — it has its own reasons, that might even make sense if we’re mindful enough to think about them in hindsight.
Fearing a loss (of any kind) is natural too — because it means we are privileged enough to have something to lose?
But that fear is for us to navigate, rather than being controlled by.
To make our fear work for us, we need to be the bridge that connects our fear and losing that fear altogether.
We need to acknowledge that losing something once doesn’t keep us from gaining something in the present (or future);
At the same time, losing our fear doesn’t give us the power to future-proof all our losses.
At worst, we stand to lose the potential of life we are capable of living;
And at best, we stand to be grateful for everything we have (and can have) without taking it for granted.
It all really comes down to the choices we make with the options we have — and sometimes, we have to learn to find a balance between all of them.
It’s good to hold a fear of loss as long as we can learn to make it work for us.
