Fear during the Final days of preparation
The messages coming on this topic have increased, so it’s time to write about it.
You’ll feel fear in this period of uncertainty of results, and especially under the stress and time crunch of studies.
It’s natural to fall off guard and lose yourself.
Even I’ve gone through this phase. It’s normal for everyone.
I feel fear and uncomfortableness even now, after achieving all this, overcoming a lot of hardships and uncertainty to finally get an MD seat.
And I do feel fear everytime I encounter a difficult patient, even though I’ve come across so many before.
I’ve also tried hard to be fearless, to search for some method that can kill this primitive instinctual emotion.
But everytime I thought I’ve succeeded, I’ve woken up to realise it’s still there. I’m still overcome by fear, when I’m least expecting, and then I realise I’ve failed to tame it.
But you realise one thing eventually — Everyone, even the greats feel fear:
Successful people have a bigger fear of failure than people who’ve never done anything because if you haven’t been successful, then you don’t know how it feels to lose it all.
— Jay-Z
But here’s how you deal with it…
If you can’t beat it, you accept it. And that’s what I do now.
Here are the steps to eliminate failure and get back your power. Do them as is and you’ll get rid of what’s holding you back. They’re very simple yet effective everytime.
Step 1: I take time out to accept that I feel fear.
“So, I’m afraid of X. There’s no two ways about it. I’m afraid.”
Step 2: I accept I’m vulnerable.
I accept that even though I don’t want to be afraid of X, it is what it is and my body is afraid.
I’m not the invisible being I thought I was.
Step 3: I keep my eyes open and ask myself to think of the 1st time I felt fear.
I try hard to remember my youngest memory.
This is a very crucial step, and the step that’ll change everything. Do it religiously.
For example, I’ll think hard, and finally I’ll remember the time whenI was about 5–6 years old and almost fell off the stairs.
I was walking down, when one of my legs slipped from the open end- The stairs were being built, so the side grills were still not installed yet.
I lost my balance and I began to fall off. This was about a 4 feet drop down- which is high enough to cause you enough hurt.
Luckily I had the presence of mind to hold on to the ledge.
I held on and kept crying for help. Eventually some friends who had come over for a visit caught hold of me and lifted me off.
That’s the last memory I could think of when writing this article.
Can’t think of any memory?
Think harder and longer. It’s there. It’ll come.
Step 4: Acknowledge you’ve survived worse.
This memory reminds me that I still felt fear even back then.
Very ugly, uncomfortable fear.
Yet I’ve overcome it.
I still climb stairs without fear.
I’ve walked on construction sites where there’s just a foot-wide width ledge and a 5 foot drop down, BOTH SIDES.
This childhood event hasn’t affected me nor scarred me permanently.
Step 5: Now accept that this present fear too is a passing thing.
I accept that it’s natural for me to be afraid; An instinctual reaction can’t be stopped.
Yet I can remember that whatever it is, it won’t “scar” me, or actually “hurt” me, as long as I don’t give into it.
Step 6: Push through the fear and keep working.
The difference between the winners and losers is that the losers don’t learn from their past.
They don’t realise they’ve gone through worse and survived.
The winners look back, and they move forwards to conquer even greater territory than they did before.
Each time, I’ll always remember to compose myself after the fear has settled, and perform this exercise and try and remember even before than what I recalled previously.
You’ll be surprised how much you’ve survived.
That’s how it’s done.
Now DO each of those steps next time. Put in effort.
Reading this article and nodding your head won’t get you the results I’ve explained above.
Follow and apply those steps everytime to deal with fear.
