Fear

Everyone is afraid of something. It could be spiders, or clowns, or the inevitable heat death of the universe. For most people, fear runs much deeper. Fear is much realer. For some, fear is finally finding the person you'd sacrifice everything for, only to lose them due to your own inability, stupidity, or perhaps worst of all, just by happenstance. For others, fear is not quite knowing if you're doing well enough on that really important project at work. Fear is not knowing if the higher-level consequences of your actions match your lower-level goals. Fear is knowing that once you take your leap of faith, the haystack underneath you might just disappear.

Fear doesn't live within action, fear is what happens after.

People let fear cripple them. Fear starts to mess with you, starting with the dark place from which it originates, and slowly it finds its way out. It makes its way into your heart, and then it makes its way into your head, and then it embeds itself in every decision you make. Fear of failure makes people over-think. Fear of loss makes people overreact. Fear of pain makes people stagger. Fear makes people miss or ruin otherwise fruitful opportunities, because fear makes you blind to them.

Fear doesn't have to be what stops you, though. Fear is the same as any other emotion. It is important to be able to contemplate and understand fear. Fear is just an artificial boundary constructed by one's self, and the sooner a person accepts that they are afraid and understands why, the sooner they can subdue their fear. A mature person can take their fear and use it to their benefit by making it a source of positive energy. Fear can become passion, it can become ambition, and it can become determination. It is the awareness of fear that makes transforming it possible.

A person who doesn't understand and control their fear will always be victim to it. It will make you say things you don't want to say and react in ways you never thought you could. Fear turns grown men into boys, and fear makes the most rational people irrational messes. People are afraid of failing, losing, and being hurt, but almost always, the fear is the catalyst that makes those things reality.

A person who has mastered their fear and accepts their fate is not bulletproof. They can still be hurt, just as much, if not more than a person incapable of controlling their fear. Their perception once everything is over is just different. The person who hasn't mastered fear and fails will be too afraid to ever try again. The person who hasn't mastered fear and succeeds will remain ignorant to themselves and their situation. They will remain stagnant as a person—un-maturing—and before long the fear will rear its ugly head once more, presenting another opportunity for stagger—another opportunity to fail.

The person who masters fear, however, understands and accepts all possible outcomes as they are, and will never succumb to the same fear twice.