Review: Lean into your fears - don't ignore all of them
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 06 20, 2012
Writer David Deida counsels men to "lean into their fears." This is good advice. Fear sometimes is a good thing. For example, it can keep us from committing career suicide. It can keep us from broken bones. It all depends on what the particular fear is.On the other hand, fear can keep us from achieving our full potential, can keep us from positive experiences. Hence, Deida's sage advice to "lean in." Face fear. Acknowledge it. I feel that doing so does people good.Yet wholesale ignoring all fears defies good judgement and, therefore, is dumb. Here's an exercise that could have appeared in truly fearless version of this book: Stand in the middle of a road with a car speeding a long way off. Do you trust the car to stop in time to avoid hitting you? Do you face that flich?Is there some good served by this exercise? The driver might see you and slam on his or her brakes. Then, again, he or she might not. Wouldn't it be energizing to see if you were going to die or not?The driver might have all of their faculties and stop. On the other hand, maybe they're distracted. Maybe you die.Is my example ridiculous? Why? Facing death is exhilarating - and freeing.I sincerely hope you don't do this. I'm trying to highlight the ridiculousness of this book. Sometimes your fears keep you from doing something dumb. Sometimes they put a damper on your life. In my "exercise" the cost of the lesson - should it go wrong - outweighs any benefit you might get. Indeed, you are inflicting mental and emotional harm on the driver. You are actually assaulting them with your stupidity for following bad advice.I wonder if anyone else was reminded of "The Yes Man." That movie from 2008 intelligently explores what might happen if someone spent a whole year saying "yes" to everything.As for the writing, it's enjoyable to read. The writer has a way with words. I feel that this writing ability must be the genesis of the large number of five-star ratings. Can there really be so many cowards who found something profound in this? Too bad.