Date: 2006-11-17
To: Prep #60--Fear
Miles today: 0.0

I was talking to a good friend about her workplace and how it operates compared to mine. While listening to her, it hit me that there are obvious predictable patterns in the way people act and react to life's daily demands. It made me start questioning why we do what we do. I mean, what "makes" us choose to do this or that? The answer I came up with was unfortunately not a very happy one.....in many cases, it is fear.Maybe it's fear of failure, fear of success, fear of the unknown, fear of looking stupid, fear of not measuring up to your fellow human being, fear of what others think....I don't know.Now I'm not saying that all people do all things out of fear, because obviously they don't, and I realize our instinct to feel fear is often times used to protect us, but a great deal of decisions are driven out of that intangible and irrational fear of what might happen if.....and then we choose the decision we think will prevent that horrible "what" from happening. We all do it, but I guess what bothers me is how much we do it when it is absolutely unecessary, and it becomes a way of life that prevents so many people from truly living.You know what I'm talking about though, that moment in time when you're happily skipping through life and then WHAM!! Your heart skips a beat, you get that sick twisted feeling in your stomach, that surge of adrenilin and you realize you've just screwed up. Then your thoughts start racing about all of the horrible consequences that await you and....STOP! This is the point that I think is ridiculous. Last time I checked, none of us were fortune tellers, none of us (except for my 1-900 # psychic friend that is) can predict what is going to happen in 5 minutes, much less in the future. Is it really the end of the world if the project you delivered to your boss has one typo in it? Since when did we become a zero-defect society?Have we created such a monster that small things really are big now? And it is the small things that I see most people getting uptight about. I look around and people seem so fearful to be bold, to confidently make a decision and execute it, to risk being wrong, to ask for what they need, or to take up space. Everyone's got their excuse already formulated for why something isn't perfect or they hide and never take the risk of trying in the first place. This is no way to live. Whose expectations are we trying to live up to anyway? Does anybody really know the Jones' and if so, how'd THEY become the standard we're all expected to live up to?Imagine the potential that would come out of people if we took away that overwhelming and overused message of damnation and doom that we get fed everyday by the media, our leaders, children by their parents, adults by the supervisors. It's almost as if society itself has turned into the proverbial bulley that tells us if we dare stick up for ourselves that we'll be instantly turned into dust and blow away along with the rest of the pollution. Fear is powerful, and can overcome a person once that person's perspective is gone. How do we keep our perspective? I think it's by doing things that take us out of our comfort zone...a little reminder of just how big of a deal most things AREN'T. You don't have to hike the AT for your perspective check, but maybe all you need to do is call in sick one day, when you're really not, so you can give yourself the gift of time, or maybe go out for dinner ALONE and see that everyone in the restaurant really isn't talking about you.Do something bold...something real this week. Dare to go beyond the comfort zone, and you might be surprised at what you'll be dreaming about doing next.