Fear

In general, nothing excites me more than abstract theory/self improvement. Started reading Susan Jeffers 'Feel the Fear and do it anyway' today, thought there are some real gems in there which have been very empowering for myself.

Fear, according to the book, can be divided into 3 levels:

The 1st level are external and can be divided into 2 groups - things that just happen and are inevitable (like aging) and things which require our action (like going into teaching) The 2nd level are about our inner states of mind and puts the 1st level items into subgroups, such as fearing rejection, failure, being vulnerable, disapproval, loss of image. The final level defines fear. In general, we fear something because we are afraid we cannot handle it.

Maybe I am too rational minded. Suddenly there just seems to be nothing to fear anymore, even my deepest ones which I have shared with less than a handful of people. Nothing can possibly get so bad to the point where I cannot handle the situation.

Fear links into growth a great big deal. Growth and becoming competent (especially for my personality type) is to get out of my comfort zone and do things requiring different skill sets to what I normally use. Getting out of our comfort zone is always associated with fear - humans fear the unknown, unknown and unpredictability results in factors mentioned in level 2. As I get better at items out of my comfort zone, the size of my comfort zone increases, life becomes more predictable and the person becomes more confident.

Unhappiness = negative emotions = anxiety or anger (I assure you, every negative emotion can be mapped on the scale between anxiety and anger) Thus, Happiness = lack of negative emotions = well being + confidence thus what is described in the above is effectively half the picture of happiness.

4 truths about fear (from the book) - which resonates with my above passage: Fear will never go away as long as I continue to grow - growth being getting out of my comfort zone The only way to conquer fear is to go out and experience what we feared - I'm sure everyone can relate to this Everybody experiences fear when they are in unfamiliar territory, those successful simply ignore it and do it anyway Pushing through fear is less frightening in the long term than living with the underlying fear of helplessness and avoidance of our fears

Hope this has been as much an inspiration to you guys as it has me. For some of you here, I wonder if you already subconciously know and already deal with fear so.