Face to face with fear

Waking to an alarming sound from my phone, I had no idea what to expect for the day that lied ahead.  The only thing that was certain I thought to myself while rolling out of bed was to prepare for a long tiresome day.  It wasn't the two hours of sleep I just woke up from that was going to slow me down.  The culprit to me sleeping for only two hours was simple.  I was too afraid!

Before you laugh and call me names, I’m not talking about being afraid of the dark.  Well, on second thought maybe I am.  Fear started to consume me to the point where I became restless.  It wasn't fear of not paying the bills, or buying groceries.  It was the fear of stepping out of my comfort zone and having the courage to reach for my dreams despite my misfortunes.

Life has its shares of ups and downs.  The problem we face at times is we become too accustomed of the down times we begin to believe that the good would never come back.  It’s not that we don’t want to get out the valley we may be in.  Sometimes life will attempt to give us a hand to climb out the valley, but we can become too blinded by our misfortunes to see the opportunity being offered, or can be so afraid of the unknown that we choose not to extend our hand which causes us to stay in the predicament we have adapted to.   Last night that fear came upon me.

Then I realized something.  It’s not about how fearful you may be at the moment; it’s what you do in spite of the fear that makes you go to the next level.  In life we may do many things we are afraid of.  It can be sky diving, a job interview, public speaking, or asking someone out on a date.  Ninety nine percent of the time when we act upon our fears we come out on the other side a newer, more transformed person.   

Whether we choose to continue the act we were fearful of or discover it wasn't for us, all that matters is we came face to face with fear and we were victorious.  Like President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “All we have to fear is fear itself.”  Once we are able to embrace fear and realize it can be conquered, we can sleep better knowing that good times are just around the corner.