Fear

I often hear that love is the most powerful emotion. While I don't necessarily disagree with that, I also think that saying that really weakens the amount of power that our other emotions hold. In particular I can think of the power of fear. Have you ever been so intensely afraid of something that even the thought of it makes you ill and weak? I know I have.

This doesn't necessarily detract from the power of love, though. Being in love with someone, you are afraid of hurting them or losing them. You will do anything for that person because you love them and you are afraid of anything bad happening to them.

Here's the thing about fear. We put a lot of emphasis in our lives on getting over fear, being more powerful than fear. I don't agree with that. I think we should learn to control our fear. We should focus our fears on the things that hold us back. Be afraid of failure. Be afraid of falling behind. When that is your greatest fear, you will push yourself to new limits, find new ways to find success. When you fear never becoming something more than what you currently are, you will grow to new heights.

This is not to say that there aren't fears that are bad. Of course there are. That's why you must focus your fear. Fear not surpassing your fear more than the fear itself. You will find that you have no choice but to evolve.

This is all probably harder than I'm making it sound. I don't have answers. I just have ideas. I know from experience that fear is not only powerful, but painful. Being afraid stabs you deep inside, it paralyzes you, makes you unable to act. Fear can keep you from growing.

But I have also personally experienced instances where fear aided me. Being afraid of holding myself back allowed me the strength I needed to push myself forward. Fear has often kept me on the proper path, probably just as often as it has kept me off of it.

Perhaps the point isn't not to be afraid, nor to know your fears. Perhaps the point isn't even to learn to control your fear. Perhaps the point is solely to understand fear, recognize what fear is good and what fear is bad. I suppose you could say it's the misunderstood kid, who so often says the wrong thing at the wrong time and seems to ruin everything. But every once in a while they're in just the right place at just the right time, and you realize that maybe they're not so bad after all.

I just try to remember that sometimes life sucks, and looking forward, it's hard to see that anything up ahead is any good. But I fear being stuck in the past, being stuck in a place where I am weak and on the wrong path. That fear pushes me forward. That's really all I wanted to say.