Fear Factor

Don't just face your fears, embrace your fears.

Taking a chance, putting yourself out there, doing that one thing that sends shivers down your spine, it’s risky. Personally, I can't stand heights. Just being near a sudden drop in elevation, be it a stairwell or the top of Yosemite Falls, turns my hands into puddles and my legs into noodles. I could be behind 6 feet behind a chain link fence and tethered to a cable, and still the fear of death strikes me.

But there’s a wealth of opportunity for personal growth that comes from tackling our trepidation. Diving into the complicated extremities in life is how we become better people. 

The way I see it, you can reach two outcomes after facing a fear:

1.  you fail, but you learn something about yourself that you can use to succeed in the next go around. Or... 
2. you triumph, still learning about yourself, this time in the form of setting new expectations about the fears that hold you back.

This applies just as much to something as basic as a fear of heights, as it applies to those big life decisions, like career and commitment.

When we take a risk and fail, it’s easy to become discouraged, to give up. But that is a reaction we have chosen. Our reaction to everything in life is up to us.

We can choose to embrace our fears, get out of our comfort zone, take the risks that expand our possibilities, and react to failures as life lessons.

It’s up to us to embrace our fears.
To take a leap of faith expands our possibilities.
To view our failures as inspiration.

With risk always comes reward. Always. 
Change your mindset and collect the bounty.