Overcoming Fear
No one instills fear into you. It’s you who put fear in yourself. It’s your own perception. And solution to get rid of fear lies in you only
By Mukesh Sharma
Once upon a time, there was a notorious dacoit, Ragha. He was feared most in his area of operation. Once while passing by a village in the dead of night, he came across an empty house with a buffalo tethered to peg in the front yard of the house. Little away someone was asleep on the cot. The dacoit untied the tether to take away the buffalo. The sound of low of buffalo woke up the person. He was a young stout and sturdy boy of 16. He jumped to his feet and grabbed the tether. The dacoit tried to free it from the grasp of the boy but in vain. Soon dacoit realized that he was no match to the strength of the boy. Dacoit played a trick and shouted: “Be careful, save your life, dacoit Ragha is coming.” The moment the boy heard that, he left the tether and hurried inside the house. It was the fear of Ragha that defeated the boy not Ragha himself in person.
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| Crippling fear |
Commenting on fear, Ralph Waldo Emerson says:
“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world.”
Through the said story, fear can be defined as an exaggerated comparative self-perception of a situation, circumstances or an individual that weakens oneself against the other.
So and so is powerful neta, I am a nonentity. He is an IPS, I am an ordinary citizen. He is a big man, I am a small man. There are over five lakh candidates, I can’t make it to IAS. It is not my cup of tea. This kind of feelings create a fear that declares one loser well before the event/happening.
No one instills fear in you. It is you who put fear in yourself. It is your own perception. Solution to get rid of fear lies in you only.
Why does it happen so? Answer can be traced into your childhood. When a baby comes out of the womb of its mother, doctor taps the baby to make it cry. It is here that first seed of fear is sowed. Don’t go in dark, there is houa; don’t go near water, you will be drowned; don’t touch the dog, it will bite you; don’t talk to a stranger, he might harm you; don’t do this, God will be unhappy, and so on.
Needless to say, an Indian baby grows up with fear; it’s life keeps shuttling between dos and don’ts. Thus fear further gives rise to different types of fear: fear of losing someone, fear of loss, fear of insecurity, fear of failure, fear of defeat, etc.
It’s natural for a feared man to go for the retreat option – no fight, no defeat; no business, no loss; no attempt, no failure like a pigeon that shuts its eyes and thinks that there is no cat.
Napoleon Bonaparte, a great conqueror says:
“Impossible is a word to be found only in the dictionary of fools.”
Here is an interesting anecdote that reveals the true self of Napoleon:
Once Napoleon faced an impossible situation. His army was at the bank of a river which was in full spate. Napoleon wanted to conquer a country which was across the river and abutting the river there was a high mountain. To reach the enemy, the only option was to cross the river and climb the mountains and then descend on other side. And it sounded impossible. There was fear of drowning to death. However, Napoleon ordered to cross the river and the mountain in the dead of the night to catch enemy unaware. While crossing the river many boats capsized and sank. After reaching the other side of the river, Napoleon ordered to sink all the boats – no option to go back – no retreat. Then Napoleon addressed his army: “we have no option to get back now. To live, we must conquer. March ahead. Fell upon enemy like a tiger in this darkness and conquer the enemy”. And Napoleon humbled his enemy in no time.
Obviously, fear exists so long as there is retreat option, so long as there is an escape route. Once that option is not available fear ceases to exist.
Originating from mountains, a river has no option of retreat; its passes through many crevices and falls, terrains and troughs, hills and plains, Jungles and cities; it negotiates hundreds of turns and twists. Nothing distracts it from its path to goal. Nothing halts its onward march. And finally it meets the ocean.
There is solution beyond fear of problems. There is dream beyond the fear of distraction. There is profit beyond the fear of loss. There is success beyond the fear of failure. There is safety beyond the fear of insecurity. There is love beyond the fear of hatred. There is victory beyond the fear of defeat. There is life beyond the fear of death. Jack Canfield rightly says:
“Everything you want is on the other side of the fear.”
Nothing overcomes the fear like option less purpose and oneness of efforts to serve it. Nothing is impossible. Hope never dies and possibilities never end.
