"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!" These powerful words of Franklin D. Roosevelt touched our country at a time when there was a lot to fear in the world. Times have changed since those famous words were uttered, but they linger on, touching us to this day.
The funny thing about fear is that it is a double-edged sword. Although many tend to look admiringly at daredevils and people who seem to have absolute mastery over fear, the reality is that a world full of fearless people would not last long.
One of my favorite episodes of "The New Batman Adventures," "Never Fear," dealt with exactly this issue. In it, the Scarecrow released a toxin into Gotham City that made people fearless, but the fearlessness became dangerous as uninhibited people started trying to fly and do other dangerous stunts. The point of the episode was that certain forms of fear are healthy.
Although I loathe to accede such a point, it is a valid claim. There's a reason we don't all punch our bosses in the face when they anger us or walk around naked in the 100-degree weather.
Such approaches would certainly be easier, especially on some days, but careful consideration for the future and the disruptiveness of such actions gives us pause.
Fear is a tool that helps to keep us safe. Like any other tool, we must be wary that we use it when it is useful and convenient and do not instead become used by it. Fear is useful and convenient when the cons outweigh the pros and the adverse outcome is severe enough to be devastatingly detrimental to your life.
Fear is not useful when it keeps you from dealing with your problems, making you apply the Ostrich algorithm to the dilemmas of your life.
The unfortunate thing about fear is that it makes the distinction between the two very cloudy. A crippling fear can make even the most mundane or possibly positive activities, like getting on an airplane or going to the dentist, seem like life-or-death struggles. We create elaborate scenarios where the wing snaps like a twig, or the dentist hits a nerve that cuts off blood flow to our brain, and we die.
These things could happen, but the rate of occurrence is very low. We can't live our lives constantly in fear of the next boogeyman around the corner; there are too many things out there.
The best we can do is acknowledge that everything we do carries some inherent risk, and try to live within those parameters.
Most of the time it's not the things we fear that get us, it's the things we don't even think about and never see coming, like toilets (43,687 injuries from toilets in 1996, compared to 13 from sharks).
The key when evaluating a situation you are afraid of is to look at the big picture. Too many times in life we become bogged in the small minutiae of the problem at hand and don't consider it within the context of our daily lives.
You can't ask that person out, they could say no; you can't ask for a raise, you could be fired. When faced with such issues, ask yourself: "Yeah ... then what?" Person says no? Not worth your time anyway.
Company refuses the raise? Many companies out there would love your services.
It's not the end of the world, so why hesitate?
Just don't run into oncoming traffic. Acknowledging and confronting your fears by learning to look at the big picture is the fourth step toward finding the meaning of life.
Reach the reporter at: nicholas.vaidyanathan.
