Fear is a weird topic for Christmas, but it's been on my mind a lot. In the past two weeks, I made two decisions based on fear, conscious of what I was doing, and taking the easy road anyway. This is not typical for me - I usually just feel the fear and go ahead and do the thing anyway.
So I'm wondering, what is it about fear that makes us live our life in safe little cages? Why do we bypass opportunities, or flat out not do the right thing b/c it may lead to something bad? I've had more failures in my life than most, which I attribute to trying more things than most, a statistical thing; my chance-taking has rarely had horrible repercussions, just mostly annoying or almost horrible ones, like the time I went parasailing on an almost deserted beach in Zihuatenejo and was almost choked on the line while airborne.
I went parasailing again, a few times, in fact. But lately, if I have a horrible or almost horrible experience after taking a risk, I tend not to try anything again for awhile. Obviously, this tosses good experiences out with the bad.
One of my long-time friends is taking a huge chance to improve her life - she is risking way more than I ever have, and she is being brave about it and remains philosophical even when pretty down in the dumps. Compared to what she is facing, I feel ashamed about my fear-based decisions this month. And I went to see Yes man the other day, which is just a light-hearted Jim Carey flick, but its message is sound - you have to be open to things to have things happen, bad or good. It's easy to shut down, to say no, to say, uh oh, and to stay in your routine and your safety zone. But will that make us look back with satisfaction on our lives? I think not.
So I am going to set one of the decisions right, and consider the other one before it is too late.
Merry Christmas to the brave and the not-so brave. Remember to have compassion for those that operate from fear; their old age may be filled with regrets.
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