“Ill is the result of letting fear rule thine actions.”

“Ill is the result of letting fear rule thine actions.” The Saga of Harald Hardrade

Indeed.

Regrets? Have any?

We all do. Chances are the majority of regrets are of the “I wish I had…” variety.

The litany of…

“I should have talked to her when I saw her smile, but I thought she was waaay out of my league.”

“When everyone asked me to do such-and-such but I fell-back on my shoulder injury excuse.”

We don’t do many things because of what we assume others will think of us or our performance if we did them.

I offer, that one, we may be mistaken about what others will think of us for any given action we make. Perhaps the reaction will not be one of ridicule or disapproval but one of admiration or esteem.

Two-If the reactions of another are not what you desire in your heart of hearts, why would you care? They are living their life, go live yours.

If we live according to what others may or may not think, we are not living our own lives at all. But living the hypothetical lives we think conform to an imaginary assumption. Who is the slave in this relationship?

Others’ opinions of our deeds [good, bad, or indifferent] dissipate in seconds. As soon as they have their next thought you disappear from their minds. You cease to exist as soon as the next text beckons.

Whereas your own thoughts of yourself and your own deeds done or undone will follow you to your grave and inhabit your thoughts at night.

No one is lying awake each evening pondering what you are scared to do.

Only you suffer those wakeful nights.

Do the scary thing. In the best-case scenarios, you will sleep the sleep of an accomplished daring soul.

In the worst case, if you sweat what occurred you are at least sweating a reality that you can diminish with your next bold act and not quivering and quailing life away with I-wish-I-hads and I-should-have-dones.

Notice, the advice does not tell us that we shall be “fearless.” No one is without fear.

It urges us to “not let fear rule our actions.”

Every bit of daring that we see done, whether it be standing on the precipice of a mountain or busting out your dance move you’ve been working on solo for the past week is accompanied by a fearful twinge before and during execution.

Isn’t that all the more admirable, beautiful, and attainable? Other humans, just like us, feeling a bit fearful but doing the fearful thing anyway making themselves just a bit more fearless.

Fear begets fear. Inaction begets binging on others’ opinions and accomplishments.

Action begets action.

Farðu!

GO!