Confronting your fears

Fear.........that is a powerful feeling which I'm sure all of us have experienced. It is often said that fear prevents success, I believe this is true in all aspects of life. For example, back in high school I always had this fear in me that I was not liked by other people and that they always talked behind my back. Even though I had no proof and the other kids seemed to like me. However, the feeling still remained. As a result, I was always quiet and didn't say much even in class. Towards the end of my senior year, I decided that I wasn't going to live like this anymore. I decided to confront my fear and just act like myself around everyone else. It paid off and that feeling went away just like that.

I was more comfortable around everyone else and more importantly myself. I finally realized that this was all an illusion, all created by my own mind. In a way, I'm glad this happened because it taught me an important lesson, that sometimes if we want to defeat our fears, we just have to jump in and take action. We can also talk about our fears with a trusted friend or relative and that will also reduce the effects of fear. Our friend's support can be a big ally in confronting our fears and it also gives you the feeling that you are not alone and there are people who want to help you. Once we do that, we will realize that fear is often exagerrated by our own mind and that they are in fact, very weak. Too face fear can be hard, but the payoff is big and it will feel good. When we succeed despite fear, it means we accomplished something we couldn't do before and that is true success.