How To Recognize Fear

We’ve got fear all wrong. We’ve been led to believe that fear is the white-knuckle, lump-in-your-throat feeling you get when something scares the heck out of you.

We believe this because we’ve all felt it at some point. Maybe it was the time in elementary school when you were in the school play. The curtain opens and there you saw 500 pairs of eyes staring back at you. And you just KNEW they were all judging you and waiting for you to screw up.

Or, maybe it was the time you went to the doctors office and she said, “This will only hurt a little bit.”

When you looked up, you saw she had a needle the size of the Eiffel Tower! So, you clenched your eyes and screamed so loud they could hear you on a ship crossing the Bering Strait!

Or, it could have been the time you were sitting at your desk and received a message that your boss wanted to see you. As you walked down the hall, your heart beat so loudly you just KNEW everyone heard it and they could see the THUMP coming out of your chest. With every step, the room seemed to get larger and larger until you were standing in the center of a field where everyone had guns pointed at you.

This is how we think about fear.

But, it’s so much more subtle. Go back to your list of resolutions from 5 years ago. You probably have some pretty cool…