Fear truly is the mind killer.
Possibly its most insidious quality is that it is malleable;
it is adaptable; it takes many forms. It manifests in its most obvious form as
anxiety or something similar; but just as readily, it may appear as boredom, as
uncertainty, as “logic.”
The reason starting, and taking action, has so much power
regardless of outcome is that we lower the resistance; we overcome fear, even
if only a little bit. But it allows us to chip away. To possibly improve other
areas of our life and reduce the fear by taking that action. Not knowing what
we’re doing truly is scary. But we are all beginners once. We aren’t born
knowing how to crawl. We aren’t born knowing how to walk. We aren’t born
knowing how to talk. And we don’t learn how in one hour, one day, one week, or
even one month. But we learn. And as we get older, if we pay attention, we get better at learning.
Many roads lead to Rome. But the one road you can be assured
won’t take you there is the road you never get on. Standing on the sidelines
and watching others go by, thinking to yourself, “well that’s not the most
direct route,” still leaves you standing on the side of the road. That
particular road may take the travelers even further away than you currently
stand; but it will get them there eventually, if they’re paying attention. “Correcting
course,” while necessary, is always relative. It can only be done in accordance
with where you are, where you’re headed, where you want to go, and how fast you’re
going. But if you’re not moving, it doesn’t
matter where you’re pointed, or where you want to go. The only thing we can
know we have to change if we’re standing still is move faster. A velocity of 0, regardless of which direction you’re
pointed, still gets you nowhere.
So set off, destination unknown if necessary. There is great
power in starting. Reverse course as early as possible, if necessary. But get
moving.
It’s easy to face fear in the sterile environment of your
mind, when nothing is at stake (although, something is nearly always at stake), no different than
telling yourself you won’t eat that dessert the next time it’s staring you in
the face. But sometimes a sterile environment is necessary to gain the
confidence and momentum necessary to make the correct decisions when faced with
them. In the same way that you might have to put yourself in an environment
free of temptation for a time in order to develop the right eating habits, you
may have to make the decisions easy for yourself regarding whatever is
currently keeping you from taking action. Make small, achievable targets. Make
them often, and make them routine.
Consider a young child learning to hit a baseball. You don’t
throw them in against live pitching. They hit off a tee. Then soft toss. Then
front toss/coach pitch/machine pitch. Then live pitching. All very controlled,
and not progressed until sufficient skill is shown. There is no reason the same
cannot be done in all facets. However, what is required is that the individual make
a commitment to doing so and submit themselves to the process.