“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.”

-Nelson Mandela

It was once said that the graveyard is the wealthiest place in the world. There we can find inventions never worked on, actors never discovered, vocal chords never heard, and ideas that could’ve changed the way we live our day-to-day lives. The reason is life’s greatest threat, fear. Fear keeps people in a safe environment (or so they think), but in reality, fear is the most dangerous way a person can live. Why? Because they’re really not living at all, but rather merely just existing.

There is rarely a day that goes by where I don’t ask somebody what they want to do in life. It usually goes something like this:

“So what’s your dream, like what do you want to do in life?”

“I want to be a dancer, singer, actor, photographer, porn star, world traveler, tattoo artist, doctor, model, etc. BUT…”

I never understood why people are so good at making up excuses to hold them back from the things that they want to do more than anything in their one life. One thing a person needs to understand is that it is incredibly easy to dream, but following that dream takes a lot of resilience and fight. The fight is purely mental and the resilience can be compared to going into the ring with the World Champion Mike Tyson trying to last until the bell rings after the 12^th round. Let’s take your dream and stare it in the face. Whatever it is that you want to be, it is going to be a big risk and the scariest thing that you will ever do.

However, fear is something that you create in your mind. It is not real unless you buy into it. Buying into it means that you are envisioning something about the future that hasn’t happened, may never happen, and you would hate for it to happen. Instead of thinking about all the glory along the road, you focus on what could go wrong. For example: If a person is scared of heights, they ENVISION free falling to the ground. If a person is scared of water, they’re afraid they MIGHT drown. If a person fears going to college, they see the POSSIBILITY of failing classes because they believe they aren’t smart enough. Now, what do all of these have in common? The person’s pessimistic imagination runs wild, stopping them from ever experiencing life. Moreover, what would happen if they didn’t buy into it?

If a person faces their fears in life, they won’t be sitting on their deathbed reminiscing about all the things they should’ve tried when they were able to. This is the biggest regret of dying individuals. When they see their life coming to an end right before their eyes, the fading little voice in their head says, “Fuck, living in fear wasn’t worth it.” Don’t end up like that person. You need to stop being a little bitch and face your fears. Let me be clear, none of us are fearless. However, there is a difference between the obese person who goes to the gym with confidence looking toward the “Washboard abs” they imagine in their future and the obese person that is scared to go the gym because they are not in shape and are scared about what people think. When in reality, the person that fears being ridiculed will be the person they want to be if they just take the risk of walking through that gym door. Don’t ignore your fears, just remember that it is False Evidence Appearing Real.