Fear can be debilitating. It can also get you off your ass.
Most prescribe to the former. They live safe lives because they’re afraid of danger, harm, death, and failure.
A few great men chase the latter. They allow the fear of future regret, the awareness in the finite nature of life, to propel them to do things ordinary men only dream about.
It’s this fear that you need. It’s an awareness that with each day you’re dying. It’s an acceptance that if you don’t do what makes you feel alive, you’ll never truly live. What’s more is that if you don’t chase your most audacious dreams you’ll leave earth with regret.
There isn’t any pain worse than regret.
We have it when we don’t do what we genuinely want to do, not what society tells us we should do – a path that usually leads to regret in its own right.
We have regret when we follow what others have laid out for us rather than walking down an unknown road on our own. (Read This: Man Up! Make Your Own Damn Rules)
Regret can come by not being courageous, even in the little things in life, like not talking to a lady, not taking an opportunity, not being brave enough to do something daring.
REGRET REQUIRES OPPORTUNITY
To have regret means that you had opportunities that you passed up, likely because you didn’t have the balls to move on that opportunity.
The good thing is that you had the opportunity. The bad thing is that once you pass up an opportunity because you’re afraid of the risk involved, you’re training yourself to pass up future opportunities for the same reasons. You’re essentially training yourself to be a pussy.
I’ve been there. We’ve all been there. It’s a habit that needs to be broken.
Regret is a great propeller to something more. We need regret to know that there’s pain if we act like cowards. And being anything less than daring and courageous in life is cowardice, it’s also illogical. (Read This: 3 Ways to Become Tougher)
We all want to flourish in life. We want to win, to be of value and to feel as though we serve a purpose. We want happiness and accomplishment and meaning in our lives.
Seeking a safe life by avoiding risk goes against the nature of what is to flourish, but not just one aspect, all of them.
You can’t flourish by living safely.
You can’t win by living safely. Victory requires more of you than what everyone else is doing. You have to work harder, for longer hours, aspiring to achieve things that most people never even think about.
You can’t have meaning or purpose being less than you’re capable of being, at least not to the degree that you will have if you’re pursuing more, even if those pursuits result in failure because you’re pushing yourself, you’re strengthening your resolve, you’re becoming something better, forget what you end up with, it’s about who you end up as.
USE FEAR
Fear quells ambition for most, but it should ignite it for you.
Use the fear of future regret to push you to do things that scare you.
Most often fear can be a barometer for things we should do rather than things we shouldn’t, and being in our future regret allows us to be aware of the importance of the opportunities that cross our path daily.
About The Author
Chad Howse: Chad’s mission is to get you in the arena, ‘marred by the dust and sweat and blood’, to help you set and achieve audacious goals in the face of fear, and not only build your ideal body, but the life you were meant to live.
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