Step Into the Fear 

Theres no feeling like it. It is real and it is powerful. It creates intense physical sensations that 
cause our brains to scream RETREAT! It is also useful because it keeps us alert and keeps us 
safe. It is the emotion of fear and it has been one of my greatest adversaries. 

Growing up, I was never once accused of being a major risk taker. I was not interested in being 
adventurous or exploratory. I remember being afraid to try the big toboggan hill, terried of going on roller coasters and the thought of doing a student exchange program simply didnt enter 
my realm of possibility. For whatever reason, I was very much controlled by my fears. 

Ill never forget a specic incident that occurred over 17 years ago. I was in grade 7 and my 
teacher recognized me as one of the top spellers in the school. He invited me to participate in the 
spelling bee which would take place in the auditorium in front of the entire school. I can still 
vividly remember the crippling sensations of fear as I visualized myself spelling a word 
incorrectly in front of the entire school. Without hesitation, I declined his invite and told him its 
really not something Im interested in. Yeah right! This was exactly something I was interested 
inbut the fear once again kept me in the bleachers. What made the whole event so tough to 
swallow was that I actually would have won had I participated. I knew how to spell every word 
in the competition including the word that eliminated the nal participant. Fear took me out of 
the game before it started. Fear cost me a huge win, personal success and school fame. 

My sister, on the other hand, seemed to have been born with a higher threshold for fear. I 
remember her bombing down that same toboggan hill that I was scared to tryand she is 4 years 
younger than me. As for travel, at age 15 she took the rst opportunity to travel across the world 
alone and live with a family in Germany for a few months. To this day, she continues to live an 
adventure-lled life including moving 5000 kilometres away from home to do her masters 
degree, snowboarding down a mountain and even skydiving! Does she experience fear? Of 
course, but she does not permit fear to be a deciding factor in her goals and aspirations. 

When I nally adopted the same mindset and made a commitment to take action in spite of fear, I 
was able to take full control of my life and implement lasting change. As I began to work on 
myself and learned what my fears were and why they existed, I started to truly understand the 
limitations that fear had created in my life. Once I placed my focus on what my fears had been 
costing me, the motivation to overcome the fears seemed to blossom. I actually felt angry 
because I was now associating the pain of missing out on lifes adventures with my inability to 
transcend my fears. 

I now see fear, doubt and worry for what they truly are; imagined catastrophes. I once heard an 
author say that fear stands for Fantasized Expectations Appearing Real and I could not agree 
more. When I am feeling fearful, I can effectively deal with the emotion because I now 
understand that I am literally using my imagination to contemplate a disastrous outcome to a situation. Having this awareness allows me to move forward, experience the physical sensations 
being caused by the fear and ultimately overcome the feeling. 

The best part about learning how to overcome fear is the true sense of liberation. To set the 
record straight, yes I was a fearful kid but I still had some amazing experiences and many came 
when I mustered up enough courage to do something that scared me. When Canadas Youth 
Television Network YTV was at our school doing auditions for a kids game show, not only did I 
step up to the plate, but I actually made it on the show! Despite feeling extremely nervous and 
fearful of looking foolish on television, I went ahead and gained a life experience that my family 
still talks about today. I let them off the hook for making fun of my 1980s mullet hairdo.

From a professional perspective, I have had to work extremely hard at dealing with fear when it 
comes to public speaking. Despite the fact that I quit my software career to pursue a business in 
personal development speaking and coaching, I had a signicant amount of anxiety when it came 
to standing up in front of an audience. You see, my ultimate goal is to be a top ranked platform 
speaker like so many of my mentors. But I set this goal with the awareness that I had a fear of 
speaking and that I would have to transform and reinvent myself completely to fulll this desire. 
I would consider this particular task to be a work in progress. I continue to get up and speak in 
front of audiences. The size of the audience is progressively growing larger and the size of my 
fear is progressively getting smaller. Instead of worrying about my next presentation, I am 
eagerly practicing and preparing to deliver a performance to the best of my ability. The audience 
feedback is indicating that I am on the right track. 

It is the culmination of these positive indicators that continue to chip away at my fear and move 
me towards liberation. While I accept and embrace fear as a part of the equation that keeps me 
sharp, I am able to continually move forward and develop myself to new levels and plateaus. 
Life is much more exciting now that I have learned to step into the fear!