Does Fear Run you?

If you’re given a Million Dollars to do the one thing you’re the most scared of, would you?

“The difference between who you are and what you want to be is what you do”

But, what do I do?
No, seriously? What is it that I should do?
How do I know what’s best?
And even if I know the best thing to do, how do I keep doing it?
Make it a habit?
The sixty-whatever day count? What if I miss it for a day? Do I reset my clock?
What if I’m scared of this clock-reseting business and don’t even start?

If you’re anything like me, you live a life where a time-table is not very feasible. Things change spontaneously (High Entropy Life — How do you like that, you geek?). You’re shifting between university and home. When you’re home, you have a different set of things to do, from when in college.

How do you incorporate all of this in your schedule?

How do you still create a habit between all of this?

We’re a generation full of people who are busy not being busy.

I feel exhausted by the end of a day. Yet, when I look back I’ve achieved very little. And this makes me feel dejected.

I look at my to-do list with numerous tiny activities, each of which take less than 5 minutes to complete, yet I feel scared that I won’t finish them. And this fear retains me from even starting the first.

I look at the piece of code I’ve written, it has a minor bug fix, yet I’m unable to move myself. Why? Because I’m scared if the integration will screw up the whole code, and give me 10x the work.

I pretend to be busy by doing these work that are of lesser priority, to make myself feel better. Why? Because screwing up the low-priority tasks is okay. There’s no major damage done.

Is this you?

Then let me try to help you.

If you see, you’ll notice that all of the above falls under these topics —

1. Fear
2. Time Management
3. Lack of having a solid aim.

I think we’re a generation run by these 3 factors. I wouldn’t say they’re necessarily bad, because you need to feel the low to know the value of the high. In fact, I believe that even our ancestors went through such lows, but just didn’t say it out loud / discuss about it.

Let’s try and change that, one at a time—

FEAR

Fear runs me. It runs me without my knowledge.

As IISuperwomanII says, there are always 3 or more layers to everything you do.

1. The reason you tell others
2. The reason you tell yourself
3. The actual, deeply embedded reason.

My #3 has always been fear. Be it failure, disappointment, fear that I’m too dumb to understand it, and maaany more.

Without realizing this, I’d be just a lazy person. Realizing this would make me a coward. But the solution I find and apply in my life, through this realization will make me a warrior.

Fear runs deep within us. In fact, it has been scientifically proposed that fear is the result of natural selection. It helps us survive. Its also said that fear is contageous. Why wouldn’t it be? If you’re friend is flipping out for an exam due tomorrow, wouldn’t you too?

My point is, fear is inevitable. But you can choose to deal with it differently.

What to do?

Well, there are a few things I do in order to get ahead. These may not necessarily work for you, we’re all different. But what if?

1. If you have the time, or if you can’t do anything about it, sleep on it.
   In fact, I go out, eat some chicken biryani (Tamasic Food == Best for inducing sleep), and then sleep. When I absolutely have to face it, is when I will.
2. I go big on Journal writing. Not that I write consistently everyday, but writing something most days helps me. A lot. In fact stress writing is amazing. You can just vent out and there exists absolutely no one to judge you. More importantly, writing patiently gives you a better perspective of the problem, which almost always leads you to the solution. Isn’t that what you want?
3. Burn Some Calories!
   Venting is the absolute form of relief. You can vent to people (Better to make sure you can trust them), you can vent in your journal (as mentioned in point 2), or you can just vent by exercising (try not to aim at people though :p ). As a person who has always been around sports (even if I’m no good at it), having a positive aggression while exercising always leads to better results. Notice how I used the word Positive.
4. Sometimes I feel like I’m in some sort of a Hindi TV Show playing in someone’s head. The actors do whatever the writer wants them to. And the it runs for forever.
   I try suggesting ideas to the writer but it’s their will to take it or not.
   Sometimes, all you can do is just surrender.
   Let it beee (10 points to everyone who knows this song).
5. Talk to yourself.
   Ask yourself if you’re flipping out because you’re scared of making a mistake. Then ask yourself, why the fear? Most of the times, you’re scared because you’re just programmed to. Not because there is any logical reasoning. So just ask yourself, if there any.
6. Meditate
   Cliche, I know. But it does make a difference.
   Trust me, I’ve gone from Meditation is useless and for sissies to OMG why didn’t I do this earlier.
   It works. It just does.
   Also, do you notice that points 4 and 5 are meditation, in a way?
7. Surrender to God
   PS, point 4 is the atheist’s version of this.
   When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me
   Speaking words of Wisdom, Let It Be.

And that’s all that is.

Conclusion

Well what I want to say is, most millenials I know go through procrastination due to fear. And our first milestone on our paths to success, wherever it may be, should be to conquer fear.

We all go through similar struggles. Sharing how you recovered might help someone out there!
Do you relate to what I’ve written? Or do you think this is all BS?
Let me know! Comment Below.
In the next 2 blogs, I’ll try to talk about Time Management and Demistifying Goals and Ambitions.

Thanks for Reading!