Like many people, I’ve never been fond of heights. It’s one of those fears that seems fairly common. The interesting thing is that I never really got over it. What I learned instead was that fear doesn’t always disappear just because you face it.
There were times when I had to climb high ladders for work or because a task simply needed to be done. In those situations, there wasn’t much choice. I was still uncomfortable, but necessity has a way of pushing you through things you would rather avoid.
Public speaking is another fear that has followed me around over the years. The level of fear depends on the situation. Speaking in front of people you know can feel natural enough, but standing up in front of strangers or speaking off the cuff is a different challenge altogether. Even so, I managed to do reasonably well in a college public speaking class. I wasn’t fearless; I just learned to work through the discomfort.
That may be the lesson I’ve taken from fear in general. We often imagine that overcoming fear means eliminating it. In reality, sometimes it simply means doing what needs to be done while the fear is still there.
At the same time, I’ve never felt compelled to seek out fearful situations for their own sake. I’m not interested in proving anything by climbing into a hot-air balloon, and unless life presents me with a very unusual circumstance, I don’t expect that to change. Some fears are worth confronting because life requires it. Others can be acknowledged, respected, and left alone.
Perhaps the real question isn’t whether we overcome every fear, but whether we allow fear to stop us from doing the things that truly matter.
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