Get better: Find your fear

By Lcid Crescent Fernandez

“Doctor: ‘You do not fear death. You think this makes you strong. It makes you weak.’

Bruce Wayne: ‘Why?’

Doctor: ‘How can you move faster than possible, fight longer than possible, without the most powerful impulse of the spirit? The fear of death.’”

I think about this conversation from The Dark Knight Rises a lot. I have it memorized but I see it in my mind every time I’m faced with uncertainties, and I find the probability of failure being more likely than success. A lot of people will then talk about the things you have to lose, the risks you’ll be taking, and the failure you’ll be facing.

And then you’ll feel that fear, that anxiety of being faced with failure and disappointment. Then, they’ll tell you to set more realistic goals, go for the low hanging fruit and fight for things within your reach. In truth, they’re teaching you to avoid your fear.

They’re putting limits on what you can be because they can’t see you as being more than what you are. That’s because they’ve already accepted all that they are. They’re passing on their aversion to fear onto you.

You don’t know if you’ll succeed because you set a goal that’s beyond your reach. You’ll feel anxiety, insecurity, self-doubt. You’ll feel fear. That’s where you get better. When you harness these emotions as fuel, when you learn to fight against that fear, then you can prove to yourself that you can get better.

When you start losing yourself in the journey, that fear will light the way. 

When you get stagnant or plateau, that fear will force you to change.

When you refuse to push yourself every day, that fear will get you up off your ass.

It’s in that space of uncertainty where you grow. It’s in that feeling of fear that you find yourself. And when you do find yourself, make sure you find him fighting.

Even if you fail to reach the goal that you set, you will discover that you have gotten better. In the end, it’s not about that goal. It’s about forcing yourself to grow. It’s about getting better.

It’s all about mindset; How you talk to and view yourself in your journey to be a better you. Every monday, we’re going to talk about getting better.