Courage does not mean the absence of fear, but implies an attempt to conquer fear. Describe some of your worst fears and how you managed to overcome them.
Courage does not mean the absence of fear, but implies an attempt to conquer fear. Describe some of your worst fears and how you managed to overcome them.
When navigating the tempestuous waters of the river of life, is it important to be able to overcome our personal fears. However, there is only one real way to do this. We must have the courage to confront them and take them on. Only a person who is able to look at their fears in the face and move beyond them will get to know about what a happy life is.
We should never think that there are people who do not feel fear. It is a natural feeling, inherent to human beings. We have all felt it at some point in our lives. A brave person is not someone who does not know fear, but rather someone who has overcome it.
Can we say, a soldier stepping onto the battlefield does not have fear? The one who dares to climb the Everest does not experience fear? Do not people who address a public gathering have stage fright? A child who learns to balance on cycle, a young person who ventures out on the road to test his driving skills; don't they undergo fear? Yes, fear is a part and parcel of our life; but we do conquer it; don't we?
A fear that literally brought me nightmares was of swimming. Just the image of swimming pool brought the fear of drowning. It was mainly due to memory of a tragic incident that happened in front of my eyes. I decided that I had to blot out that memory or I would never learn to swim. I was still brooding on the side of the pool when an instructor laid a friendly hand on my shoulder; the next thing I knew was that I was deep in the water trying to get my moorings by frantically flapping my limbs. Plunging into the waters never posed a problem for me after that. Sometimes, taking the plunge is the only way to beat fear.
Yet another phantom that haunted me was my inability to address a gathering. The very presence of the mic was an intimidating proposition. The moment I looked at the gathering, my mind would go blank. Then I read about George Bernard Shaw, the famous writer, who was shy of speaking. He couldn't even muster up enough courage to call on a friend at home. Then he realised if he wanted to be somebody in the world, he had to get rid of his timidity. He straight away joined a debating society and started to speak on anything and everything. In a matter of few days he overcame his fear. As days went by, he came to be known as one of the best speakers of the Twentieth Century. This was exactly what I did! I took inspiration from his example and enrolled myself in the next public speaking competition in my school. I gave myself a lot of auto-suggestion and visualised myself doing so well that it actually happened!
So I would say, fear is common to all of us. Courage is to identify its source, seek remedies, cultivate belief in yourself, inculcate a never say die attitude and the world would lie before you, studded with opportunities!
When navigating the tempestuous waters of the river of life, is it important to be able to overcome our personal fears. However, there is only one real way to do this. We must have the courage to confront them and take them on. Only a person who is able to look at their fears in the face and move beyond them will get to know about what a happy life is.
We should never think that there are people who do not feel fear. It is a natural feeling, inherent to human beings. We have all felt it at some point in our lives. A brave person is not someone who does not know fear, but rather someone who has overcome it.
A fear that literally brought me nightmares was of swimming. Just the image of swimming pool brought the fear of drowning. It was mainly due to memory of a tragic incident that happened in front of my eyes. I decided that I had to blot out that memory or I would never learn to swim. I was still brooding on the side of the pool when an instructor laid a friendly hand on my shoulder; the next thing I knew was that I was deep in the water trying to get my moorings by frantically flapping my limbs. Plunging into the waters never posed a problem for me after that. Sometimes, taking the plunge is the only way to beat fear.
Yet another phantom that haunted me was my inability to address a gathering. The very presence of the mic was an intimidating proposition. The moment I looked at the gathering, my mind would go blank. Then I read about George Bernard Shaw, the famous writer, who was shy of speaking. He couldn't even muster up enough courage to call on a friend at home. Then he realised if he wanted to be somebody in the world, he had to get rid of his timidity. He straight away joined a debating society and started to speak on anything and everything. In a matter of few days he overcame his fear. As days went by, he came to be known as one of the best speakers of the Twentieth Century. This was exactly what I did! I took inspiration from his example and enrolled myself in the next public speaking competition in my school. I gave myself a lot of auto-suggestion and visualised myself doing so well that it actually happened!
So I would say, fear is common to all of us. Courage is to identify its source, seek remedies, cultivate belief in yourself, inculcate a never say die attitude and the world would lie before you, studded with opportunities!
